Collecting debt in Idaho: licensing, bonds and statutes of limitations.
Collection agencies and debt buyers (plus debt/credit counselors and credit repair organizations) must hold an Idaho Department of Finance license under the Idaho Collection Agency Act (Idaho Code 26-2221 et seq.), filed through NMLS, with a $150 application fee, a $100 annual renewal due December 31, a $15,000 surety bond that scales on renewal to two times average monthly net collections (maximum $100,000), and a $20 fee per listed agent.
General information, not legal advice. Every figure on this page links to the statute, rule or regulator page it came from, with the operative words quoted, and the date we verified it. Rules change; confirm with the regulator or your counsel before acting, and tell us if something here is out of date.
Do you need a license to collect in Idaho?
Idaho's license renews every December 31 through NMLS for $100; the March 15 date on the regulator's page is for the annual activity report and bond recalculation, not the license. The bond starts at $15,000 and is recalculated each year to twice the agency's average monthly net collections, up to $100,000. Debt buyers are expressly covered.
Initial bond $15,000 (§ 26-2232(2)); a certificate of deposit in the same amount may be substituted and must remain in effect at least 3 years after discontinuance (§ 26-2232(1)). On renewal the licensee files a statement of the preceding year's net collections and the bond becomes the greater of $15,000 or two times the average monthly net collections for the preceding year, rounded up to the next $1,000, capped at $100,000 (§ 26-2232(3)); the DOF Bond Calculation form (due March 15) implements this. Continuous for the license period; creditors and debtors may sue on the bond directly; surety may cancel on 30 days' registered or certified mail notice. Debt/credit counselors and credit repair organizations have a parallel bond under § 26-2232A.
§§ 26-2224(1) and 26-2231(1) require filing 'through an electronic system of licensing as prescribed by the director' (added by 2022 ch. 286); DOF forms page: 'Application Information and Online Filing for a Collection Agency Available on NMLS'. The annual report form carries an NMLS ID field. Quarterly agent reporting is via Tyler Idaho, not NMLS.
Idaho Code § 26-2224(1)(j): 'A nonrefundable application fee of one hundred fifty dollars ($150).' Plus $20 per listed agent with the initial application (§ 26-2240). Filed 'through an electronic system of licensing as prescribed by the director' (§ 26-2224(1)), which the DOF identifies as NMLS. NMLS system processing fees, if any, are charged by NMLS and were not verifiable from a primary source (the NMLS checklist redirects to a SharePoint app).
Branches: § 26-2230 requires registration of 'each additional place of business from which activities authorized under this act are directly or indirectly conducted in this state', with 30 days' notice before opening and within 30 days after closing; no branch fee is stated in the statute. Agents: $20 per agent on the initial list, at annual renewal, and for each agent added in quarterly notices (§ 26-2240); agents acting fewer than 30 business days need not be listed. Quarterly agent reports must be filed through Tyler Idaho effective with the March 2026 report (DOF forms page: 'all agent reporting shall be submitted exclusively through Tyler Idaho').
trust account: every licensee that receives or holds funds belonging to another 'shall, in its own name, establish and maintain a separate trust account for deposit and remittance of such funds in a financial institution, the deposits of which are insured by the federal deposit insurance corporation', plus a separate business account (§ 26-2233(1)-(2)); resident agent: 'The name and business address of the applicant's agent for service of process located in this state' (§ 26-2224(1)(i)); DOF Consent to Service of Process and Consent to Examination form; home office: 'Each licensee shall maintain a home office licensed under this chapter as the licensee's principal location for collection activities' with a listed telephone number, open to the public during normal business hours on each business day (§ 26-2223A); branch registration for each additional place of business in Idaho (§ 26-2230); agent (collector) listing with $20 per-agent fee, updated quarterly via Tyler Idaho (§ 26-2240); annual activity report and surety bond calculation due March 15 (DOF package); copies of all contracts, form letters, advertisements and solicitations filed as exhibits with the application (§ 26-2224(1)(f)); consent to examination of financial accounts (§ 26-2224(1)(k)); director examination and investigation powers (§ 26-2234); unlicensed collection activity is a felony (§ 26-2238(2)); no fingerprint or background-check requirement appears in the statute; the NMLS checklist could not be retrieved to confirm NMLS-side requirements
Exemptions. Idaho Code § 26-2239: (1) Idaho-licensed attorneys collecting incidental to law practice, not an attorney in a separate collection business; (2) regulated lenders under § 28-41-301 and their subsidiaries, affiliates or agents collecting for the lender; (3) banks, trust companies, credit unions, insurance companies and industrial loan companies authorized in Idaho; (4) federal, state or local government agencies; (5) Idaho-licensed resident real estate brokers and salesmen acting under their license; (6) authorized escrow businesses; (7) mortgage lenders under § 26-31-201 in their regular business, not in a separate collection business; (8) court-appointed trustees, receivers and conservators; (9) telephone corporations billing before delinquency; (10) affiliated-company debt collectors collecting only for commonly owned or controlled persons where collection is not the principal business.
How long can a debt be sued on in Idaho?
Idaho gives credit card debt five years when the creditor can produce the cardholder agreement, and a judgment eleven years, renewable. Any payment of principal or interest restarts the clock, and under a 2023 Idaho Supreme Court decision a payment made after the period has already run revives the debt.
“Within five (5) years: An action upon any contract, obligation or liability founded upon an instrument in writing.”
“Within four (4) years: An action upon a contract, obligation or liability not founded upon an instrument of writing.”
