Montana — no collection-agency act; SOL (written contract cut 8y → 6y, eff. 2025-10-01)

Authority

Montana has no debt-collection statute and no collection-agency licensing act — no mini-FDCPA, no registration, no bond, no state regulator for third-party collectors. The generally applicable consumer statute is the Montana Consumer Protection Act, Mont. Code Ann. Title 30, ch. 14, pt. 1 (§§30-14-101 to -157), enforced by the Montana Department of Justice (§30-14-111) and by private individual action (§30-14-133). Limitations on suit for a debt come from §27-2-202 (contracts) and §30-3-122 (negotiable instruments — Montana's renumbered UCC 3-118); revival from §27-2-409.

The one real entry gate that touches collections is the Montana Consumer Loan Act (Title 32, ch. 5): a Consumer Loan License is required to collect a consumer loan governed by that Act, and collecting without one voids the loan (§32-5-103(4)). See "Traps."

Verification note. All statute text below is direct from mca.legmt.gov (Montana Code Annotated 2025, Legislative Services Division), which serves clean static HTML. Three source limitations were hit and worked around:

1. mca.legmt.gov has no first-party full-text search — its "Search" link is a Google Custom Search Engine (cse.google.com/cse.js?cx=007613742950989341268:lkllobjn12w), which is not an official index. Negatives below were instead proved by enumerating the Code's own static file tree: 54 title_*/chapters_index.html → 880 chapter_*/parts_index.html → 4,089 part_*/sections_index.html (0 fetch failures), then grepping every section heading; plus a full-text pull of all 501 sections of the six candidate chapters (Title 30 ch. 14; Title 31 ch. 1, 2, 3; Title 32 ch. 5; Title 17 ch. 4).
2. dojmt.gov (Attorney General / Office of Consumer Protection) is Cloudflare-challenge-blocked to automated fetch (403 "Just a moment…"). AG enforcement facts here are sourced from the statute, not the AG's site.
3. searchcourts.mt.gov (the Montana Supreme Court opinion search) does not resolve (DNS NXDOMAIN), and courts.mt.gov exposes no opinion-search path. Montana case law is manual-verification-only — every case-law-dependent classification on this page is labeled interpretation or UNVERIFIED, never stated as verified.

Bill history for the 2025 SOL change was verified through the Legislature's own APIs: api.legmt.gov/bills/v1/bills?sessionId=2 (chapter-number → bill mapping), api.legmt.gov/bills/v1/sessionLawEffectiveDates/findByBillId?billId=2445 (official effective date), and api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getBillText?... (the ENROLLED bill PDF). bills.legmt.gov itself is a JS SPA and the legacy archive.legmt.gov/bills/2025/billpdf/ and /sesslaws/ paths 404.

Operative text

Statute of limitations — §27-2-202 (written 6 years, NOT 8)

27-2-202. Actions based on contract or other obligation. (1) The period prescribed for the commencement of an action on any contract, covenant, obligation, or liability founded on an instrument in writing is within 6 years. (2) The period prescribed for the commencement of an action on a contract, account, or promise not founded on an instrument in writing is within 5 years. (3) The period prescribed for the commencement of an action on an obligation or liability, other than a contract, account, or promise, not founded on an instrument in writing is within 3 years. — Mont. Code Ann. §27-2-202 (History: … amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 665, L. 2023 (revised May 3, 2024); amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 174, L. 2025)

The 8-year figure that circulates for Montana is stale. Chapter 174, Laws of 2025 = SB 143 (LC 2447, "Generally revising statute of limitations laws," introduced by G. Hertz and D. Fern). The enrolled bill shows the strike-and-insert on its face:

Section 1. Section 27-2-202, MCA, is amended to read: "27-2-202. Actions based on contract or other obligation. (1) The period prescribed for the commencement of an action on any contract, covenant, obligation, or liability founded on an instrument in writing is within 8 6 years. — SB 143 (69th Leg. 2025), ENROLLED BILL, Sec. 1

And the applicability section — the trap on this page — keys the new period to the filing date, not to accrual:

Section 3. Applicability. [This act] applies to actions to recover damages for on any contract, covenant, obligation, or liability founded on an instrument in writing that are filed on or after October 1, 2025. — SB 143 (69th Leg. 2025), ENROLLED BILL, Sec. 3

(Quoted verbatim. "to recover damages for on" is a drafting garble carried into the enrolled text — "to recover damages for" was struck and "on" inserted, and the printed enrolled version shows both without strike marks. The operative sense is "applies to actions on any contract … that are filed on or after October 1, 2025." That reading is interpretation; the quote is the authority.)

