North Dakota — Collection Agency Act (N.D.C.C. ch. 13-05) + NDAC mini-FDCPA + SOL

Authority

North Dakota Century Code chapter 13-05 (Collection Agencies) — a licensing statute administered and enforced by the Department of Financial Institutions (§13-05-01), with a class C felony penalty and a $5,000-per-violation civil money penalty in §13-05-10.

The substantive conduct rules — North Dakota's mini-FDCPA — are not in the statute. They live in the administrative code: N.D. Admin. Code ch. 13-04-02, promulgated under the commissioner's §13-05-06(4) rulemaking power, plus the twelve-canon ch. 13-04-03 Code of Ethical Conduct issued under §13-05-06(3). Anyone reading only the Century Code will conclude North Dakota has no prohibited-practices law. It does, and it is enforced through the license.

Statute of limitations on a debt: N.D.C.C. §28-01-16(1) (six years), with §41-03-18 for negotiable instruments and §41-02-104 for sales of goods. Revival: §28-01-36. Choice of limitation law: ch. 28-01.2.

Verification note. All statute and rule text below was pulled from the official publisher, the North Dakota Legislative Council's own file server at ndlegis.gov/cencode/ (Century Code chapter PDFs) and ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/pdf/ (Administrative Code chapter PDFs), on 2026-08-12. Licensing practice text is from the Department of Financial Institutions' own FAQ at nd.gov/dfi. ndcourts.gov opinion pages are behind a JavaScript "Security Check" interstitial that 403s both automated fetch and an ordinary browser request (the rest of the domain serves normally), so the one case quoted here was verified against an Internet Archive capture of the official ndcourts.gov opinion page — see the revival section for the capture date and caveat.

Currency. The Century Code chapter PDFs were generated 2025-06-30 and incorporate the 69th Legislative Assembly's 2025 regular session. The 69th Assembly's January 2026 special session (convened 2026-01-21, adjourned 2026-01-23, called for the Rural Health Transformation Program) enacted 13 measures, none of which touched ch. 13-05, ch. 28-01, ch. 28-01.2, or ch. 41-03 — verified by reading every special-session measure title in the official bill index. The September 2026 special session (kratom) had not convened as of last_verified (it convenes 2026-09-02) — re-check ch. 13-05 after it adjourns.

Operative text

Scope — who must be licensed (§§13-05-01.1, 13-05-02)

1. "Collection agency" means a person that, in the ordinary course of business, engages in debt collection. …
2. "Creditor" means a person that offers or extends credit creating a debt or to which a debt is owed. The term does not include a person to the extent that person receives an assignment or transfer of a debt in default solely for the purpose of facilitating collection of that debt.
3. "Debt" means an obligation or alleged obligation to pay money arising out of a transaction, regardless of whether the obligation has been reduced to a judgment.
4. "Debt collection" means the act of collecting or attempting to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another. The term also includes solicitation of debts for the purpose of collection and accepting assignment of debts for the purpose of collection. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-01.1

Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, no person, other than a collection agency licensed and authorized under this chapter, may engage in debt collection in the state of North Dakota without a collection agency license issued by the commissioner. A person engages in debt collection in North Dakota if the debtor resides in North Dakota. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-02 (emphasis added)

Note there is no "consumer debt" limitation anywhere in the definitions — §13-05-01.1(6) reaches any "obligation … to pay money arising out of a transaction," including a judgment.

Exemptions — original creditors are out, and the list is closed:

This chapter does not apply to:

1. Attorneys at law who are licensed to practice in the state of North Dakota. This exemption is limited to the actions of the licensed attorney and does not extend to persons either employed by the attorney or acting on behalf of the attorney;
2. Licensed real estate brokers if the engaged activity is regulated as part of that individual's professional license;
3. Banks;
4. Trust companies;
5. Building and loan associations;
6. Credit unions;
7. Agencies of a state or of the federal government …;
8. Abstract companies doing an escrow business;
9. Creditors collecting their own debts;
10. Mortgage servicing company;
11. Individuals or firms who purchase or take accounts receivable for collateral purposes;
12. Individuals employed in the capacity of creditmen upon the staff of an employer not engaged in the business of a collection agency; or
13. A public officer, receiver, or trustee acting under the order of a court. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-02.3 (emphasis added)

The regulator's own reading — commercial debt, defaulted-debt buyers, passive debt buyers

DFI's official FAQ answers the three questions the statute leaves ambiguous. Verbatim from nd.gov/dfi:

What type of activity requires a collection agency license in North Dakota? NDCC Section 13-05-02 requires a collection agency license for any person or entity who engages in debt collection with a debtor residing in North Dakota.

Do I need a license if I collect business or commercial debt? Yes, the broad definition of debt collection includes both consumer and commercial debt.

