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Minnesota — Collection Agency Act (Minn. Stat. §§ 332.31–332.44), Medical Debt Act (ch. 332C) + SOL

Effective 2026-08-01 · Verified 2026-08-11

Authority

Minnesota regulates debt collection through three separate bodies of law:

  1. Minn. Stat. §§ 332.31–332.44 — the collection agency / debt buyer licensing act. Administered by the commissioner of commerce (Minnesota Department of Commerce). Licensing (§ 332.33), bond (§ 332.34), prohibited practices (§ 332.37), examination and license discipline (§ 332.40), AG/county-attorney injunctions (§ 332.39). Unlicensed operation is a misdemeanor (§ 332.33, subd. 2).
  2. Minn. Stat. ch. 332C (§§ 332C.01–332C.05) — the Medical Debt chapter, all sections new and effective October 1, 2024 (2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114, art. 3, §§ 77–81). It reaches a much wider class than ch. 332 — any "collecting party," including a health care provider collecting its own paper — and carries a private right of action with strict liability.
  3. Minn. Stat. §§ 332.71–332.75 — the coerced debt provisions (domestic abuse / trafficking-induced debt), which impose a 30-day answer duty on any "creditor" and a cease-collection request mechanic.

Statute of limitations: § 541.053 (consumer debt, six years, no revival) is the controlling provision for consumer collections; § 541.05, subd. 1(1) is the general six-year contract period; § 336.3-118 governs negotiable instruments.

Verification note: all statutory and session-law text below was pulled directly from revisor.mn.gov, the official publication of the State of Minnesota (Office of the Revisor of Statutes), on 2026-08-11. The regulator's own site is bot-blocked — mn.gov/commerce sits behind a Radware Bot Manager CAPTCHA and returns a challenge page to automated fetches. The only archived official Commerce document retrieved (mn.gov/commerce-stat/pdfs/regulatory-guide-debt-collection.pdf, Regulatory Guidance 20-19, April 24 2020) is superseded — its work-from-home forbearance was codified in 2022 as § 332.33, subd. 5b — so it is not relied on here. Every licensing fact on this page (regulator identity, fees, bond, term, penalty) is statutory, so nothing on this page depends on the unreachable regulator site.

Operative text

Scope — who is covered (§ 332.31, subds. 3, 6, 8)

Subd. 3. Collection agency. "Collection agency" or "licensee" means (1) a person engaged in the business of collection for others any account, bill, or other indebtedness, except as hereinafter provided; or (2) a debt buyer. It includes persons who furnish collection systems carrying a name which simulates the name of a collection agency and who supply forms or form letters to be used by the creditor, even though such forms direct the debtor to make payments directly to the creditor rather than to such fictitious agency.

Subd. 6. Collector. "Collector" is a person acting under the authority of a collection agency under subdivision 3 or a debt buyer under subdivision 8, and on its behalf in the business of collection for an account, bill, or other indebtedness except as otherwise provided in this chapter.

Subd. 8. Debt buyer. "Debt buyer" means a business engaged in the purchase of any charged-off account, bill, or other indebtedness for collection purposes, whether the business collects the account, bill, or other indebtedness, hires a third party for collection, or hires an attorney for litigation related to the collection.

— Minn. Stat. § 332.31

Exclusions:

(a) The term "collection agency" does not include banks when collecting accounts owed to the banks and when the bank will sustain any loss arising from uncollectible accounts, abstract companies doing an escrow business, real estate brokers, public officers, persons acting under order of a court, lawyers, trust companies, insurance companies, credit unions, savings associations, loan or finance companies unless they are engaged in asserting, enforcing or prosecuting unsecured claims which have been purchased from any person, firm, or association when there is recourse to the seller for all or part of the claim if the claim is not collected. (b) The term "collection agency" shall not include a trade association performing services authorized by section 604.15, subdivision 4a, but the trade association in performing the services may not engage in any conduct that would be prohibited for a collection agency under section 332.37. — Minn. Stat. § 332.32

Anti-evasion — a sham purchase or a fictitious name does not escape the chapter:

The provisions of sections 332.31 to 332.44 shall apply to any person who, by any device, subterfuge or pretense, makes a pretended purchase or takes a pretended assignment of accounts from another for the purpose of evading provisions of sections 332.31 to 332.44, or, uses a fictitious name or any name other than the person's own name which would indicate to the debtor that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect such account or claim. — Minn. Stat. § 332.38

FLAG — new exclusion in force but not yet in the published statutes. 2026 Minn. Laws ch. 124 (H.F. 4188, signed May 27, 2026), art. 1, § 57 adds a new paragraph (c) to § 332.32:

(c) The term "collection agency" does not include a residential mortgage servicer licensed under chapter 58 or a student loan servicer licensed under chapter 58B if the residential mortgage servicer or student loan servicer is engaging in activities subject to licensure under chapter 58 or 58B, as applicable. — 2026 Minn. Laws ch. 124, art. 1, § 57 (amending Minn. Stat. 2024, § 332.32)

That section carries no express effective-date clause, so the default rule governs:

