Is There a Statute of Limitations on Debt in Texas?

In Texas, creditors have four years to sue you on most consumer debts, including credit card balances, medical bills, and personal loans. That four-year window is the statute of limitations on debt in Texas, set by Section 16.004 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code.¹ Once it closes, the debt is “time-barred”: you technically still owe the money, and collectors can still call, but a lawsuit is off the table. A few kinds of debt run on different clocks, and the defense only works if you raise it, so the details matter.

The Four-Year Rule and When the Clock Starts

Section 16.004 gives creditors four years to file a lawsuit to collect a debt.¹ The category covers breach-of-contract claims, which is the legal bucket most consumer debt lawsuits fall into, along with open accounts, stated accounts, and fraud-based claims.

The clock starts on the date the “cause of action accrues,” which for most consumer debts is the date of the first missed payment that put the account in default.² Some contracts define the default date more specifically, and the original agreement controls when there’s a conflict. If your last credit card payment was March 10, 2022 and the next payment was due April 10, 2022, the four-year window likely runs from April 10, 2022. Old bank statements and account records are the most reliable way to pin down the date, especially if the debt has been sold between collectors.

The deadline is rigid. If a creditor files even one day late, the debt is time-barred. The clock stops on the date the lawsuit is filed with the court, not the date you’re served, so a suit filed on the last day of the window still counts.

Which Debts Follow Four Years, and Which Don’t

The four-year period covers most common consumer debts tied to a written contract:

Credit card debt, governed by the card agreement.
Medical bills where you signed a payment agreement or financial responsibility form.
Personal loans with standard written terms.
Auto loans, though repossession of the vehicle is a separate remedy from suing on the debt itself.
Debts based on an oral agreement.

Promissory Notes Get Six Years

If you signed a promissory note, a formal written promise to pay a specific amount by a specific date, the limitation period is six years from the due date rather than four. This comes from the Texas Business and Commerce Code, which handles negotiable instruments separately from general contract claims. If the lender accelerated the balance and demanded the full amount early, the six years run from the accelerated due date. For demand notes on which no payment demand is made, the period stretches to ten years without any principal or interest payment.

The distinction trips people up. A personal loan structured as a promissory note has a longer collection window than the same amount owed under an ordinary loan agreement. Check the original paperwork; if it’s titled “Promissory Note,” expect the six-year rule.

Debts With No Time Limit

Federal student loans carry no statute of limitations. The federal government can pursue collection indefinitely, including through wage garnishment and tax refund offsets, no matter how old the debt.³ Private student loans, by contrast, fall under Texas’s general limitation periods because they’re governed by private contracts. State and federal tax debts, court-ordered child support, and spousal maintenance also operate outside the standard four-year rule and follow their own timelines.

Why Paying on Old Debt Is Risky

Under Section 16.065 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a written and signed acknowledgment of a debt that appears to be time-barred can be used as evidence to defeat the limitations defense.⁴ A verbal acknowledgment or a partial payment alone isn’t enough under that provision.

Texas went further in 2019 by adding Section 392.307 to the Texas Finance Code, aimed specifically at debt collectors pursuing consumer debts and at preventing the revival of “zombie debt”: old debts that collectors try to bring back to life by getting the debtor to make a small payment or sign an acknowledgment.⁵²

If a collector contacts you about a very old debt, be careful about what you say and especially what you sign. Even a well-intentioned partial payment or written promise to pay could create complications. Figure out when the limitation period actually expired before responding.

What “Time-Barred” Actually Means

Time-barred does not mean gone. You still technically owe the money, and the debt may still appear on your credit report. What changes is enforcement power: the creditor can no longer sue, which means no court judgment, no garnishment attempts, and no legal process to seize property.

Debt collectors can still contact you about time-barred debt. Phone calls and letters remain legal. What they cannot do is sue you or threaten to sue you. Federal Regulation F, which implements the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, prohibits a debt collector from suing or threatening suit on a time-barred debt, and it’s a strict liability standard: the collector violates the law even without knowing the debt was time-barred.⁶⁷

You Have to Raise the Defense Yourself

Here’s where people get hurt. If a creditor files suit on time-barred debt and you don’t respond, the court can enter a default judgment against you. The judge won’t check the calendar for you. Under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 94, the statute of limitations is an “affirmative defense,” which means you must raise it in your written answer to the lawsuit. Ignore the suit, or answer without mentioning the defense, and you lose it, even though the debt was legally too old to sue on.