Do I need a license if I merely purchase debt? If a person or entity purchases debt that is not in default, that person or entity may qualify under the creditor exemption from licensure found in NDCC 13-05-02 (9), and collect on the debt. However, if the debt was in default at the time of purchase, the party receiving assignment or transfer of the debt would not qualify under the creditor exemption. As such, while the debt could still be purchased, the entity or individual would require licensure to collect on the debt, unless another exemption applied.

Do I need a license if I purchase debt that is in default but use a licensed third-party debt collection agency to collect the debt? Yes, the Department has determined passive debt buyers fall under the definition of "debt collection" in NDCC 13-05-01.1(7). In this instance, both the debt buyer and third-party debt collection agency are required to hold a North Dakota collection agency license.

Is North Dakota a state which requires a physical presence for its collection agency license? North Dakota does not require a physical presence for its collection agency license. — N.D. Dept. of Financial Institutions, Frequently Asked Questions – Non-Depository (Collection Agencies), retrieved 2026-08-12 (emphasis added)

The passive-debt-buyer answer is agency interpretation, not statute, but it is the regulator's stated licensing position and it is the one DFI examines against.

Entry gate — fees, bond, net worth (§§13-05-03, 13-05-04, 13-05-04.1, 13-05-04.2, 13-05-05)

At the time of making such application, the applicant shall include payment in the sum of four hundred dollars, which is not subject to refund, as a fee for investigating the application, and the sum of four hundred dollars for the annual license. In addition, the applicant shall pay a fifty dollar annual fee for each branch location. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-04

1. Each licensee shall maintain a surety bond in the amount of fifty thousand dollars.
2. The surety bond must be in a form as prescribed by the commissioner.
3. When an action is commenced on a licensee's bond, the commissioner may require the filing of a new bond.
4. Immediately upon recovery upon any action on the bond, the licensee shall file a new bond. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-04.1 (emphasis added)

A minimum net worth must be continuously maintained by every licensee in accordance with this section.

1. Minimum net worth must be maintained in the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-04.2 (emphasis added)

All licenses required herein expire on December thirty-first of each year and may be renewed. Applications for renewal must be submitted thirty days before the expiration of the license … A collection agency license is not transferable. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-05

Licensing runs through NMLS — the statute authorizes it (§13-05-03(2)–(5): "the commissioner may establish relationships or contracts with a nationwide multistate licensing system and registry"; fingerprints to the FBI, credit report, personal history under §13-05-03(3)), and DFI confirms it is mandatory in practice:

All collection agencies licensed by our Department are registered through the NMLS system. … All licenses issued by the Department are annual in nature and need to be renewed for each calendar year. The renewal period begins November 1st and closes on December 31st of each year. — DFI FAQ, retrieved 2026-08-12

Branch offices need approval, but a "virtual office" is a defined non-branch:

When used in this chapter, "branch office" means a physical location where collection activity is carried out, other than the location where the collection agency license was granted, but does not include a virtual office. As used in this chapter, "virtual office" means a remote location from which employees can work under the full control and monitoring of the collection agency through telecommunications and computer links. Records may not be maintained at a virtual office and a virtual office may not be held open to the public as a place of business. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-02.1 (emphasis added)

Penalty for operating without a license — felony (§13-05-10)

Any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of a class C felony. The commissioner may impose a civil money penalty not to exceed five thousand dollars per violation upon a person or agency who willfully violates a law, rule, written agreement, or order under this chapter. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-10 (emphasis added)

This is unusually severe. Unlicensed collection in North Dakota is not a fine — it is a felony, and because §13-05-02 keys jurisdiction to where the debtor resides, a wholly out-of-state agency calling into North Dakota is squarely inside it.

Prohibited practices — N.D. Admin. Code ch. 13-04-02 (the mini-FDCPA)

The rule's "debt collector" is broader than the statute's "collection agency":

1. "Debt collector" means any collection agency, employee of a collection agency, and any person engaging, directly or indirectly, in debt collection, and includes any person who sells, or offers to sell, forms represented to be a collection system, device, or scheme, intended or calculated to be used to collect debts and the person is required to be licensed under North Dakota Century Code chapter 13-05. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-01

Federal law incorporated as state law. The single most consequential provision — an FDCPA violation is independently a North Dakota licensing violation:

No debt collector may: … 6. Violate sections 804 through 810 of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act [Pub. L. 90-321; 91 Stat. 876 through 880; 15 U.S.C. 1692b through 1692h]. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-04(6) (emphasis added)

Reinforced by the ethics canons:

Comply with all city, county, state, and federal laws relating to the ownership and operation of a collection business and provision of collection services. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-03-03 (Canon 3)

Harassment / abuse — the ND analog of FDCPA §806, with a timing clause but no numbers:

