diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a53f35ad0..68e1fde42 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 ### Added
 
 - Added upstream Mutual TLS policy [THREESCALE-672](https://issues.jboss.org/browse/THREESCALE-672) [PR #1182](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1182)
-- Added Rate-limit headers policy [THREESCALE-3795](https://issues.jboss.org/browse/THREESCALE-3795) [PR #1166](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1166) [PR #1197](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1197)
+- Added Rate-limit headers policy [THREESCALE-3795](https://issues.jboss.org/browse/THREESCALE-3795) [PR #1166](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1166) [PR #1197](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1197) [PR #1209](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1209)
 - Added Content-caching policy [THREESCALE-2894](https://issues.jboss.org/browse/THREESCALE-2894) [PR #1182](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1182)
 - Added Nginx request_id variable to context [PR #1184](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1184)
 - Added HTTP verb on url_rewriten [PR #1187](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1187)  [THREESCALE-5259](https://issues.jboss.org/browse/THREESCALE-5259) [PR #1202](https://github.com/3scale/APIcast/pull/1202)
diff --git a/gateway/src/apicast/policy/rate_limit_headers/rate_limit_headers.lua b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/rate_limit_headers/rate_limit_headers.lua
index 637b56b3f..f71ef4834 100644
--- a/gateway/src/apicast/policy/rate_limit_headers/rate_limit_headers.lua
+++ b/gateway/src/apicast/policy/rate_limit_headers/rate_limit_headers.lua
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ local policy = require('apicast.policy')
 local _M = policy.new('Rate Limit Headers', 'builtin')
 
 local usage_cache = require "cache"
+local math_max = math.max
 
 local new = _M.new
 local get_phase = ngx.get_phase
@@ -55,9 +56,18 @@ local function decrement(self, usage)
     return self.cache:decrement_usage_metric(usage)
 end
 
+-- return 0 if the number is negative
+local function positive_number(number)
+  return math_max(tonumber(number), 0)
+end
+
 local function add_headers(info)
-    ngx.header[limit_header] = info.limit
-    ngx.header[remaining_header] = info.remaining
+    if info.reset <= 0 then
+      -- filter is not defined at all, so skip it
+      return nil
+    end
+    ngx.header[limit_header] = positive_number(info.limit)
+    ngx.header[remaining_header] = positive_number(info.remaining)
     ngx.header[reset_header] = info.reset
 end
 
diff --git a/t/apicast-policy-rate_limit_headers.t b/t/apicast-policy-rate_limit_headers.t
index 1a6f29d3f..82aa14a8f 100644
--- a/t/apicast-policy-rate_limit_headers.t
+++ b/t/apicast-policy-rate_limit_headers.t
@@ -346,3 +346,60 @@ location / {
 [200, 200]
 --- no_error_log
 [error]
+
+=== TEST 7: No rate-limit information if no limits by app
+--- configuration
+{
+  "services": [
+    {
+      "id": 42,
+      "backend_version":  1,
+      "backend_authentication_type": "service_token",
+      "backend_authentication_value": "token-value",
+      "proxy": {
+        "hosts": [
+          "localhost"
+        ],
+        "api_backend": "http://test:$TEST_NGINX_SERVER_PORT/",
+        "proxy_rules": [
+          { "pattern": "/", "http_method": "GET", "metric_system_name": "hits", "delta": 1 }
+        ],
+        "policy_chain": [
+          {
+            "name": "apicast.policy.rate_limit_headers"
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "apicast",
+            "version": "builtin",
+            "configuration": {}
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+}
+--- backend
+location /transactions/authrep.xml {
+  content_by_lua_block {
+    ngx.exit(200)
+  }
+}
+--- upstream env
+location / {
+  access_by_lua_block {
+      ngx.say("OK")
+  }
+}
+--- request
+GET /?user_key=123
+--- response_headers
+RateLimit-Limit:
+RateLimit-Remaining:
+RateLimit-Reset: 
+--- response_body env
+OK
+--- error_code: 200
+--- no_error_log
+[error]
+
+