Official effective date, from the Legislature's session-law effective-date record for SB 143: {"sectionDescription": "All Sections", "effectiveDate": "2025-10-01"} — api.legmt.gov/bills/v1/sessionLawEffectiveDates/findByBillId?billId=2445

Negotiable instruments — §30-3-122 (6 years) — note the renumbering

Montana renumbered Revised UCC Article 3. MCA §30-3-118 is REPEALED; the statute of limitations is §30-3-122. (Confirmed against the official Title 30, ch. 3, pt. 1 section index, which lists "30-3-118 Repealed" and "30-3-122 Statute of limitations.")

30-3-122. Statute of limitations. (1) Except as provided in subsection (5), an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay a note payable at a definite time must be commenced within 6 years after the payment date or dates stated in the note or, if a payment date is accelerated, within 6 years after the accelerated payment date. (2) Except as provided in subsection (4) or (5), 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 6 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 10 years. (3) Except as provided in subsection (4), an action to enforce the obligation of a party to an unaccepted draft to pay the draft must be commenced within 6 years after dishonor of the draft or 10 years after the date of the draft, whichever period expires first. (4) 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 6 years after demand for payment is made to the acceptor or issuer, as the case may be. (5) An action to enforce the obligation of a party to a certificate of deposit to pay the instrument must be commenced within 6 years after demand for payment is made to the maker, but if the instrument states a maturity date and the maker is not required to pay before that date, the 6-year period begins when a demand for payment is in effect and the maturity date has passed. (7) Unless governed by other law regarding claims for indemnity or contribution, an action for conversion of an instrument, for money had and received, or for like action based on conversion; for breach of warranty; or to enforce an obligation, duty, or right arising under this chapter and not governed by this section must be commenced within 3 years after the cause of action accrues. — Mont. Code Ann. §30-3-122 (En. Sec. 3-122, Ch. 264, L. 1963; amd. Sec. 105, Ch. 410, L. 1991)

Revival — §27-2-409 (payment revives WITHOUT a writing)

27-2-409. Acknowledgment of debt or part payment. (1) An acknowledgment or the part payment of a debt is sufficient evidence to cause the relevant statute of limitations to begin running anew. (2) An acknowledgment must be contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged thereby. (3) Part payment is any payment of principal or interest. — Mont. Code Ann. §27-2-409 (amd. Sec. 25, Ch. 12, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 6, Ch. 441, L. 1987)

The two branches are asymmetric on their face: an acknowledgment must be a signed writing (subsection (2)); a part payment carries no writing requirement at all and is defined broadly as "any payment of principal or interest" (subsection (3)).

Accrual — §27-2-102 (no discovery rule for contract/debt claims)

(1) For the purposes of statutes relating to the time within which an action must be commenced: (a) a claim or cause of action accrues when all elements of the claim or cause exist or have occurred, the right to maintain an action on the claim or cause is complete, and a court or other agency is authorized to accept jurisdiction of the action; (b) an action is commenced when the complaint is filed. (2) Unless otherwise provided by statute, the period of limitation begins when the claim or cause of action accrues. Lack of knowledge of the claim or cause of action, or of its accrual, by the party to whom it has accrued does not postpone the beginning of the period of limitation. (3) The period of limitation does not begin on any claim or cause of action for an injury to person or property until the facts constituting the claim have been discovered or, in the exercise of due diligence, should have been discovered by the injured party if: (a) the facts constituting the claim are by their nature concealed or self-concealing; or (b) before, during, or after the act causing the injury, the defendant has taken action which prevents the injured party from discovering the injury or its cause. — Mont. Code Ann. §27-2-102

Tolling for absence — §27-2-402

27-2-402. When defendant is out of state. When the cause of action accrues against a person who is out of the state and cannot be served with process, the action may be commenced within the term limited under this part after the person's return to the state. If, after the cause of action accrues, the person departs from the state and cannot be served with process, the time of the person's absence is not part of the time limited for the commencement of the action. — Mont. Code Ann. §27-2-402

Borrowing statute — §27-2-104 → Uniform Conflict of Laws–Limitations Act, §27-2-503

27-2-104. When a cause of action that does not involve the title to or possession of real property within the state accrues against a person who is not then a resident of the state, an action is governed by part 5 of this chapter. — Mont. Code Ann. §27-2-104