Each act, except one making appropriations, enacted finally at any session of the legislature takes effect on August 1 next following its final enactment, unless a different date is specified in the act. — Minn. Stat. § 645.02

Entry gate — license, registration, term, fees (§ 332.33)

Subdivision 1. Requirement. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, no person shall conduct business in Minnesota as a collection agency or debt buyer, as defined in sections 332.31 to 332.44, without having first applied for and obtained a collection agency license. A person acting under the authority of a collection agency, debt buyer, or as a collector must first register with the commissioner under this section. A registered collector may use one additional assumed name only if the assumed name is registered with and approved by the commissioner. A business that operates as a debt buyer must submit a completed license application no later than January 1, 2022. …

Subd. 2. Penalty. A person who carries on business as a collection agency or debt buyer without first having obtained a license or acts as a collector without first having registered with the commissioner pursuant to sections 332.31 to 332.44, or who carries on this business after the revocation, suspension, or expiration of a license or registration is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Subd. 3. Term. Licenses issued or renewed and registrations received by the commissioner of commerce under sections 332.31 to 332.44 shall expire on June 30. … The fee for each collection agency license is $500, and renewal is $400. The fee for each collector registration and renewal is $10, which entitles the individual collector to work at a licensee's business location or in another location as provided under subdivision 5b. An additional branch license is not required for a location used under subdivision 5b. A collection agency licensee who desires to carry on business in more than one place shall procure a license for each place where the business is to be conducted.

— Minn. Stat. § 332.33

Individual-collector registration and the background-screening duty:

Subd. 5a. Individual collector registration. A licensee, on behalf of an individual collector, must register with the state all individuals in the licensee's employ who are performing the duties of a collector as defined in sections 332.31 to 332.44. … Upon submission of the application to the department, the individual may begin to perform the duties of a collector and may continue to do so unless the licensee is informed by the commissioner that the individual is ineligible.

Subd. 8. Screening process requirement. (a) Each licensee must establish procedures to follow when screening an individual collector applicant prior to submitting an applicant to the commissioner for initial registration and at renewal. (b) The screening process for initial registration must be done at the time of hiring. The process must include a national criminal history record search, an attorney licensing search, and a county criminal history search for all counties where the applicant has resided within the five years immediately preceding the initial registration, to determine whether the applicant is eligible to be registered under section 332.35. Each licensee shall use a vendor that is a member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners, or an equivalent vendor, to conduct this background screening process. (c) Screening for renewal of individual collector registration must include a national criminal history record search and a county criminal history search for all counties where the individual has resided during the immediate preceding year. Screening for renewal of individual collector registrations must take place no more than 60 days before the license expiration or renewal date. …

— Minn. Stat. § 332.33, subds. 5a, 8

Work-from-home and affiliated companies:

Subd. 5b. Work from home. An employee of a licensed collection agency may work from a location other than the licensee's business location if the licensee and employee comply with all requirements under this section that would apply if the employee were working at the business location.

Subd. 9. Affiliated companies. The commissioner must permit affiliated companies to operate under a single license and be subject to a single examination, provided that all of the affiliated company names are listed on the license.

— Minn. Stat. § 332.33, subds. 5b, 9

Bond — § 332.34

The commissioner of commerce shall require each licensee to file and maintain in force a corporate surety bond, in a form to be prescribed by, and acceptable to, the commissioner, and in a sum of at least $50,000 plus an additional $5,000 for each $100,000 received by the collection agency from debtors located in Minnesota during the previous calendar year, less commissions earned by the collection agency on those collections for the previous calendar year. The total amount of the bond shall not exceed $100,000. A licensee may deposit cash in and with a depository acceptable to the commissioner in an amount and in the manner prescribed and approved by the commissioner in lieu of a bond. — Minn. Stat. § 332.34

Disqualification — § 332.35

No registration shall be accepted for, and no license shall be issued to, any person, firm, corporation or association who or which, or any of the officers of which have, within the past five years: (1) been convicted in any court of fraud or any felony; (2) been convicted of any misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor involving identity theft or any financial crime; (3) been unable to certify that they have no civil judgments against them for failure to account to a client or customer for money or property collected by them for the client or customer. …; or (4) had a license to practice law revoked or involuntarily suspended. — Minn. Stat. § 332.35

Nonresident agencies — the exemption became a discretionary waiver (2024)

The self-executing exemption is gone. Former § 332.3351 let a qualifying out-of-state agency collect in Minnesota with no license at all:

332.3351 EXEMPTION FROM LICENSURE. A collection agency shall be exempt from the licensing and registration requirements of this chapter if all of the following conditions are met: (1) the agency is located in another state that regulates and licenses collection agencies, but does not require a Minnesota collection agency to obtain a license to collect debts in the agency's state if the agency's collection activities are limited in the same manner; (2) the agency's collection activities are limited to collecting debts not incurred in this state from consumers located in this state; and (3) the agency's collection activities in Minnesota are conducted by means of interstate communications, including telephone, mail, electronic mail, or facsimile transmission. — Minn. Stat. 2022, § 332.3351 (Repealed, 2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114, art. 1, § 17(a))