No debt collector may oppress, harass, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of or attempt to collect any debt alleged to be due and owing by that person or another. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, no debt collector may:

1. Use profane or obscene language or language that is intended to abuse the hearer or reader.
2. Place telephone calls without disclosure to the debtor of the caller's true identity, including name and collection agency.
3. Cause expense to any person in the form of long distance telephone tolls, telegram fees, or other charge incurred by a medium of communications, by concealment of the true purpose of the notice, letter, message, or communication.
4. Cause a telephone to ring or engage any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously, or at unusual times or times known to be inconvenient. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-06 (emphasis added)

Threats or coercion:

No debt collector may collect or attempt to collect any debt by means of any threat, coercion, or attempt to coerce. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, no debt collector may: … 3. Make to another person, including any credit reporting agency, false accusations, or threats of false accusations, that a debtor is willfully refusing to pay a just debt. 4. Threaten to sell or assign to another the obligation of the debtor with an attending representation or implication that the result of such sale or assignment would be that the debtor would lose any defense to the debt or would be subjected to harsh, vindictive, or abusive collection attempts. 5. Represent that nonpayment of any debt will result in the arrest or imprisonment of any person or the seizure, garnishment, attachment, or sale of any property or wages of any person, unless such action is lawful and the debt collector or creditor intends and is legally entitled to bring such action. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-05

Suit threats need an actual intention to sue — stricter in shape than FDCPA §807(5):

In collection letters or publications, or in any communication, oral or written, threaten wage garnishment or legal suit without an objective intention to engage a lawyer and commence legal action upon the debtor's failure to comply with the request or demand made. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-02(5) (prohibited) (emphasis added)

Mandatory identification of the debt owner in every demand — broader than the FDCPA §809 validation notice, because it attaches to any demand for money:

4. Fail to clearly disclose the name and full business address of the person to whom the debt has been assigned or is owed at the time of making any demand for money. …
5. Represent that an existing obligation of the debtor may be increased by the addition of attorney's fees, investigation fees, service fees, or any other fees or charges when in fact such fees or charges may not legally be added to the existing obligation. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-08 (emphasis added)

Fees — the collector may not charge the debtor for its own services:

No debt collector may use unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, no debt collector may: … 3. Collect or attempt to collect from the debtor any part or all of the debt collector's fee or charge for services rendered. 4. Collect or attempt to collect any interest or other charge, fee, or expense incidental to the principal obligation unless such interest or incidental fee, charge, or expense is expressly authorized by law or by the agreement creating the obligation and legally chargeable to the debtor. 5. Communicate with a debtor whenever it appears that the debtor is represented by an attorney and the attorney's name and address are known unless the attorney has failed to respond to a communication within thirty days or the debt collector has been advised by the debtor or attorney that the attorney no longer represents the debtor. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-09 (emphasis added)

The one fee the legislature did authorize — a statutory carve-out enacted above the rule, capped and conditioned:

A collection agency may collect or attempt to collect, in addition to the principal amount of a claim, a transaction fee for processing a credit card payment in an amount that does not exceed two and one-half percent of the payment amount if:

1. The transaction fee is not prohibited under section 13-05-02.2;
2. A no-cost payment option is available to the debtor; and
3. The collection agency discloses the no-cost option to the debtor at the same time and in the same manner as the debtor's credit card information is taken. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-06.5 (emphasis added)

Third-party disclosure — stricter than FDCPA §805(b) on family members:

No debt collector may unreasonably publicize information relating to any alleged indebtedness or debtor. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, no debt collector may:

1. Communicate any information relating to a debtor's indebtedness to any employer or the employer's agent except as reasonably necessary for legal process or to effectuate a past judgment judicial remedy.
2. Disclose, publish, or communicate information relating to a debtor's indebtedness to any relative or family member of the debtor, excluding the husband or wife, except through proper legal action or process or with the express consent of the debtor.
3. Disclose, publish, or communicate any information relating to a debtor's indebtedness to any other person, by publishing or posting any list of debtors, commonly known as deadbeat lists, by advertising for sale any claim to enforce payment of a debt, or in any manner other than through proper legal action, process, or proceeding.
4. Use any form of communication to the debtor, which ordinarily may be seen by any other person, that displays or conveys any information about the alleged debt other than the return address and phone number of the debt collector. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-07 (emphasis added)

Account statement on request — a North Dakota-specific consumer right with no federal analog:

A collection agency, upon a written or oral request by the debtor, shall provide a written statement to the debtor indicating the current balance of the remaining debt, the total of all interest charged, and a record of all payments applied to that debt. The statement must include all activity since the debt was turned over to the collection agency or since the date of any previously furnished statement. A collection agency is not required to furnish a requested written statement more frequently than once every six months. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-14 (emphasis added)

Remittance and trust-account clocks (client-side, but examined):

