Statute of Limitations on Debt by State

The statute of limitations on debt is a state-law deadline that limits how long a creditor or debt collector can file a lawsuit to collect an unpaid obligation. In most states the deadline falls between three and six years, though some states allow ten years or longer depending on the type of debt.

Once the deadline passes, the debt becomes time-barred and the creditor loses the right to sue. The debt itself does not disappear—collectors can still call and send letters, but they cannot obtain a court judgment. A creditor who files suit before the deadline expires and wins, however, converts that time-limited debt into a judgment that can last twenty years or more, renewable in many states.

How the Statute of Limitations on Debt Works

Every state sets its own deadline for debt-collection lawsuits, and the deadline depends on the type of debt involved. A credit card balance, a signed loan agreement, and a verbal promise to repay money may each carry a different limitations period in the same state.

The clock typically starts when the debtor misses a payment and the account becomes delinquent. If the debtor never misses a payment, the statute of limitations never begins to run. In some states the clock starts from the date of the last payment rather than the date of the first missed payment, which can produce different results when a debtor makes partial payments over time.

The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense. Courts do not check the deadline on their own. A person who is sued on an expired debt must raise the defense in a written response to the lawsuit. Failing to respond allows the court to enter a default judgment for the full amount, and the expired debt then converts into an enforceable judgment as if the limitations period had never run.

Statute of Limitations on Debt by State

Most states impose deadlines between three and six years for open-ended accounts like credit cards, with written contracts and promissory notes sometimes carrying longer periods. The following table shows the limitations periods for the four standard categories of debt in all fifty states and Washington, D.C.

State	Written Contracts	Oral Contracts	Promissory Notes	Open-Ended Accounts
Alabama	6	6	6	3
Alaska	6	6	3	3
Arizona	6	3	6	6
Arkansas	5	3	5	5
California	4	2	4	4
Colorado	6	6	6	6
Connecticut	6	3	6	6
Delaware	3	3	3	4
District of Columbia	3	3	3	3
Florida	5	4	5	5
Georgia	6	4	6	6
Hawaii	6	6	6	6
Idaho	5	4	5	4
Illinois	10	5	10	5
Indiana	10	5	10	6
Iowa	10	5	10	5
Kansas	5	3	5	3
Kentucky	10	5	15	10
Louisiana	10	10	10	3
Maine	6	6	20	6
Maryland	3	3	6	3
Massachusetts	6	6	6	6
Michigan	6	6	6	6
Minnesota	6	6	6	6
Mississippi	3	3	3	3
Missouri	10	5	10	5
Montana	8	5	8	5
Nebraska	5	4	5	4
Nevada	6	4	3	4
New Hampshire	3	3	6	3
New Jersey	6	6	6	6
New Mexico	6	4	6	4
New York	3	3	3	3
North Carolina	3	3	5	3
North Dakota	6	6	6	6
Ohio	6	4	8	6
Oklahoma	5	3	6	3
Oregon	6	6	6	6
Pennsylvania	4	4	4	4
Rhode Island	4	10	10	10
South Carolina	3	3	3	3
South Dakota	6	6	6	6
Tennessee	6	6	6	6
Texas	4	4	4	4
Utah	6	4	6	4
Vermont	6	6	14	6
Virginia	5	3	6	3
Washington	6	3	6	6
West Virginia	10	5	6	5
Wisconsin	6	6	10	6
Wyoming	10	8	10	8

Ten states impose a three-year deadline on open-ended accounts: Alabama, the District of Columbia, Kansas, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Virginia. Creditors holding credit card debt in these states have limited time to act before the right to sue expires.

Types of Debt and Why the Category Matters

State statutes assign different limitations periods to different categories of debt, and the category a particular debt falls into is not always obvious. A credit card agreement, for example, is treated as a written contract in some states and as an open-ended account in others. The distinction can mean the difference between a three-year and a ten-year deadline.

Written contracts are signed agreements between a lender and a borrower that specify the loan amount, interest rate, and repayment terms. Personal loans, auto loans, and mortgage notes typically fall into this category. Most states give creditors five to six years to sue on a written contract.

Oral contracts are verbal agreements to repay money. They are legally binding but difficult to prove. Because of the evidentiary problems, most states impose shorter deadlines, often three to five years.

Promissory notes are written promises to repay a specific sum on a defined schedule at a stated interest rate. Mortgage loans and student loans are common examples. Some states allow unusually long periods for promissory notes: Maine allows twenty years and Kentucky allows fifteen.

Open-ended accounts are revolving credit arrangements where the borrower can draw, repay, and draw again up to a limit. Credit cards and lines of credit are the most common examples. In many states these carry the shortest limitations period.

Credit card debt creates the most classification disputes. Illinois courts have treated credit card agreements as written contracts subject to a ten-year statute of limitations. Georgia appellate courts have applied the six-year written-contract period to credit card debt rather than the shorter oral-contract period. The same balance can carry a deadline twice as long depending on how the state characterizes the agreement.

When the Clock Starts and What Resets It

The limitations period begins running when the creditor’s right to sue arises, usually the date of the first missed payment. A borrower who stops paying a credit card balance in March 2023 under a four-year statute of limitations gives the creditor until March 2027 to file suit.

Several events can restart or extend the clock. The most common is making a partial payment on the debt. In many states, any payment—even a small one—resets the statute of limitations to its full length. A person who pays $25 on a time-barred credit card balance may inadvertently give the creditor another four to six years to file suit.

Acknowledging the debt in writing can have the same effect. Some states treat a written promise to pay, a signed payment plan, or even a letter confirming the balance as a fresh starting point. Verbal acknowledgment over the phone is enough to restart the clock in a smaller number of states.