It was replaced by a discretionary waiver that requires the commissioner to have an actual agreement in place:

The commissioner of commerce may, by order, waive the licensing and registration requirements of this chapter for a nonresident collection agency and the nonresident collection agency's affiliated collectors if: (1) a written reciprocal licensing agreement is in effect between the commissioner and the licensing officials of the nonresident collection agency's home state; and (2) the nonresident collection agency is licensed in good standing in the nonresident collection agency's home state. — Minn. Stat. § 332.3352 (Added by 2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114, art. 3, § 68)

Neither the repealer (art. 1, § 17(a) — the act's only effective-date clause in that section governs paragraph (b) alone) nor the new § 332.3352 (art. 3, § 68) carries an express effective-date clause, so both took effect on the § 645.02 default date, August 1, 2024.

Prohibited practices — § 332.37

(a) No collection agency, debt buyer, or collector shall: (1) in collection letters or publications, or in any communication, oral or written threaten wage garnishment or legal suit by a particular lawyer, unless it has actually retained the lawyer; (2) use or employ sheriffs or any other officer authorized to serve legal papers in connection with the collection of a claim, except when performing their legally authorized duties; (3) use or threaten to use methods of collection which violate Minnesota law; (4) furnish legal advice or otherwise engage in the practice of law or represent that it is competent to do so; (5) communicate with debtors in a misleading or deceptive manner by using the stationery of a lawyer, forms or instruments which only lawyers are authorized to prepare, or instruments which simulate the form and appearance of judicial process; (6) exercise authority on behalf of a client to employ the services of lawyers unless the client has specifically authorized the agency in writing to do so …; (7) publish or cause to be published any list of debtors except for credit reporting purposes, use shame cards or shame automobiles, advertise or threaten to advertise for sale any claim as a means of forcing payment thereof, or use similar devices or methods of intimidation; (8) refuse to return any claim or claims and all valuable papers deposited with a claim or claims upon written request of the client, claimant or forwarder after tender of the amounts due and owing to a collection agency within 30 days after the request; refuse or intentionally fail to account to its clients for all money collected within 30 days from the last day of the month in which the same is collected; or, refuse or fail to furnish at intervals of not less than 90 days upon written request of the claimant or forwarder, a written report upon claims received from the claimant or forwarder; (9) operate under a name or in a manner which implies that the collection agency or debt buyer is a branch of or associated with any department of federal, state, county or local government or an agency thereof; (10) commingle money collected for a customer with the collection agency's operating funds or use any part of a customer's money in the conduct of the collection agency's business; (11) transact business or hold itself out as a debt settlement company, debt management company, debt adjuster … unless there is no charge to the debtor, or the pooling or liquidation is done pursuant to court order or under the supervision of a creditor's committee; (12) violate any of the provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1977, Public Law 95-109, while attempting to collect on any account, bill or other indebtedness; (13) communicate with a debtor by use of a recorded message utilizing an automatic dialing announcing device after the debtor expressly informs the agency or collector to cease communication utilizing an automatic dialing announcing device; (14) in collection letters or publications, or in any communication, oral or written, imply or suggest that health care services will be withheld in an emergency situation; (15) when a debtor has a listed telephone number, enlist the aid of a neighbor or third party to request that the debtor contact the licensee or collector, except a person who resides with the debtor or a third party with whom the debtor has authorized the licensee or collector to place the request. This clause does not apply to a call back message left at the debtor's place of employment which is limited to the licensee's or collector's telephone number and name; (16) when attempting to collect a debt, fail to provide the debtor with the full name of the collection agency or debt buyer as it appears on its license or as listed on any "doing business as" or "d/b/a" registered with the Department of Commerce; (17) collect any money from a debtor that is not reported to a client; (18) fail to return any amount of overpayment from a debtor to the debtor or to the state of Minnesota pursuant to the requirements of chapter 345; (19) accept currency or coin as payment for a debt without issuing an original receipt to the debtor and maintaining a duplicate receipt in the debtor's payment records; (20) attempt to collect any amount, including any interest, fee, charge, or expense incidental to the charge-off obligation, from a debtor unless the amount is expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt or is otherwise permitted by law; (21) charge a fee to a client that is not authorized by agreement with the client; (22) falsify any collection agency documents with the intent to deceive a debtor, creditor, or governmental agency; (23) when initially contacting a Minnesota debtor by mail, fail to include a disclosure on the contact notice, in a type size or font which is equal to or larger than the largest other type of type size or font used in the text of the notice. The disclosure must state: "This collection agency is licensed by the Minnesota Department of Commerce" or "This debt buyer is licensed by the Minnesota Department of Commerce" as applicable; or (24) commence legal action to collect a debt outside the limitations period set forth in section 541.053. (b) Paragraph (a), clauses (6), (8), (10), (17), and (21), do not apply to debt buyers except to the extent the debt buyer engages in third-party debt collection for others. — Minn. Stat. § 332.37

(Bold added for emphasis; the statutory text is unaltered.)