27-2-503. Conflict of laws -- limitation periods. (1) Except as provided by 27-2-505, if a claim is substantively based: (a) upon the law of one other state, the limitation period of that state applies; or (b) upon the law of more than one state, the limitation period of one of those states chosen by this part applies. (2) The limitation period of Montana applies to all other claims. — Mont. Code Ann. §27-2-503 (En. Sec. 3, Ch. 293, L. 1991)

Consumer Loan Act — the only licensing gate that reaches collection

32-5-103. Engaging in business of making consumer loans restricted. (1) Except as provided in subsection (5), a person may not engage in the business of making consumer loans in any amount and contract for, charge, or receive directly or indirectly on or in connection with any loan any compensation, whether for interest, fees, other consideration, or expense, except as provided in and authorized by this chapter. … (3) The provisions of subsection (1) apply to any person who seeks to evade its applications by any device, subterfuge, or pretense. (4) Any loan made or collected in violation of subsection (1) by a person other than a licensee or a person exempt under subsection (5) is void, and the person does not have the right to collect, receive, or retain any principal, interest, fees, or other charges. (5) The following are not required to comply with the provisions of this chapter: (a) a bank, building and loan association, savings and loan association, trust company, or credit union; or (b) a person who: (i) makes fewer than four consumer loans a year with the person's own funds; (ii) does not represent that the person is a licensee; and (iii) complies with the provisions of Title 31, chapter 1, part 1. — Mont. Code Ann. §32-5-103

The Division of Banking and Financial Institutions states the same rule on its own licensing page, in the course of explaining what Montana does license:

Montana does, however, license consumer finance companies and anyone who collects on a consumer loan. Montana also licenses escrow companies. Montana charters banks and credit unions. Montana licenses retail sales finance companies and all sorts of mortgage entities. — Montana Dept. of Administration, Banking & Financial Institutions Division, "Mortgage & Consumer Finance" (doa.mt.gov/BFID/mortgage-consumer-finance/index)

Servicers of loans originated under the Act must be licensed under the Act in order to collect the loan. — same page, "Servicing Consumer Loans"

Montana Consumer Protection Act — the substantive standard

30-14-103. Unlawful practices. Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce are unlawful. — Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-103

(8) (a) "Trade" and "commerce" mean the advertising, offering for sale, sale, or distribution of any services, any property, tangible or intangible, real, personal, or mixed, or any other article, commodity, or thing of value, wherever located, and includes any trade or commerce directly or indirectly affecting the people of this state. — Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-102(8)(a)

(1) "Consumer" means a person who purchases or leases goods, services, real property, or information primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. — Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-102(1)

Private right of action — §30-14-133 (individual only; NO class actions)

(1) (a) … a consumer who suffers any ascertainable loss of money or property, real or personal, as a result of the use or employment by another person of a method, act, or practice declared unlawful by 30-14-103 may bring an individual action but not a class action under the rules of civil procedure in the district court … to recover money damages in the amount of any ascertainable loss of money or property or $500, whichever is greater. An individual claim may be brought in justice's court. A consumer may bring an individual action under this section within the timeframe described in 27-2-211. The court may not award punitive damages but may, in its discretion, award up to three times the money damages … if actual damages do not exceed $100,000 … (3) In any action brought under this section, the court may award the prevailing party reasonable attorney fees incurred in prosecuting or defending the action, except that attorney fees may not be awarded if the consumer recovers actual damages of $100,000 or more. Attorney fees are limited to no more than $250 an hour. … — Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-133

The cross-referenced limitations period:

(1) Within 2 years is the period prescribed for the commencement of an action upon: … (c) a liability created by statute other than: (i) a penalty or forfeiture; or (ii) a statutory debt created by the payment of public assistance. — Mont. Code Ann. §27-2-211(1)

AG enforcement and penalties — §§30-14-111, 30-14-142

(1) Whenever the department has reason to believe that a person is using, has used, or is about to knowingly use any method, act, or practice declared by 30-14-103 to be unlawful and that proceeding would be in the public interest, the department may bring an action in the name of the state against the person to restrain by temporary or permanent injunction or temporary restraining order … The department may bring an action within 5 years on discovery of the method, act, or practice that is declared unlawful by 30-14-103. — Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-111(1) ("department" = Department of Justice, §30-14-102(2); amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 199, L. 2025)