“an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay a note payable at a definite time must be commenced within six (6) years after the due date or dates stated in the note or, if a due date is accelerated, within six (6) years after the accelerated due date.”
“The district court did not err in holding that the Card Agreements were contracts in writing and that this was an action founded upon an instrument in writing.”
The Idaho Supreme Court puts credit-card debt in the written-contract category (5 years, 5-216) where the creditor produces the preprinted, unsigned cardholder agreement: the agreement stated 'This Card Agreement is your contract with us' and use of the card constituted agreement to its terms. Lowe rejected the argument that a card account is an open account under 5-217 (4 years): 'The terms of an open account can be set forth in a written contract.' Idaho has no separate open-account period; if no written agreement is proven, the 4-year period of 5-217 (or the 5-224 catch-all) is the exposure. 5-222 (mutual, open and current account with reciprocal demands) governs only accrual, not the period.
“Within eleven (11) years: (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.”
General rule: 'Civil actions can only be commenced within the periods prescribed in this chapter after the cause of action shall have accrued' (5-201); contract claims accrue on breach. For a mutual, open and current account with reciprocal demands, 5-222 deems accrual 'from the time of the last item proved in the account on either side'. Notes: from the due date or accelerated due date (28-3-118(1)). Credit cards: in Unifund v. Lowe 'Both parties agreed that the statute of limitations began to run on each account on the date of the last payment' (agreed, not decided); Justice Jones's concurrence notes the card agreement's default clause (missed minimum payment) may fix an earlier accrual date, an issue left open. Judgments: 11 years from entry, or from an order renewing judgment, which 'begins anew the time limitation for an action upon a judgment set forth in section 5-215' (10-1111(1)).
“but any payment of principal or interest is equivalent to a new promise in writing, duly signed, to pay the residue of the debt.”
“No acknowledgment or promise is sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract by which 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”
'When a cause of action has arisen in another state or territory, or in a foreign country, and by the laws thereof an action thereon can not there be maintained against a person by reason of the lapse of time, an action thereon shall not be maintained against him in this state, except in favor of one who has been a citizen of this state and who has held the cause of action from the time it accrued.' One-way: bars claims already dead where they arose; does not lengthen Idaho's own period. 5-229 tolls for the defendant's absence from the state.
The debt exists but cannot be sued on; a suit can be defended by raising the defense.
Both passes read the Idaho Collection Agency Act's prohibited-practices section (26-2229A) in full: it incorporates the federal FDCPA by reference (subsection (2)) and bars false or misleading statements or omissions of material fact (subsection (9)) but contains no state-specific time-barred-debt disclosure. No other Idaho statute requiring such a disclosure was found. Only federal Reg. F 12 CFR 1006.26(b) applies. Negative finding.
Montierth (read in full from the Idaho Supreme Court slip opinion) squarely holds a payment made after the period has run revives the claim: 'Idaho Code section 5-238 permits "any payment of principal or interest" to "take the case out of the operation" of the statute of limitations ... We have consistently held that such a payment need not be made prior to the initial lapse of the statute of limitations.' The court reaffirms that the statute 'acts upon the remedy, and not upon the debt. The running of the statute does not extinguish the debt' (McLeod, quoted with approval), so a barred debt is unenforceable, not extinguished. Qualifying payment must be 'distinct, unequivocal, and without qualification, such as to indicate the intent of the payor that it constitute a part payment of the debt in question' and recognize the whole debt as an existing liability (Brower, applied in Montierth). A written acknowledgment must be a new signed writing 'so distinct and unqualified that a promise to pay may be implied' (Drakos; Dorsey).
Where this page comes from.
Researched in two independent passes from primary sources (the statute, the administrative code and the regulator's own pages), then reconciled against the text where the passes disagreed. Verified 2026-09-20. Licensing is re-verified quarterly and limitation periods annually.
- legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22.pdf
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2222/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2223/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2223A/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2224/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2230/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2231/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2232/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2233/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2237/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2239/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2240/
- law.justia.com/codes/idaho/title-26/chapter-22/
- www.finance.idaho.gov/consumer-finance-bureau/collection-agencies/
- www.finance.idaho.gov/consumer-finance-bureau/collection-agencies/collection-agency-forms/
- www.finance.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Idaho-Collection-Agency-Act-Annual-Reporting-and-Bond-Calculation-Package-3.pdf
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-201/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-215/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-216/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-217/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-222/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-224/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-229/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-238/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title5/T5CH2/SECT5-239/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title28/T28CH3/SECT28-3-118/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title10/T10CH11/SECT10-1110/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title10/T10CH11/SECT10-1111/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2229A/
- legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title48/T48CH3/SECT48-303/
- law.justia.com/cases/idaho/supreme-court-civil/2016/42876.html
- www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3176879/unifund-ccr-llc-v-lorene-k-lowe/
- storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2016/02/11/unifund_ccr_llc_v._lorene_k._lowe.pdf
- www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10732849/drakos-v-sandow/
- storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2020/07/21/drakos_v._sandow.pdf
- www.courtlistener.com/opinion/874152/collection-bureau-inc-v-dorsey/
- storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2011/03/21/collection_bureau_inc._v._john_m._dorsey.pdf
- www.courtlistener.com/opinion/9447657/montierth-v-dorssers/
- storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2023/11/29/montierth_v._dorssers.pdf
Resolvah enforces the Idaho rules at the point of contact.
Licensing by state, time-barred rules, call frequency and consent, checked before anything sends. See it on your own portfolio.