Medical debt — ch. 332C (all sections effective October 1, 2024)

Who is covered — note this reaches original creditors:

Subd. 2. Collecting party. "Collecting party" means a party engaged in collecting medical debt. Collecting party does not include parties when complying with a court order or statutory obligation to garnish or levy a debtor's property, including banks, credit unions, public officers, and garnishees.

Subd. 4. Medical debt. (a) "Medical debt" means debt incurred primarily for medically necessary health treatment or services. Medical debt includes debt charged to a credit card or other credit instrument, on or after October 1, 2024, under an open-end or closed-end credit plan offered specifically to pay for health treatment or services. (b) Medical debt does not include: (1) debt charged to a credit card or other credit instrument, under an open-end or closed-end credit plan, that is not offered specifically to pay for health treatment or services; (2) services provided by a veterinarian; (3) services provided by a dentist; or (4) debt charged to a home equity line of credit.

— Minn. Stat. § 332C.01

Selected prohibited practices unique to medical debt:

A collecting party must not: … (9) unless an exemption in the law exists, violate Code of Federal Regulations, title 12, part 1006, while attempting to collect on any account, bill, or other indebtedness. For purposes of this section, Public Law 95-109 and Code of Federal Regulations, title 12, part 1006, apply to collecting parties other than health care providers collecting medical debt in the health care provider's own name; (10) communicate with a debtor about medical debt by use of an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice after the debtor expressly informs the collecting party to cease communication utilizing an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice. For purposes of this clause, an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice includes but is not limited to (i) artificial intelligence chat bots, and (ii) the usage of the term under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, United States Code, title 47, section 227(b)(1)(A); (11) in collection letters or publications, or in any oral or written communication, imply or suggest that medically necessary health treatment or services are denied as a result of a medical debt; … (16) except for court costs for filing a civil action with the court and service of process, attempt to collect any interest, fee, charge, or expense incidental to the charge-off obligation from a debtor unless the amount is expressly authorized by the agreement creating the medical debt or is otherwise permitted by law; … (18) when initially contacting a Minnesota debtor by mail to collect a medical debt, fail to include a disclosure on the contact notice, in a type size or font which is equal to or larger than the largest other type of type size or font used in the text of the notice, that includes and identifies the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General's general telephone number, and states: "You have the right to hire your own attorney to represent you in this matter."; (19) commence legal action to collect a medical debt outside the limitations period set forth in section 541.053; (20) report to a credit reporting agency any medical debt that the collecting party knows or should know is or was originally owed to a health care provider, as defined in section 62J.805, subdivision 4; or (21) challenge a debtor's claim of exemption to garnishment or levy in a manner that is baseless, frivolous, or otherwise in bad faith. — Minn. Stat. § 332C.02

Flat credit-reporting ban, binding on the bureaus as well as the collector:

(a) A collecting party is prohibited from reporting medical debt to a consumer reporting agency. (b) A consumer reporting agency is prohibited from making a consumer report containing an item of information that the consumer reporting agency knows or should know concerns medical debt. (c) For purposes of this section, "consumer report" and "consumer reporting agency" have the meanings given in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, United States Code, title 15, section 1681a. (d) This section also applies to collection agencies and debt buyers licensed under chapter 332. — Minn. Stat. § 332C.03

One-way fee shift against the collecting party that sues and loses:

(a) A debtor who successfully defends against a claim for payment of medical debt that is alleged by a collecting party must be awarded the debtor's costs and a reasonable attorney fee, as determined by the court, incurred to defend against the collecting party's claim for debt payment. (b) For purposes of this section, a resolution mutually agreed upon by the debtor and collecting party is not a successful defense subject to an additional award of an attorney fee. — Minn. Stat. § 332C.04

Enforcement — strict liability, private action, treble for willful conduct:

(a) The attorney general may enforce this chapter under section 8.31. (b) A collecting party that violates this chapter is strictly liable to the debtor in question for the sum of: (1) actual damage sustained by the debtor as a result of the violation; (2) additional damages as the court may allow, but not exceeding $1,000 per violation; and (3) in the case of any successful action to enforce the foregoing, the costs of the action, together with a reasonable attorney fee as determined by the court. (c) A collecting party that willfully and maliciously violates this chapter is strictly liable to the debtor for three times the sums allowable under paragraph (b), clauses (1) and (2). (d) The dollar amount limit under paragraph (b), clause (2), changes on July 1 of each even-numbered year in an amount equal to changes made in the Consumer Price Index … The Consumer Price Index for December 2024 is the reference base index. … (g) A collecting party must not be held liable in any action brought under this section if the collecting party shows by a preponderance of evidence that the violation: (1) was not intentional and resulted from a bona fide error made notwithstanding the maintenance of procedures reasonably adopted to avoid any bona fide error; or (2) was the result of inaccurate or incorrect information provided to the collecting party by a health care provider …; a health carrier …; or another collecting party currently or previously engaged in collection of the medical debt in question. — Minn. Stat. § 332C.05