The client's share of collections must be deposited into a trust account in a financial institution insured by a federal agency within forty-eight hours. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-11

Disbursements of twenty-five dollars or more from the trust account to clients must be made no later than thirty days after the monthly closing for the month in which the money was collected. Disbursements of less than twenty-five dollars must be made no later than sixty days after the monthly closing … — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-12

… neglect, refuse, or intentionally fail to account to its clients for all money collected within forty-five days from the last day of the month in which the same is collected … — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-02(4) (prohibited)

Cash payments require a receipt:

No debt collector may accept currency or coin as payment for a debt without issuing an original receipt to the debtor and maintaining a duplicate receipt as a part of the debt collector's permanent records. — N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-13

Call-frequency cap — NONE (verified negative)

North Dakota has no numeric call-frequency cap. The operative limit is the intent/manner standard in N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-06(4) (quoted above: "repeatedly or continuously"). Reg F's 7-in-7 presumption (12 CFR 1006.14(b)) is therefore the operative frequency limit in North Dakota, and it reaches ND licensees twice over — directly under federal law, and through N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-04(6), which makes an FDCPA §806 violation a licensing violation.

Method for the negative: full text of N.D.C.C. ch. 13-05 and N.D. Admin. Code chs. 13-04-02 and 13-04-03 read line by line; plus a grep of every chapter of Century Code Titles 13 (Debtor and Creditor Relationship), 28 (Judicial Procedure, Civil), and 51 (Sales and Exchanges) — 110 chapter PDFs pulled from ndlegis.gov/cencode/ — for "call frequency", "seven", "debt buyer", "time-barred", and "medical debt". Zero hits in a collection-frequency sense. Additionally, the section-level table of contents for the entire Century Code (29,108 section titles, 1,739 chapter titles, from the official index at ndlegis.gov/general-information/north-dakota-century-code/index.html) contains exactly one collection-agency chapter — 13-05 — and no section or chapter titled for debt buyers, time-barred debt, or medical debt.

Call-time window — NONE specific to collections (verified negative)

No collection-specific call-hours rule exists in ch. 13-05 or NDAC ch. 13-04-02; the closest text is §13-04-02-06(4)'s "at unusual times or times known to be inconvenient," which has no clock. The FDCPA/Reg F 8:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. window governs.

North Dakota does have an 8 a.m.–9 p.m. statute, but it does not reach debt collection:

A caller may not use an automatic dialing-announcing device nor make any telephone solicitation before eight a.m. or after nine p.m. at the telephone subscriber's location. — N.D.C.C. §51-28-05

That chapter applies only to a "telephone solicitation," defined as a communication "for the purpose of encouraging charitable contributions, or the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, services, or merchandise" (§51-28-01(8)) — collecting an existing debt is not within it.

Statute of limitations — six years, one bucket (§28-01-16)

The following actions must be commenced within six years after the claim for relief has accrued:

1. An action upon a contract, obligation, or liability, express or implied, subject to the provisions of sections 28-01-15 and 41-02-104.
2. An action upon a liability created by statute, other than a penalty or forfeiture, when not otherwise expressly provided. …
3. An action for relief on the ground of fraud in all cases both at law and in equity, the claim for relief in such case not to be deemed to have accrued until the discovery by the aggrieved party of the facts constituting the fraud. — N.D.C.C. §28-01-16 (emphasis added)

There is no written/oral distinction in North Dakota. "Express or implied" collapses written contracts, oral contracts, open accounts, and credit cards into the same six-year period. Two carve-outs are named in the text:

Sales of goods — four years (this is the trap in §28-01-16(1)'s cross-reference):

1. An action for breach of any contract for sale must be commenced within four years after the claim for relief has accrued. By the original agreement the parties may reduce the period of limitation to not less than one year but may not extend it.
2. A claim for relief accrues when the breach occurs, regardless of the aggrieved party's lack of knowledge of the breach. … — N.D.C.C. §41-02-104 (UCC 2-725) (emphasis added)

Ten-year actions (§28-01-15): judgments of any U.S. or state court; contracts contained in a conveyance, mortgage, or instrument affecting title to real property; mortgage foreclosure.

The following actions must be commenced within ten years after the claim for relief has accrued:

1. An action upon a judgment or decree of any court of the United States or of any state or territory within the United States;
2. An action upon a contract contained in any conveyance or mortgage of or instrument affecting the title to real property except a covenant of warranty …; and
3. Any action or proceeding for the foreclosure of a mortgage upon real estate. — N.D.C.C. §28-01-15

And a catch-all at ten years: "An action for relief not otherwise provided for must be commenced within ten years after the claim for relief has accrued." (§28-01-22).