(1) … a person who violates the terms of an injunction or temporary restraining order issued under 30-14-111 shall forfeit and pay to the state a civil fine of not more than $10,000 for each violation. … (2) In an action brought under 30-14-111, if the court finds that a person is willfully using or has willfully used a method, act, or practice declared unlawful by 30-14-103, the department … may recover on behalf of the state a civil fine of not more than $10,000 for each violation. … (3) A person who engages in a fraudulent course of conduct declared unlawful by 30-14-103 shall upon conviction be fined an amount not more than $5,000, imprisoned for not more than 1 year, or both … (4) For purposes of this section, a willful violation occurs when the party committing the violation knew or should have known that the conduct was a violation of 30-14-103. — Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-142

The one medical-debt-adjacent collection rule — §30-14-2602 (ambulance bills)

30-14-2602. Balance billing information -- notification to ambulance companies. (1) (a) Subject to one of the conditions under subsection (1)(b), an ambulance service licensed in this state may not submit to a consumer reporting agency information intended to affect a patient's credit report because the patient has not made full payment of a bill for ambulance services. (b) The prohibition under subsection (1)(a) is effective if: (i) the patient's insurer or health plan has paid for the ambulance services based on the in-network or out-of-network charges outlined in the patient's insurance plan; or (ii) an uninsured patient has paid toward the bill and filed with the attorney general's office a complaint regarding the bill as being an unfair trade practice because the bill is not based on usual and customary charges in the state. (2) An ambulance service that transfers a bill to a collection agency shall state that the collection agency may not report as delinquent to a consumer reporting agency a bill covered by subsection (1). — Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-2602 (En. Sec. 1(1), (2), Ch. 315, L. 2017)

Deferred-deposit paper — §31-1-722 binds the collector too

(3) … A licensee or any collection agency acting as an agent of a licensee, as a holder in due course of a licensee, or under an agreement with a licensee to collect amounts due or asserted to be due may not collect damages under 27-1-717(3) for an insufficient funds check. (4) … A licensee or any collection agency acting as an agent of a licensee … may not collect damages under 27-1-717(3) for an electronic deduction for which there are insufficient funds. — Mont. Code Ann. §31-1-722(3)–(4)

Call-time window — the only 8am–9pm rule in Montana law is telemarketing, not collection

(1) It is an abusive telemarketing act or practice and a violation of this part for any seller or telemarketer to engage in the following conduct: … (d) engage in telemarketing to a person's residence at any time other than between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time at the called person's location; … — Mont. Code Ann. §30-14-1412(1)(d) (Montana Telemarketing Registration and Fraud Prevention Act)

This is a telemarketing provision ("seller or telemarketer") and does not reach debt collection. Montana has no collection call-time statute; the FDCPA/Reg F 8am–9pm rule is the operative floor.

Plain English

Interpretation — the quotes above win on any conflict.

• There is no Montana collection-agency license, registration, or bond. No board, no regulator, no application, no penalty for "unlicensed collection" — because there is no license to lack. The entry gate for a third-party agency working Montana paper is federal (FDCPA/Reg F) plus the Montana Consumer Protection Act's general unfair-or-deceptive standard.
• There is no Montana mini-FDCPA. No state analog to the TDCA, FCCPA, or Rosenthal Act. Conduct claims run through §30-14-103's general "unfair or deceptive acts or practices" clause.
• The written-contract SOL is 6 years, not 8 — and this changed recently, on October 1, 2025. Anything still saying 8 years for Montana is describing pre-SB-143 law.
• Open accounts and credit cards: 5 years under §27-2-202(2) ("a contract, account, or promise not founded on an instrument in writing"). The word "account" in subsection (2) is the statutory hook. Which bucket a particular credit-card agreement falls into is a case-law question — see Traps.
• Promissory notes: 6 years under §30-3-122(1) — which now happens to equal the written-contract period, but is a different statute with different mechanics (demand notes, the 10-year no-payment backstop, 3 years for conversion/warranty claims). Do not collapse the two.
• Revival is generous to creditors and Montana is NOT a no-revival state. A part payment — any payment of principal or interest, with no writing required — makes the clock "begin running anew." A written, signed acknowledgment does the same. This is the opposite of the TX/NY/WI posture.
• No call-frequency cap and no call-time window in Montana law for debt collection. Reg F's 7-in-7 presumption and 8am–9pm rule are the operative limits.
• No time-barred-debt disclosure requirement, no debt-buyer statute, no pleading-particularity statute, and no medical-debt SOL or medical-debt collection statute — with the single narrow exception of the ambulance-bill credit-reporting rule in §30-14-2602.
• Damages exposure is modest but real: $500 statutory floor per consumer, discretionary trebling under $100k, prevailing-party attorney fees capped at $250/hour, no class actions, 2-year limitations period, plus AG injunctions with $10,000-per-violation civil fines.