Spousal liability for medical debt — § 519.05 (amended eff. 2024-10-01)

(a) A spouse is not liable to a creditor for any debts of the other spouse. Notwithstanding this paragraph, in a proceeding under chapter 518 the court may apportion such debt between the spouses. (b) Either spouse may close a credit card account or other unsecured consumer line of credit on which both spouses are contractually liable, by giving written notice to the creditor. (c) Nothing in this section prevents a creditor's claim against a decedent's estate. — Minn. Stat. § 519.05

The 2024 amendment struck the doctrine-of-necessaries sentence that had made spouses jointly and severally liable:

(a) A spouse is not liable to a creditor for any debts of the other spouse. Where husband and wife are living together, they shall be jointly and severally liable for necessary medical services that have been furnished to either spouse, including any claims arising under section 246.53, 256B.15, 256D.16, or 261.04, and necessary household articles and supplies furnished to and used by the family. — 2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114, art. 3, § 83 (struck text shown as deleted in the session law); EFFECTIVE DATE: "This section is effective October 1, 2024."

Coerced debt — §§ 332.71–332.74

Subd. 2. Coerced debt. (a) "Coerced debt" means all or a portion of debt in a debtor's name that has been incurred as a result of: (1) the use of the debtor's personal information without the debtor's knowledge, authorization, or consent; (2) the use or threat of force, intimidation, undue influence, fraud, deception, coercion, or other similar means against the debtor; or (3) economic abuse perpetrated against the debtor. (b) Coerced debt does not include secured debt. — Minn. Stat. § 332.71, subd. 2

(a) Before taking an affirmative action under section 332.74, a debtor must, by certified mail, notify a creditor that the debt or a portion of a debt on which the creditor demands payment is coerced debt and request that the creditor cease all collection activity on the coerced debt. … (b) The creditor, within 30 days of the date the notification and request is received, must notify the debtor in writing of the creditor's decision to either immediately cease all collection activity or continue to pursue collection. If a creditor ceases collection but subsequently decides to resume collection activity, the creditor must notify the debtor ten days prior to the date the collection activity resumes. — Minn. Stat. § 332.73, subd. 1

Subd. 2. Sale or assignment of coerced debt. A creditor may sell or assign a debt for which the creditor has been notified is coerced debt to another party if the creditor selling or assigning the debt includes notification to the buyer or assignee that the debtor has asserted the debt is coerced debt. — Minn. Stat. § 332.73, subd. 2

Statute of limitations

The controlling consumer provision — § 541.053

541.053 LIMITATION OF ACTIONS BASED ON CONSUMER DEBT. Notwithstanding section 541.31, subdivision 1, actions upon an obligation arising out of a consumer debt primarily for personal, family, or household purposes shall be commenced within six years. After its expiration, the statute of limitations is not revived by the collection of a payment on an account, a discharge in a bankruptcy proceeding, or an oral or written reaffirmation of the debt. — Minn. Stat. § 541.053 (Added by 2013 Minn. Laws ch. 104, § 2)

The general contract period — § 541.05, subd. 1

Subdivision 1. Six-year limitation. Except where the Uniform Commercial Code otherwise prescribes, the following actions shall be commenced within six years: (1) upon a contract or other obligation, express or implied, as to which no other limitation is expressly prescribed; (2) upon a liability created by statute, other than those arising upon a penalty or forfeiture or where a shorter period is provided by section 541.07; … — Minn. Stat. § 541.05, subd. 1

Minnesota does not separate written from oral contracts — clause (1) reaches contracts "express or implied," and no other section prescribes a shorter period for oral agreements.

Negotiable instruments — § 336.3-118 (Minnesota's UCC 3-118)

(a) Except as provided in subsection (e), an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay a note payable at a definite time must be commenced within six years after the due date or dates stated in the note or, if a due date is accelerated, within six years after the accelerated due date. (b) Except as provided in subsection (d) or (e), if demand for payment is made to the maker of a note payable on demand, an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay the note must be commenced within six years after the demand. If no demand for payment is made to the maker, an action to enforce the note is barred if neither principal nor interest on the note has been paid for a continuous period of ten years. (c) Except as provided in subsection (d), an action to enforce the obligation of a party to an unaccepted draft to pay the draft must be commenced within three years after dishonor of the draft or ten years after the date of the draft, whichever period expires first. (d) An action to enforce the obligation of the acceptor of a certified check or the issuer of a teller's check, cashier's check, or traveler's check must be commenced within three years after demand for payment is made to the acceptor or issuer, as the case may be. (e) An action to enforce the obligation of a party to a certificate of deposit to pay the instrument must be commenced within six years after demand for payment is made to the maker, but if the instrument states a due date and the maker is not required to pay before that date, the six-year period begins when a demand for payment is in effect and the due date has passed. … (g) Unless governed by other law regarding claims for indemnity or contribution, an action (i) for conversion of an instrument, for money had and received, or like action based on conversion, (ii) for breach of warranty, or (iii) to enforce an obligation, duty, or right arising under this article and not governed by this section must be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrues. — Minn. Stat. § 336.3-118

