How long do collection agencies stay bonded?
By Kai Greenspan, Founding Editor · Last checked: October 5, 2026
The distribution
| Continuous coverage | Companies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 25 or more years | 317 | 14.8% |
| 15 to 24 years | 604 | 28.2% |
| 5 to 14 years | 745 | 34.7% |
| 1 to 4 years | 357 | 16.7% |
| under 1 year | 121 | 5.6% |
Method
Source: both Texas systems, each for what it can answer. Who counts as bonded comes from the Secretary of State's live TPDC portal as of 2026-10-05, its bulk read completed by checking every other known filing one at a time (99.3% of the records the portal reports). Each company's history comes from every filing either system holds, 8,580 in all, including every filing made after the classic register stopped updating in August 2025 (tracked separately on the post-freeze page). The classic register alone cannot say who is bonded now: its status field has not moved since August 2025. Filings are grouped per company; coverage intervals are merged, overlapping or adjacent filings joining into one span; a gap breaks the span; the figure is the current unbroken span as of 2026-10-05. This is the identical rule behind the years shown on every published profile, so this page and a profile can never disagree. The New York counterpart, measured against the city license system's very different record rules, is at NYC license continuity.
What this does not measure: service quality, complaint history, or anything about companies outside Texas. A long bond history means continuous compliance with one state's bonding requirement, nothing more, and the register itself is the source for every underlying record.
Common questions
How long does the typical collection agency stay bonded in Texas?
As of 2026-10-05, the median company holding an active Texas debt collector bond has been continuously bonded for 13 years, measured across the 2,144 currently bonded companies in Debt Collection Index's read of the register (99.3% of the records the portal reports). 43% have held continuous coverage for 15 years or more.
What counts as continuous bond coverage?
Debt Collection Index merges each company’s filing intervals from the register record; overlapping or adjacent filings join into one span, and a gap breaks the span. The figure is the length of the current unbroken span, the same rule used on every published profile.
Citing this figure
Free to quote with attribution: "Debt Collection Index, Texas bond continuity distribution, version 2026-09-23.2, debtcollectionindex.com/data/bond-continuity/."