Traps / edge cases

• The 8-year number is the single most likely error on Montana. §27-2-202(1) was cut from 8 to 6 by SB 143 (Ch. 174, L. 2025). Any table, vendor chart, or model-knowledge answer saying "Montana: 8 years written" is describing law that stopped applying to newly filed suits on 2025-10-01.
• The applicability trigger is the FILING date, not the accrual date. SB 143 §3 applies the 6-year period to actions "filed on or after October 1, 2025." Read literally, a written-contract claim that accrued in 2019 — which had 8 years (to 2027) under the law when it accrued — gets only 6 years (to 2025) if suit is filed after the cutoff. Interpretation, and squarely attorney-review territory: retroactive shortening of an accrued limitations period raises constitutional questions Montana courts have not addressed in any opinion that could be verified (see the case-law verification note above). The safe operational posture is to treat 6 years as the ceiling for any Montana written-contract suit filed today, and to flag rather than auto-extend any claim whose 8-year window has not yet closed.
• §30-3-118 is a dead cite. Montana repealed it; the UCC 3-118 analog is §30-3-122. A citation to "Mont. Code Ann. §30-3-118" points at a repealed section.
• Notes are not written contracts, even at the same number of years. §30-3-122 carries mechanics §27-2-202 does not: demand notes run 6 years from demand with an absolute 10-year no-payment backstop, and drafts run 6 years from dishonor or 10 years from the date of the draft, whichever expires first.
• Part payment revives without any writing. §27-2-409(2)'s signed-writing requirement attaches only to the acknowledgment branch; §27-2-409(3) defines part payment as "any payment of principal or interest" with no formality. A single small payment restarts the Montana clock.
• Post-expiry revival is UNVERIFIED. §27-2-409 says an acknowledgment or part payment causes the limitations period "to begin running anew" and does not on its face distinguish a live clock from an expired one — and it sits in Part 4, "Circumstances Which Extend Period of Limitations," which cuts the other way. No Montana statute answers whether a payment on already-expired debt resurrects the claim, and Montana case law is not verifiable through official channels here. Attorney review; do not auto-re-age an expired Montana debt on a payment. What is verified is the negative that matters in practice: Montana has no statutory post-expiry revival bar — it is not a no-revival state.
• Credit-card classification is interpretation. §27-2-202(2)'s "account" is the hook for a 5-year open-account period, but a card issued under a signed written agreement invites the argument that it is "founded on an instrument in writing" and gets 6 years. The statute does not resolve it and no verifiable Montana holding was reachable. Default to 5 years and flag; the gap between the two buckets is now only one year, which lowers the stakes considerably versus the old 8-vs-5 spread.
• Collecting a Montana Consumer Loan Act loan without a Consumer Loan License voids the debt. §32-5-103(4) reaches loans "made or collected in violation," and the Division of Banking says plainly that it licenses "anyone who collects on a consumer loan." A debt buyer or agency taking assignment of MCLA-originated paper should confirm license status before collecting — the penalty is not a fine, it is loss of the right to "collect, receive, or retain any principal, interest, fees, or other charges." §32-5-103(3) extends this to evasion "by any device, subterfuge, or pretense."
• Ambulance bills carry a pass-through instruction. Under §30-14-2602(2) the ambulance service must tell the collection agency that a covered bill may not be reported as delinquent. The duty to notify is the provider's; the resulting restriction lands on the agency's credit-reporting behavior.
• Deferred-deposit paper strips the bad-check remedy from the collector too. §31-1-722(3)–(4) names "any collection agency acting as an agent of a licensee" and bars it from collecting §27-1-717(3) NSF damages.
• No class actions under the state UDAP (§30-14-133(1)(a)) — Montana consumer exposure is individual, but the $500-or-actual floor plus discretionary trebling and fee-shifting makes small individual claims economically viable.
• §27-2-402 tolling is absolute on its face — absence from the state plus inability to serve suspends the clock entirely, with no cap. Treat any tolling adjustment as attorney review rather than automatic.
• The borrowing statute is a full conflicts regime, not a simple "shorter of" rule. §27-2-104 routes nonresident claims into the Uniform Conflict of Laws–Limitations Act (§§27-2-501 to -507): a claim substantively based on another state's law takes that state's limitation period (§27-2-503(1)), subject to the §27-2-505 unfairness escape. This can lengthen as well as shorten.

Related

• ../federal/fdcpa/overview.md
• ../federal/reg-f/call-frequency.md
• ../federal/reg-f/time-barred-debt.md
• ./tx.md · ./_matrix.md