Revival / new promise — § 541.17 (general rule, displaced for consumer debt)

541.17 NEW PROMISE MUST BE IN WRITING. No acknowledgment or promise shall be evidence of a new or continuing contract sufficient to take the case out of the operation of this chapter unless the same is contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged thereby; but this section shall not alter the effect of a payment of principal or interest. — Minn. Stat. § 541.17

Accrual on running accounts — § 541.10

541.10 MUTUAL ACCOUNTS. If the action is to recover a balance due upon a mutual, open, and current account, and there have been reciprocal demands between the parties, the limitation shall begin to run from the date of the last item proved on either side. — Minn. Stat. § 541.10

Tolling — absence from the state (§ 541.13), disability (§ 541.15)

When a cause of action accrues against a person who is out of the state and while out of the state is not subject to process under the laws of this state or after diligent search the person cannot be found for the purpose of personal service when personal service is required, an action may be commenced within the times herein limited after the person's return to the state; and if, after a cause of action accrues, the person departs from and resides out of the state and while out of the state is not subject to process under the laws of this state or after diligent search the person cannot be found for the purpose of personal service when personal service is required, the time of the person's absence is not part of the time limited for the commencement of the action. — Minn. Stat. § 541.13

(a) … any of the following grounds of disability, existing at the time when a cause of action accrued or arising anytime during the period of limitation, shall suspend the running of the period of limitation until the same is removed; provided that such period, except in the case of infancy, shall not be extended for more than five years, nor in any case for more than one year after the disability ceases: (1) that the plaintiff is within the age of 18 years; (2) the plaintiff's insanity; … (4) when the beginning of the action is stayed by injunction or by statutory prohibition. — Minn. Stat. § 541.15

Borrowing statute — § 541.31 (expressly overridden for consumer debt)

Subdivision 1. General. (a) Except as provided by subdivision 2 and section 541.33, if a claim is substantively based: (1) upon the law of one other state, the limitation period of that state applies; or (2) upon the law of more than one state, the limitation period of one of those states chosen by the law of conflict of laws of this state applies. (b) The limitation period of this state applies to all other claims. Subd. 2. Action arising out of state; resident plaintiff. If a cause of action arises outside of this state and the action is barred under the applicable statute of limitations of the place where it arose, the action may be maintained in this state if the plaintiff is a resident of this state who has owned the cause of action since it accrued and the cause of action is not barred under the applicable statute of limitations of this state. — Minn. Stat. § 541.31

Penalties, enforcement, private right of action

Chapter 332 (collection agencies / debt buyers):

  • Misdemeanor for unlicensed agency/debt-buyer operation or unregistered collecting (§ 332.33, subd. 2).
  • Commissioner of commerce: examination and free access to books (§ 332.40, subd. 1); revocation or suspension after notice and hearing for any violation of §§ 332.31–332.44 (§ 332.40, subd. 1); investigation of FDCPA violations expressly included (§ 332.40, subd. 2); subpoena power (§ 332.40, subd. 3). Records must be kept five years (§ 332.42, subd. 2).
  • Agency liable for its collectors' conduct — and the collectors are separately liable:

The commissioner may take action against a licensee for any violations of debt collection laws by its debt collectors. The commissioner may also take action against the debt collectors themselves for these same violations. — Minn. Stat. § 332.355

  • Civil penalty up to $10,000 per violation by the commissioner. Chapter 332 is within the commissioner's charge (§ 45.011, subd. 1 lists "chapters 45 to 80C, 80E to 83, 155A, 216C, 332, 332A, 332B, 345, and 359"), and § 45.027 provides:

Subd. 6. Violations and penalties. The commissioner may impose a civil penalty not to exceed $10,000 per violation upon a person who violates any law, rule, or order related to the duties and responsibilities entrusted to the commissioner unless a different penalty is specified. … — Minn. Stat. § 45.027, subd. 6

  • Injunctions by the AG or a county attorney:

The attorney general or the county attorney of any county may apply for an injunction in district court to enjoin any violations of sections 332.31 to 332.44, or any practices prohibited in section 332.37, and any such court may issue temporary or permanent injunctions as the circumstances shall require. Such injunctive proceedings shall be in addition to and not in lieu of penalties and remedies otherwise provided in sections 332.31 to 332.44. — Minn. Stat. § 332.39

  • Receivership for a delinquent agency that fails to remit within 45 days of month-end, or whose license lapses (§ 332.43, subd. 1).

Chapter 332C (medical debt): AG enforcement under § 8.31, plus an express private right of action with strict liability, up to $1,000 additional damages per violation (CPI-indexed), treble damages for willful and malicious violations, and fee-shifting (§ 332C.05, quoted above), plus the § 332C.04 fee shift for a debtor who successfully defends a collection suit.

