The Statute of Limitations on Debt (by State)

Every US state limits how long a creditor or debt collector has to sue someone over unpaid debt. That limit is the statute of limitations, and once it passes, the debt is “time-barred” — still owed, in a technical sense, but no longer enforceable through a court. Get the timeline wrong, though, and you can hand a collector a fresh several-year window without meaning to. This guide sets out what the statute of limitations actually covers, when the clock starts, how it gets accidentally restarted, and the current limit in every state.

What the statute of limitations does — and doesn’t — cover

The statute of limitations on debt is strictly about lawsuits. If it has expired, a creditor who sues you has handed you a full legal defense: you can ask the court to dismiss the case purely because the filing came too late, without ever arguing about whether you actually owe the money.

What it does not do is erase the debt or stop collection activity. A collector can still call, still send letters, and still sell the account to another agency for pennies on the dollar, all after the statute has run. It also has nothing to do with how long a debt can appear on your credit report — that’s a separate rule, generally seven years from the date of your first missed payment, set by the Fair Credit Reporting Act rather than state law. A debt can be time-barred for a lawsuit and still be sitting on your credit report, or vice versa. Our guide on how long negative marks stay on your credit report covers that clock separately, and it’s worth reading both if you’re trying to work out where an old account actually stands.

When does the clock start?

The statute of limitations typically starts running from the date of your last payment or last activity on the account — not from when the account was opened, and not necessarily from when it was charged off or sold. Most states call this the “date of default.” Two accounts with an identical original balance can have very different countdowns if one person kept making payments for years longer than the other.

This is also why the debt you’re being pursued over might be older than the account history a collector shows you. If the account was sold multiple times, ask for documentation of the original default date — collection agencies do not always volunteer it, and getting the date wrong (in either direction) changes whether the statute has actually run.

The trap: reviving a debt you thought was dying

This is the single most important thing to know before dealing with old debt. In most states, doing any of the following can restart the statute of limitations from zero, even on debt that’s nearly — or already — time-barred:

• Making a payment, even a small, symbolic one.
• Acknowledging the debt in writing — including some settlement offers and payment-plan agreements.
• In some states, even a verbal acknowledgment during a collection call can count, depending on how the state’s courts have interpreted the rule.

Collectors know this. A common (and legal, if ethically grey) tactic is to offer to “settle for less” on debt that’s already close to time-barred, specifically because accepting revives the full limitations period and makes the account suable again. Before you pay anything, make a promise to pay, or sign anything related to an old debt, work out where that debt sits on the statute-of-limitations clock in your state. If it’s close to expiring, a partial payment can be the worst possible move.

A small number of states have pushed back on this. New York’s Consumer Credit Fairness Act, in force since April 2022, cut the state’s consumer-debt statute of limitations from six years to three — and specifically bars a payment from reviving a debt once that three-year window has closed. Most states haven’t gone that far, so don’t assume your state works the way New York’s does.

Being sued on debt you think is too old

Being served with a lawsuit doesn’t mean the collector has checked the statute of limitations, and it doesn’t mean they’re right if they have. Time-barred lawsuits still get filed — sometimes because the debt buyer’s records are wrong, sometimes because they’re betting you won’t show up to contest it. If you’re served, the statute of limitations is something you have to raise yourself, as what’s called an affirmative defense, in your written answer to the court — a judge won’t apply it automatically on your behalf. Our guide on what to do if you’re sued by a debt collector covers the answer deadline and how to raise this and other defenses properly; missing the deadline to respond risks a default judgment regardless of how old the debt is.

The 50-state table

Two categories matter most for everyday consumer debt: written contracts (a signed loan agreement or, in many states, a credit-card agreement) and open-ended accounts (revolving credit, which is how some states specifically classify credit cards). Which category a court applies to a given credit-card debt is not always settled — in a few states below, both the written-contract and open-account periods appear in real cases, and we’ve flagged those.

State	Written contract	Open account / credit card
Alabama	6 years	3 years
Alaska	3 years	3 years
Arizona	6 years	6 years
Arkansas	5 years	3 years
California	4 years	4 years
Colorado	6 years	6 years
Connecticut	6 years	6 years
Delaware	3 years	3 years
District of Columbia	3 years	3 years
Florida	5 years*	4 years*
Georgia	6 years	4 years†
Hawaii	6 years	6 years
Idaho	5 years	4 years
Illinois	10 years	5 years
Indiana	10 years	6 years
Iowa	10 years	5 years
Kansas	5 years	3 years
Kentucky	10 years	5 years
Louisiana	10 years	3 years
Maine	6 years	6 years
Maryland	3 years	3 years
Massachusetts	6 years	6 years
Michigan	6 years	6 years
Minnesota	6 years	6 years
Mississippi	3 years	3 years
Missouri	10 years	5 years
Montana	8 years	5 years
Nebraska	5 years	4 years
Nevada	6 years	4 years
New Hampshire	3 years	3 years
New Jersey	6 years	6 years
New Mexico	6 years	4 years
New York	3 years‡	3 years‡
North Carolina	3 years	3 years
North Dakota	6 years	6 years
Ohio	6 years§	6 years
Oklahoma	5 years	3 years
Oregon	6 years	6 years
Pennsylvania	4 years	4 years
Rhode Island	10 years	10 years
South Carolina	3 years	3 years
South Dakota	6 years	6 years
Tennessee	6 years	6 years
Texas	4 years	4 years
Utah	6 years	4 years
Vermont	6 years	6 years
Virginia	5 years	3 years
Washington	6 years	6 years
West Virginia	10 years	5 years
Wisconsin	6 years	6 years
Wyoming	10 years	8 years

* Florida — courts are genuinely split on whether card debt is a 5-year written contract or a 4-year open account; both outcomes show up in practice depending on whether a signed cardmember agreement is in evidence. † Georgia — credit-card debt is usually pursued as a 4-year open account, but creditors sometimes argue the 6-year written-contract period applies instead. ‡ New York — cut from 6 years to 3 years by the Consumer Credit Fairness Act (effective April 2022), which also stopped payments from reviving time-barred debt. Older sources may still show New York’s pre-2022 6-year figure. § Ohio — cut from 8 years to 6 years for written contracts by Senate Bill 13 (effective June 2021). Debt that defaulted before that date can still fall under the older 8-year period through a transition rule running to 2027.

Laws change and courts interpret these categories differently — verify your state’s current statute, and how your specific type of debt is classified, before relying on this table. Last reviewed: July 2026.

This is general information, not legal advice. Statute-of-limitations rules involve state-specific exceptions — tolling for absence from the state, different treatment for medical debt or judgments, and local court interpretation — that a table like this can’t capture. If real money is at stake, confirm the current rule with your state’s court self-help resources or a consumer-debt attorney before you act on it.