Negotiable instruments — §41-03-18, NOT "§41-03-118"

North Dakota renumbers the UCC: the Article 3 sections are 41-03-01 through 41-03-6xx with the uniform number in parentheses. The UCC 3-118 analog is N.D.C.C. §41-03-18. There is no §41-03-118 — citing it produces nothing.

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 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.
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 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.
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 three years after dishonor of the draft or ten 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 three years after demand for payment is made to the acceptor or issuer …
5. 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 …
6. This subsection applies to an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay an accepted draft, other than a certified check. If the obligation of the acceptor is payable at a definite time, the action must be commenced within six years after the due date or dates stated in the draft or acceptance. If the obligation of the acceptor is payable on demand, the action must be commenced within six years after the date of the acceptance.
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 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 three years after the cause of action accrues. — N.D.C.C. §41-03-18 (UCC 3-118) (emphasis added)

Because §28-01-16(1) and §41-03-18(1) both yield six years, the choice of statute rarely changes the answer for a term note. It changes the answer for demand notes (no clock until demand, then six years, with an absolute ten-year no-payment backstop) and for the three-year categories in subsections 3, 4, and 7.

Accrual — the part that actually moves dates

Open accounts accrue per item, not from last activity. This is the single biggest North Dakota-specific date rule, and it comes from the Supreme Court reading §28-01-16:

the statute of limitations for an action to collect a simple open account accrues on the date that each service or item on the account is provided. State v. Hintz, 281 N.W.2d 564, 567 (N.D. 1979); Erenfeld, 196 N.W.2d at 409. An open account involves ongoing charges by one party and payments by another party where the parties have not settled the charges … An account with only charges by one party and payments by the other party is an open account. — Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson, P.C. v. Bolken, 508 N.W.2d 341, 343 (N.D. 1993)

Account stated accrues on the date of the statement, but under §28-01-36 it takes a signed writing to create one (see revival, below).

Mutual open and current accounts get their own statutory accrual rule — note the reciprocal demands precondition, which an ordinary consumer credit-card account does not satisfy:

In an action brought to recover a balance due upon a mutual open, and current account, when there have been reciprocal demands between the parties, the claim for relief is deemed to have accrued from the time of the last item proved in the account on either side. — N.D.C.C. §28-01-37 (emphasis added)

Tolling — absence, disability, stay

If any person is out of this state at the time a claim for relief accrues against that person, an action on such claim for relief may be commenced in this state at any time within the term limited in this chapter for the bringing of an action on such claim for relief after the return of such person into this state. If any person departs from and resides out of this state and remains continuously absent therefrom for the space of one year or more after a claim for relief has accrued against that person, the time of that person's absence may not be taken as any part of the time limited for the commencement of an action on such claim for relief. The provisions of this section, however, do not apply to the foreclosure of real estate mortgages by action or otherwise and do not apply if this state's courts have jurisdiction over a person during the person's absence. — N.D.C.C. §28-01-32 (emphasis added)

The final clause matters: with modern long-arm jurisdiction, a debtor who moves out of North Dakota but remains suable there does not toll the clock.

Disability tolling (minority, insanity, imprisonment) is in §28-01-25, capped: "the period within which the action must be brought cannot be extended more than five years by any such disability except infancy, nor can it be extended in any case longer than one year after the disability ceases."

Choice of limitation law — ch. 28-01.2 is a full conflicts rule, not an ordinary borrowing statute

North Dakota adopted the Uniform Conflict of Laws — Limitations Act. Limitations are treated as substantive, so the limitation period of the state whose law governs the claim applies — which for a card agreement with an out-of-state choice-of-law clause can mean a period other than six years:

1. Except as provided by section 28-01.2-04, if a claim is substantively based upon: a. The law of one other state, the limitation period of that state applies; or b. 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.
2. The limitation period of this state applies to all other claims. — N.D.C.C. §28-01.2-02 (emphasis added)

If the statute of limitations of another state applies to the assertion of a claim in this state, the other state's relevant statutes and other rules of law governing tolling and accrual apply in computing the limitation period, but its statutes and other rules of law governing conflict of laws do not apply. — N.D.C.C. §28-01.2-03 (emphasis added)

With an escape hatch:

If the court determines that the limitation period of another state applicable under sections 28-01.2-02 and 28-01.2-03 is substantially different from the limitation period of this state and has not afforded a fair opportunity to sue upon, or imposes an unfair burden in defending against, the claim, the limitation period of this state applies. — N.D.C.C. §28-01.2-04

The Legislative Council's own background memorandum for the 2011 Judiciary Committee describes the purpose in the state's words:

In 1985 the Legislative Assembly adopted the Uniform Conflict of Laws - Limitations Act. This uniform Act, which has been codified as Chapter 28-01.2, provides that limitations laws are to be treated as substantive rather than procedural and that courts are to apply the statute of limitations of the state whose law governs the substantive issues in the case. According to the drafters of the uniform Act, the purpose of treating the statute of limitations as substantive rather than procedural is to discourage "[f]orum shopping by delay-prone plaintiffs, or by their attorneys, with suits filed in states with long limitation periods." — N.D. Legislative Council, Statutes of Limitation and Venue Requirements in Civil Actions Study — Background Memorandum (13.9071.01000, July 2011), p. 2

(Legislative Council memoranda are official North Dakota legislative-branch publications but are staff background, not authority. The statute above controls.)