UNVERIFIED — no private right of action located under ch. 332. Sections 332.31–332.44 contain no damages provision, and § 8.31, subd. 1 — which triggers the private-attorney-general remedy in § 8.31, subd. 3a — does not name chapter 332 in its list of covered laws (it names the Nonprofit Corporation Act, §§ 325D.01–325D.07, §§ 325D.09–325D.16, §§ 325D.49–325D.66, § 325F.67, § 325D.67, § 325D.68, § 325E.39, §§ 325F.68–325F.70, and chapter 53A), though the list is prefaced "specifically, but not exclusively." Contrast § 332C.05(a), which expressly hooks ch. 332C to § 8.31. Whether a private plaintiff may reach a § 332.37 violation is therefore not resolved on the face of the statutes and is left to case law not compiled here.

Plain English

Interpretation — the quotes above win on any conflict.

  • Minnesota is a license state, not a bond-only state. A third-party collection agency and a debt buyer must hold a collection agency license from the Department of Commerce ($500 initial / $400 renewal, expiring every June 30), and every individual collector must be separately registered ($10) with an annual criminal-background screen through an NAPBS-member vendor. Operating without either is a misdemeanor.
  • There is no longer an automatic out-of-state exemption. The self-executing exemption for nonresident agencies doing interstate-only collection (§ 332.3351) was repealed effective 2024-08-01 and replaced by a discretionary commissioner waiver that only exists where Minnesota already has a written reciprocal agreement with the agency's home state (§ 332.3352).
  • The bond is variable, not flat: $50,000 floor, plus $5,000 for each $100,000 collected from Minnesota debtors in the prior calendar year (net of commissions), capped at $100,000.
  • Chapter 332 does not reach original creditors. "Collection agency" is collection for others, or a debt buyer. A creditor collecting its own paper in its own name is outside §§ 332.31–332.44 — but § 332.38 catches sham assignments and fictitious-name collecting, and chapter 332C does reach original creditors for medical debt.
  • Medical debt is the sharpest divergence from federal law. Since 2024-10-01: a flat ban on reporting medical debt to any consumer reporting agency (binding on the bureaus too, § 332C.03), a private strict-liability action with treble damages for willful violations, a one-way attorney-fee shift when the debtor wins, an AI-chatbot-inclusive autodialer stop rule, and a required initial-mail disclosure carrying the AG's phone number and the words "You have the right to hire your own attorney to represent you in this matter."
  • The medical-debt reporting ban binds both sides of the furnishing relationship. § 332C.03 prohibits the collecting party from reporting and prohibits the consumer reporting agency from including the item — it is a statutory prohibition, not a bureau policy, and it reaches licensed ch. 332 collection agencies and debt buyers by express extension (§ 332C.03(d)).
  • Spouses are no longer liable for each other's medical bills. The doctrine-of-necessaries sentence in § 519.05 was deleted effective 2024-10-01; do not pursue a non-signing spouse for medical debt.
  • SOL is six years across the board — written contract, oral contract, open account, and negotiable note all land on six. That is unusual in two ways: Minnesota does not split written from oral, and it does not have the usual short "open account" statute that competes with the contract period, so there is no written-agreement-versus-open-account fight to litigate.
  • The credit-card period is statutory here, not a case-law inference. In most states, classifying a revolving consumer account into a limitations bucket requires case law. Minnesota does not: § 541.053 governs "an obligation arising out of a consumer debt primarily for personal, family, or household purposes" by its own terms, which reaches a consumer credit card directly. That makes the MN six-year figure unusually solid — the open question in Minnesota is accrual, not the period.
  • Suing on a time-barred debt is a per-se licensing violation, not merely an affirmative defense the debtor must raise: § 332.37(a)(24) bars a licensee from commencing legal action outside § 541.053, and § 332C.02(19) does the same for medical debt.
  • Nothing revives an expired Minnesota consumer debt. Not a payment, not a bankruptcy discharge, not an oral or written reaffirmation. § 541.053 is categorical.
  • No state call-frequency cap and no state call-time window. Neither ch. 332 nor ch. 332C sets a numeric call limit or an hours-of-contact rule. Reg F's 7-in-7 presumption (12 CFR 1006.14(b)(2)) and the FDCPA/Reg F 8am–9pm consumer-local-time rule are the operative limits in Minnesota. What Minnesota adds is an autodialer/prerecorded-message stop-on-request rule — § 332.37(a)(13) for all debt, § 332C.02(10) for medical debt (expressly including AI chat bots) — and a third-party-contact ban when the debtor has a listed number (§ 332.37(a)(15)) that is tighter than FDCPA § 1692b's location-information allowance.
  • Federal law is state law here. § 332.37(a)(12) makes any FDCPA violation an independent Minnesota licensing violation; § 332C.02(9) does the same for Regulation F (12 CFR part 1006) in medical-debt collection. A single federal misstep is simultaneously a state license-discipline exposure.
  • The "Minnesota Debt Fairness Act" is a popular name, not a statutory one. The reforms come from 2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114 (S.F. 4097), a commerce omnibus act, article 3.