Not every state allows the clock to restart. New York’s Consumer Credit Fairness Act, enacted in 2022, bars creditors from reviving expired consumer credit debts once the three-year period has run. Texas passed similar protections in 2019, eliminating partial payments as a trigger that restarts the limitations clock. A growing number of states have followed this pattern, treating revival as an unfair collection tactic.

Debt collectors know how these rules work and may structure their communications to prompt an acknowledgment or a small payment. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act bars collectors from suing or threatening to sue when a debt is time-barred, but collectors can still request payment in ways designed to restart the clock where state law allows revival.

Tolling the Statute of Limitations

Certain circumstances pause the clock rather than restarting it. If the debtor leaves the state, many states toll the statute of limitations while the debtor is absent. Someone who owes money under a six-year deadline and moves away for two years may find that only four years have elapsed when they return.

Bankruptcy also tolls the statute of limitations. The automatic stay that takes effect when a bankruptcy petition is filed prevents creditors from pursuing collection, and most states pause the limitations clock during the stay. If the debt is not discharged in the bankruptcy, the clock resumes where it stopped.

Active military service can toll the statute of limitations under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The tolling lasts while the servicemember is on active duty and, in some cases, continues briefly after discharge.

What to Do When Contacted About Old Debt

A collector’s call about a debt from years ago does not mean the collector can sue. The first step is to determine whether the statute of limitations has expired by identifying when the last payment was made and what deadline applies under the relevant state’s law.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act gives every person the right to request written verification of the debt within 30 days of the first contact. Requesting validation is not an acknowledgment of the debt and does not restart the statute of limitations in any state. The collector must stop collection efforts until it provides verification.

If the debt is time-barred, the collector cannot sue or threaten to sue. A lawsuit filed on a time-barred debt violates the FDCPA, and the person sued may have a claim for actual damages plus up to $1,000 in statutory damages. Even so, a court can still enter a default judgment if the person does not appear and raise the expired deadline as a defense. Responding to every lawsuit, including one that looks time-barred, is the only way to prevent a default judgment.

Three common mistakes restart the clock in states that allow revival: making any payment (even $5), signing a new payment agreement, or acknowledging the balance in writing. Before taking any of these actions on an old debt, check whether the state’s law permits revival and whether the statute of limitations has already expired.

Statute of Limitations vs. Credit Reporting

The statute of limitations on debt and the credit reporting timeline are separate clocks that run independently. The Fair Credit Reporting Act limits how long a negative entry—a missed payment, a charged-off account, a collection—can remain on a credit report. For most debts, that period is seven years from the date of the first delinquency.

A debt can be past the statute of limitations but still appear on a credit report. A credit card that went delinquent four years ago under a three-year statute of limitations is already time-barred, but the negative entry can remain on the credit report for three more years.

The reverse is also possible. A debt can drop off a credit report after seven years while the statute of limitations is still running. Kentucky’s ten-year period for open-ended accounts extends three years beyond the credit reporting window.

Making a payment on an old debt can restart the statute of limitations in states that allow revival, but it does not restart the credit reporting clock. The seven-year reporting period is measured from the original delinquency date and cannot be extended by subsequent payments or acknowledgments.

What Happens After a Creditor Obtains a Judgment

The statute of limitations on a debt is relevant only until the creditor files suit and obtains a judgment. Once a court enters a judgment, the original debt is replaced by a court order with its own enforcement period, which is typically much longer.

Judgment enforcement periods range from five years in some states to twenty years or more in others. In Florida, a judgment entered by a court of record lasts twenty years. In many states, judgments can be renewed before they expire, making them effectively perpetual. A creditor who obtains a judgment in year four of a five-year statute of limitations gains enforcement power that can last decades.

A judgment also opens collection tools that are unavailable to an unsecured creditor. The judgment creditor can garnish wages, levy bank accounts, and record liens against real property. These remedies persist for the life of the judgment and its renewals.

This conversion is why the statute of limitations matters most to people with assets worth protecting. A person who ignores a lawsuit because the debt seems small or old can end up with a judgment that threatens their property for twenty years. Answering every complaint, whether the debt appears time-barred or not, is the only way to prevent that outcome. Asset protection planning addresses the risk that a judgment will reach property that exemptions and entity structures do not cover.

Federal Debts with No Statute of Limitations

Federal student loans have no statute of limitations. The federal government can pursue collection indefinitely through administrative wage garnishment, Treasury offset of tax refunds, and Social Security benefit withholding. These collection tools do not require a court judgment.

Federal tax debts carry a ten-year collection period under 26 U.S.C. § 6502, measured from the date of assessment. The IRS can extend this period through installment agreements that toll the clock.

Child support obligations are also exempt from standard statutes of limitations in most states. Unpaid child support typically accrues as a judgment by operation of law, and states generally do not limit the time to collect arrearages.

Which State’s Law Applies

Credit card agreements and loan contracts often include a choice-of-law clause specifying which state’s laws govern disputes. A person living in New York, where open-ended accounts carry a three-year deadline, may be bound by a six-year period if the card agreement specifies Colorado law.

Some states have enacted borrowing statutes that apply the shorter of the two potentially applicable limitations periods. If the creditor’s home state allows six years and the debtor’s home state allows three, a borrowing statute would apply the three-year deadline.

Courts generally look at the choice-of-law clause first. If the contract is silent, most courts apply the law of the state most closely connected to the transaction, often the state where the debtor lives and where the debt was incurred.

For asset protection purposes, the choice-of-law question determines how much time a creditor has to convert an unsecured claim into a judgment. A shorter limitations period reduces the window of exposure; a longer one extends it.