Revival — §28-01-36 (writing for promises; payment expressly carved out)

New promise must be in writing in order to extend limitation - Effect of any payment. No acknowledgment or promise is sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract, whereby 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 does not alter the effect of any payment of principal or interest. — N.D.C.C. §28-01-36 (emphasis added)

Two distinct branches, and North Dakota's Supreme Court has decided both.

Branch 1 — acknowledgment or promise: signed writing required, no oral substitute.

Although dicta in Fettig suggests an oral acknowledgment or promise tolls the statute of limitations under N.D.C.C. 28-01-36, the plain language of the statute requires a written acknowledgment or promise of a new or continuing contract for purposes of tolling the statute of limitations. Construing N.D.C.C. 28-01-36 to allow an oral acknowledgment or promise to toll the statute of limitations would render the "writing signed by the party to be charged" phrase of the statute meaningless … We thus construe N.D.C.C. 28-01-36 to require a written acknowledgment or promise of a new or continuing contract for purposes of tolling the statute of limitations. — Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson, P.C. v. Bolken, 508 N.W.2d 341, 344 (N.D. 1993) (emphasis added)

Branch 2 — part payment DOES restart the clock, on a four-element test, with the burden on the creditor. Kadrmas expressly overruled Erenfeld v. Erenfeld, 196 N.W.2d 406 (N.D. 1972), which had held the opposite:

To the extent it holds partial payments do not toll the statute of limitations, Erenfeld is inconsistent with our prior decisions construing the predecessor to N.D.C.C. 28-01-36 and the great weight of authority and we expressly overrule it. We hold partial payments on an open account may … toll the statute of limitations for the entire debt. The circumstances constituting an acknowledgment of an entire debt are a showing partial payments were voluntary, free from uncertainty as to the identity of the debt, and made and accepted as partial payment of the larger debt under circumstances consistent with an intent to pay the entire debt. — Kadrmas, 508 N.W.2d at 345–46 (emphasis added)

It is clear … that a part payment, to be effectual to toll the running of the statute of limitations, must be voluntary, free from uncertainty as to identity of the debt, and must be made and accepted as a payment of a part of a larger debt, under circumstances consistent with intent to pay the balance. The burden is upon the creditor to show these requisites. — Erenfeld, 196 N.W.2d at 412 (Teigen, J., dissenting), adopted as correct in Kadrmas, 508 N.W.2d at 345 (emphasis added)

Kadrmas verification caveat: ndcourts.gov serves its opinion pages only behind a JavaScript "Security Check" that 403s automated fetch. The opinion text above was read from the Internet Archive capture of the official ndcourts.gov opinion page — http://www.ndcourts.gov/court/opinions/930141.htm, captured 2010-05-27 (Civil No. 930141, filed Nov. 10, 1993, Sandstrom, J.). The statutory text it construes (§28-01-36) was independently confirmed against the current official Century Code PDF on 2026-08-12 and is unchanged. Re-verify Kadrmas against live ndcourts.gov when a browser session is available, and check for post-1993 treatment — no full-text North Dakota case-law search was reachable from this harness.

UNVERIFIED — the post-expiry question. Kadrmas and the authorities it adopts speak of payment "toll[ing]" the period and of a new promise that "set[s] the statute of limitations running anew," and the case involved payments made while the account was still live. No North Dakota authority located here squarely holds whether a payment made after the six years has already run revives an otherwise-dead claim. Treat post-expiry re-aging as attorney-review territory and do not auto-re-age. What is verified: North Dakota is a revival jurisdiction — a signed written acknowledgment or promise takes a case "out of the operation of this chapter" by the statute's own terms, and qualifying part payment restarts the clock.

Time-barred-debt disclosure — NONE (verified negative)

North Dakota has no mandatory time-barred-debt disclosure, no statutory bar on suing or collecting on time-barred debt, and no debt-buyer statute of any kind. See the method note under call frequency: no chapter or section in the entire Century Code is titled for debt buyers or time-barred debt, and none of Titles 13, 28, or 51 contains the phrases "debt buyer", "time-barred", or "time barred". Reg F §1006.26 is the only time-barred-debt rule reaching North Dakota accounts.

Medical debt — NONE (verified negative)

No medical-debt-specific collection, reporting, or SOL rule was located. Same method and same caveat: this is a chapter- and section-title search across the full Century Code plus full-text search of Titles 13, 28, and 51, not a full-text search of all 65 titles.