Traps / edge cases

  • § 541.053 overrides the borrowing statute. It opens "Notwithstanding section 541.31, subdivision 1" — so for consumer debt, a choice-of-law clause pointing at another state's longer limitation period does not buy extra time in a Minnesota court. Treat six years as a ceiling for consumer claims regardless of the governing-law clause. (Interpretation: the statute displaces § 541.31(1); it does not say what happens when the foreign period is shorter, and § 541.31, subd. 2's resident-plaintiff carve-out is untouched. Attorney-review territory.)
  • Two different revival rules coexist. § 541.17 (the general rule) preserves the common-law effect of a payment of principal or interest — a partial payment can restart a non-consumer limitations period. § 541.053 removes that entirely for consumer debt. A collections system that applies one rule to all Minnesota accounts will be wrong on one side or the other. Consumer debt: never re-age on payment. Commercial debt: § 541.17 still applies.
  • The anti-revival rule dates from 2013, not 2024. § 541.053 was added by 2013 Minn. Laws ch. 104, § 2. The 2024 act (ch. 114) did not touch it; ch. 114's contribution was the medical-debt chapter, the § 519.05 spousal repeal, the § 332.3352 reciprocity waiver, the repeal of § 332.3351, and garnishment/exemption changes.
  • "Six years" hides an accrual question the statutes do not answer. Neither § 541.05 nor § 541.053 specifies when a revolving account accrues. § 541.10 runs from "the last item proved on either side," but only for a mutual account with reciprocal demands — which a one-directional credit-card account ordinarily is not (interpretation; no statutory pin cite classifies credit cards). Accrual on a defaulted card is not settled on the face of the statutes.
  • Demand notes carry a 10-year outer bar. § 336.3-118(b): if no demand is ever made, the action is barred once neither principal nor interest has been paid for a continuous ten years — a longer window than the six-year headline, and one that turns on payment history rather than a due date.
  • The § 332.37(a)(23) disclosure has a font rule, not just a text rule. The "This collection agency is licensed by the Minnesota Department of Commerce" line must be set in a type size or font equal to or larger than the largest type used anywhere in the notice body. Letter templates that put a large headline above a small footer disclosure violate this even when the words are correct. The debt-buyer variant substitutes "This debt buyer is licensed…".
  • Medical debt has no time-barred-debt disclosure but does have a fee-shift trap. § 332C.04 awards the debtor costs and fees for successfully defending — and a negotiated resolution expressly does not count as a successful defense, so the exposure attaches to litigated losses. Combined with the § 332C.02(19) suit bar, filing on stale medical paper is a compounding risk.
  • Medical debt is defined by what funded it, not by who is collecting. A general-purpose credit card used at a clinic is not medical debt; a card "offered specifically to pay for health treatment or services" (a care-financing card) is, but only for charges on or after 2024-10-01. Dental and veterinary services are carved out entirely. Classification therefore depends on the credit instrument, which the collector may not have on file.
  • Debt buyers get a partial pass on five clauses. § 332.37(b) exempts debt buyers from (a)(6), (8), (10), (17), and (21) — the clauses that presuppose a client relationship — except when the debt buyer is also doing third-party work for others. A hybrid shop is fully bound.
  • Coerced-debt notice starts a 30-day clock on any creditor. § 332.73, subd. 1(b) requires a written decision within 30 days of a certified-mail coerced-debt notice, and a 10-day advance notice before resuming collection after a pause. Selling such an account is permitted only with notice to the buyer that the debtor has asserted coercion (§ 332.73, subd. 2). This is not limited to licensees — "creditor" means anyone "claiming to own or have the right to collect a debt" (§ 332.71, subd. 3).
  • Garnishment is tiered, not a flat 25%. § 571.922(a) steps the maximum from 25% down to 15% and then 10% of disposable earnings as weekly income falls through 80×, 60×, and 40× multiples of the greater of the Minnesota or federal minimum hourly wage — and § 332C.02(21) makes a baseless or bad-faith challenge to a claimed exemption a violation in medical-debt collection.
  • An out-of-state agency that relied on the old exemption is now unlicensed. Until 2024-08-01, former § 332.3351 exempted a nonresident agency automatically if its home state licensed collectors, it collected only debts not incurred in Minnesota from Minnesota consumers, and it worked purely by interstate phone/mail/email/fax. That exemption was repealed and replaced by § 332.3352, which is discretionary and conditional: it requires a commissioner's order and a written reciprocal licensing agreement already in effect with the home state. No exemption is self-executing any more. Any agency whose Minnesota compliance memo cites § 332.3351 is relying on a repealed statute. UNVERIFIED: whether the commissioner has entered into any reciprocal agreements, and with which states, could not be determined — that list would live on the Commerce site, which is bot-blocked (see the verification note).
  • § 332.32(c) is in force but invisible in the published statutes. The 2025 Minnesota Statutes edition on revisor.mn.gov still shows only paragraphs (a) and (b), with a banner noting the 2026 amendment. Licensed mortgage servicers (ch. 58) and student loan servicers (ch. 58B) acting within their own licensure are excluded from "collection agency" as of 2026-08-01. Anyone reading the statute page without the banner will get the wrong answer.

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Compiled from official sources only, with the operative text quoted verbatim. This is information, not legal advice — check it against the source before you act on it.