Statute of Limitations for Credit Card Debt for All 50 States

Here are the statutes of limitations for ONLY credit card debt collections, NOT loans, personal loans, mortgages, etc. The "clock" begins running the last time there was "activity" on the account: depending on state, this could be a payment, or even an acknowledgement of the debt.

 

First let me clear up a common confusion: the Statute of Limitations is NOT how long it takes negative items to disappear from your credit report; that is seven years no matter where you live. What the Statute of Limitations is is how long a creditor can SUE you (and get wage garnishment, or access to your bank account, etc) for a debt. They can theoretically try to collect on the debt forever, but after a certain number of years they can no longer win a court judgement against you, and if they try, you can simply prove to the judge that the SOL has run out and it will be thrown out.  

For details, you'll have to check your state laws before writing anything to the collections agency. PLEASE DO THIS BEFORE DOING ANYTHING ELSE. A good source of credit attorneys that can provide you with such details can be found at http://www.naca.net/

Once you know the law for your state, then do this:

If you are still within the SOL for the debt collections, write a letter to the collections agency asking for all contact regarding this debt to be done by mail ONLY, and tell them they are obligated to do this under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA).

WARNING: DO NOT TELL THEM TO CEASE ALL COMMUNICATIONS BECAUSE THEY WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO SUE YOU!

You just want to get the annoying phone calls off your back and do everything via mail.

If you know for an absolute fact that the Statue of Limitations has passed on the credit card debt, then do the same as above but tell the collections agency to cease ALL communications with you and to cease collection attempts; again, cite the FDCPA. In most cases, that will be the end of it, but in rare instances an agency may still attempt to sue you. Don't panic! As long as you did your homework and you have paper-backed-up-proof the SOL has passed, then show up to court and tell the judge the SOL has passed, and it will be dropped on the spot.

So here are the Statutes for all 50 states for credit debt ONLY:

Alabama

3 years

Arkansas

3 years

Alaska

3 years

Arizona

3 years

California

4 years

Colorado

3 years

Connecticut

3 years

Delaware

4 years

District of Columbia

3 years

Florida

4 years

Georgia

6 years

Hawaii

6 years

Iowa

5 years

Idaho

4 years

Illinois

5 years

Indiana

6 years

Kansas

3 years

Kentucky

5 years

Louisiana

3 years

Maine

6 years

Maryland

3 years

Massachusetts

6 years

Michigan

6 years

Minnesota

6 years

Mississippi

3 years

Missouri

5 years

Montana

5 years

North Carolina

3 years

North Dakota

6 years

Nebraska

4 years

New Hampshire

3 years

New Jersey

3 years

New Mexico

4 years

Nevada

4 years

New York

6 years

Ohio

6 years

Oklahoma

3 years

Oregon

6 years

Pennsylvania

4 years

Rhode Island

4 years

South Carolina

3 years

South Dakota

6 years

Tennessee

3 years

Texas

4 years

Utah

4 years

Virginia

3 years

Vermont

3 years

Washington

3 years

Wisconsin

6 years

West Virginia

5 years

Wyoming

8 years


Use the above to decide if you can safely tell the collections agency to piss off or not. However, your credit score may still suffer if there are negative items on it, at least until they fall off after seven years. You may want to try debt settlement. If you're lucky, you can get a pay for delete. Also, you could try having a company (one of the few non-scam ones) repair your report for you while you concentrate on saving and paying new bills on time.