Penalties, private right of action, AG enforcement

DFI is the enforcer of ch. 13-05: cease-and-desist orders (§13-05-06(5)), examinations and subpoenas (§13-05-06.2), license suspension/revocation (§13-05-08), receivership (§13-05-06(6)), and suspension or permanent removal of individual officers and employees for willfully "[e]ngaging in any harassment or abuse, the making of false or misleading representations, or engaging in unfair practices involving collection activity" (§13-05-06.1(1)(a)(2)) — a personal, industry-wide bar, since a removed person is "not eligible, while under suspension or removal, to be employed or otherwise participate in the affairs of any financial corporation, financial institution, credit union, or any other entity licensed by the department" (§13-05-06.1(4)). Penalties: class C felony plus $5,000/violation CMP (§13-05-10).

Chapter 13-05 creates no express private right of action, but it does not foreclose other remedies:

The remedies provided for in this chapter are in addition to and not exclusive of any other remedies provided by law. — N.D.C.C. §13-05-09

The Attorney General's vehicle is the consumer-fraud chapter, N.D.C.C. ch. 51-15, which carries injunctions, restitution, receivership, cease-and-desist orders, and a civil penalty "not more than one thousand dollars for each violation" of a C&D order (§51-15-07), plus a private action with discretionary treble damages and mandatory fees:

Except as provided in section 51-15-02.3, this chapter does not bar any claim for relief by any person against any person who has acquired any moneys or property by means of any practice declared to be unlawful in this chapter. If the court finds the defendant knowingly committed the conduct, the court may order that the person commencing the action recover up to three times the actual damages proven and the court must order that the person commencing the action recover costs, disbursements, and actual reasonable attorney's fees incurred in the action. — N.D.C.C. §51-15-09 (emphasis added)

The act, use, or employment by any person of any deceptive act or practice, fraud, false pretense, false promise, or misrepresentation, with the intent that others rely thereon in connection with the sale or advertisement of any merchandise, whether or not any person has in fact been misled, deceived, or damaged thereby, is declared to be an unlawful practice. … — N.D.C.C. §51-15-02 (emphasis added)

UNVERIFIED / FLAGGED: §51-15-02 is keyed to "the sale or advertisement of any merchandise" ("merchandise" is defined at §51-15-01(3) as "any objects, wares, goods, commodities, intangibles, real estate, charitable contributions, or services"). Whether collecting a debt is "in connection with the sale or advertisement of merchandise" under North Dakota law was not resolvable from official sources here — it turns on case law, and no full-text ND case-law search was reachable. Do not represent ch. 51-15 as a general debt-collection consumer statute without attorney review. The reliable ND consumer-collection hooks are the FDCPA itself and DFI licensing enforcement.

Plain English

Interpretation — the quotes above win on any conflict.

• North Dakota is a license state with a felony backstop. You need a DFI collection agency license, obtained through NMLS, if the debtor lives in North Dakota — no physical presence required, and no consumer/commercial distinction. Collecting without one is a class C felony (§13-05-10). Gate: $400 application + $400/year + $50/branch/year, a $50,000 surety bond, and $25,000 continuously maintained net worth. Licenses expire December 31; renewal runs November 1 – December 31.
• Original creditors are exempt (§13-05-02.3(9)) — and because the substantive conduct rules live in the licensing rulebook, a true first-party creditor is outside the ND mini-FDCPA entirely. Debt buyers are not exempt. DFI's position is that buying defaulted paper destroys the creditor exemption, and that passive debt buyers must be licensed too — so a buyer that never touches the phone still needs an ND license alongside its servicer.
• The prohibited-practices law is in the administrative code, not the statute. N.D. Admin. Code ch. 13-04-02 is a full mini-FDCPA, and §13-04-02-04(6) incorporates FDCPA §§804–810 by reference, which turns any federal violation into a state licensing violation with felony/CMP exposure attached.
• Beyond the FDCPA, ND adds: every demand for money must disclose the name and full business address of the party owed (§13-04-02-08(4)); you may not threaten suit or garnishment without an objective intention to actually retain counsel and sue (§13-04-02-02(5)); you may not disclose the debt to any relative except a spouse (§13-04-02-07(2)); you may not pass your own collection fee to the debtor (§13-04-02-09(3)); and on request — oral or written — you must furnish a full balance/interest/payment-history statement, up to once every six months (§13-04-02-14).
• Credit card convenience fees are legal but capped at 2.5%, and only if a no-cost payment option exists and is disclosed at the same time and in the same manner as the card details are taken (§13-05-06.5).
• No call-frequency cap and no state call-time window. Reg F's 7-in-7 and the federal 8 a.m.–9 p.m. window govern.
• SOL is six years for essentially everything consumer — no written/oral split, no separate open-account period. Goods sales are four (§41-02-104); judgments and real-property instruments are ten (§28-01-15); notes are six under §41-03-18 with demand-note and ten-year-backstop wrinkles.
• Revival is live in North Dakota, both ways. A signed written acknowledgment or promise restarts the clock; an oral one does nothing. A partial payment also restarts it for the entire debt if the creditor proves it was voluntary, unambiguous as to which debt, and made and accepted under circumstances consistent with intent to pay the whole balance (Kadrmas). North Dakota is emphatically not a no-revival state.
• Accrual is the hidden landmine. A simple open account accrues item by item, on the date each charge is incurred — not from the last payment, not from charge-off. On a long-running account, some items can be time-barred while others are not.
• The six years may not even be North Dakota's six years. Chapter 28-01.2 applies the other state's limitation period — and its tolling and accrual rules — whenever the claim is substantively based on another state's law.

Traps / edge cases

• The statute looks toothless; the rulebook isn't. Reading only N.D.C.C. ch. 13-05 yields "North Dakota has no prohibited-practices law." N.D. Admin. Code ch. 13-04-02 is the actual conduct code, and §13-04-02-04(6) bootstraps FDCPA §§804–810 into it. Never answer an ND conduct question from the Century Code alone.
• §41-03-118 does not exist. North Dakota's UCC 3-118 analog is §41-03-18. Any tool, note, or citation carrying "41-03-118" is wrong.
• Passive debt buyers need a license. This catches buyers who assume that outsourcing collection means they are not "engaging in debt collection." DFI has said otherwise in writing.
• Jurisdiction follows the debtor, not the office. §13-05-02's second sentence — "A person engages in debt collection in North Dakota if the debtor resides in North Dakota" — plus DFI's no-physical-presence answer means a single ND-resident debtor in the portfolio triggers the license and the felony exposure.
• Per-item accrual on open accounts means "last payment date + 6 years" is not the ND rule for a simple open account. Under Kadrmas/Hintz, each charge starts its own clock. A payment can restart it under §28-01-36, but only on the four-element showing, and the burden is on the creditor.
• §28-01-37 is narrower than it looks. Its last-item-either-side accrual applies only to a mutual open and current account with reciprocal demands — ordinary consumer card accounts (charges one way, payments the other) are "simple open accounts" under Hintz, not mutual accounts. Treating §28-01-37 as the general credit-card accrual rule is a common misread. (Classification of a revolving consumer credit card as a simple open account rather than a mutual account is interpretation from Hintz/Kadrmas's definitions, not a holding on a credit card.)
• The credit-card fee rule and the rule against collecting your own fee coexist awkwardly. N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-09(3) forbids collecting "any part or all of the debt collector's fee or charge for services rendered"; N.D.C.C. §13-05-06.5 expressly permits a ≤2.5% credit card transaction fee on conditions. The statute is the later and more specific enactment and controls, but stay inside its three conditions — the fee is unlawful without a disclosed no-cost alternative.
• Absence tolling has a modern kill switch. §28-01-32 does not toll if North Dakota's courts have jurisdiction over the person during the absence — so a debtor who simply moves away usually does not extend the period.
• Choice-of-law can shorten or lengthen the period. Under ch. 28-01.2 the forum's six years is the default, not the answer. A card agreement governed by another state's law imports that state's limitation period and its tolling/accrual rules (§28-01.2-03), subject only to the §28-01.2-04 unfairness escape. This is a genuine divergence from ordinary borrowing statutes, which typically only shorten.
• No time-barred disclosure means Reg F §1006.26 is the whole rule — but also that suing on a stale ND debt is not independently a state statutory violation the way it is in Texas or North Carolina. The limitations defense is affirmative and must be pleaded: "The objection that an action was not commenced within the time limited by law can only be taken by answer." (§28-01-39).
• Suing on a North Dakota judgment has its own gate: no action may be commenced on a ND court judgment between the same parties within nine years of rendition without leave of court (§28-01-34), even though the judgment itself carries a ten-year period under §28-01-15(1).
• Officer/employee bar risk is personal. §13-05-06.1 lets the commissioner remove an individual collector for willful harassment, misrepresentation, or unfair practices, and the bar extends to any DFI-licensed entity for at least three years.

Related

• ../federal/fdcpa/overview.md — §§804–810 are incorporated into ND law by N.D. Admin. Code §13-04-02-04(6)
• ../federal/reg-f/call-frequency.md — governs ND; no state cap
• ../federal/reg-f/time-barred-debt.md — the only time-barred rule reaching ND
• ./tx.md — contrast: TX bars debt-buyer revival by statute; ND permits revival
• ./sd.md · ./mn.md · ./mt.md — neighboring states
• ./_matrix.md