An expired limitation period is a shield, not an automatic force field. You have to pick it up and use it.

If You’re Sued on Old Debt

Getting served on a debt you thought was long dead is jarring. Ignoring it is the worst move. What matters:

Check the timeline. Work out when you last paid or when the default occurred. Bank statements, old account records, and the creditor’s complaint can help establish the date. If more than four years have passed (or six for a promissory note), the debt is likely time-barred.
File a written answer with the court before the deadline in your citation, typically by 10:00 a.m. on the first Monday after 20 days from the date you were served. State explicitly that you are raising the statute of limitations as an affirmative defense. Miss this deadline and the court can grant a default judgment regardless of the debt’s age.
Don’t admit you owe the money. You can deny the allegations without acknowledging the debt.
Consider getting help. A consumer law attorney can evaluate whether the defense applies and handle the response. Many offer free consultations, and some take FDCPA cases on contingency if the collector sued on time-barred debt.

If a collector sued or threatened to sue on time-barred debt, you may have a separate FDCPA claim against them.⁷

What Creditors Can Actually Collect in Texas

Even when a debt is not time-barred and a creditor wins in court, Texas sharply limits what they can collect. These rules apply to all consumer debts, and they’re among the strongest debtor protections in the country.

Wages Are Almost Always Off Limits

The Texas Constitution directly bars garnishment of current wages for consumer debts. Article XVI, Section 28 says no current wages for personal service can be garnished except for court-ordered child support or spousal maintenance.⁸ A credit card company, hospital, or auto lender that wins a judgment still cannot take money from your paycheck. The narrow exceptions beyond family support are certain federal debts, such as IRS income tax debts and defaulted federal student loans.

Your Home and Certain Property Are Protected

Texas has one of the broadest homestead exemptions in the country. Article XVI, Section 50 of the Texas Constitution protects your homestead from forced sale for most debts, with limited exceptions for purchase-money mortgages, property taxes, home equity loans, and certain mechanic’s liens.⁹ A judgment creditor on an old credit card debt cannot force the sale of your home.

Beyond the homestead, Texas Property Code Chapter 42 shields categories of personal property from seizure, including certain vehicles, home furnishings, tools of the trade, and retirement accounts.⁹ If a creditor tries to seize exempt property after obtaining a judgment, you can challenge the seizure and recover the property.

Credit Reporting Runs on a Separate Clock

The lawsuit deadline and the credit reporting deadline get confused constantly. Texas’s four-year limit controls when you can be sued. The Fair Credit Reporting Act controls how long a delinquent account can appear on your credit report, and that limit is seven years. The seven-year credit reporting clock starts 180 days after the delinquency that led to the charge-off or collections placement.¹⁰

The two clocks start at roughly similar points but run for different lengths. A debt can be time-barred in Texas while still sitting on your credit report for up to three more years. Neither clock affects the other. Paying or not paying doesn’t change when it drops off the report, and a credit report entry doesn’t extend the deadline to sue.

Once a Creditor Has a Judgment, the Rules Change

If a creditor sued within the four-year window and won, the four-year rule stops being relevant. Under Section 34.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, the judgment creditor has ten years from the date the judgment was signed to enforce it through a writ of execution: the legal mechanism for seizing non-exempt assets or placing liens on property.¹¹

After ten years with no enforcement, the judgment goes dormant. A dormant judgment can’t be enforced unless the creditor revives it through a court motion, and revival effectively resets the ten-year enforcement window. Child support judgments are exempt from the dormancy rules entirely.¹¹

This is why responding to a lawsuit before a judgment is entered matters so much. Once the judgment lands, you’re dealing with a decade of enforcement power, plus the possibility of revival, and the age of the underlying debt no longer helps you.

1
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.004 – Four-Year Limitations Period
2
Texas State Law Library. What Is the Statute of Limitations on Debt
3
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can Debt Collectors Collect a Debt Thats Several Years Old
4
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.065 – Acknowledgment of Claim
5
Texas State Law Library. Guides – Debt Collection – Time-Barred Debts
6
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 1006.26 Collection of Time-Barred Debts
7
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Advisory Opinion Reg F Time-Barred Debt
8
FindLaw. Constitution of the State of Texas 1876 Art 16 28 – Garnishment of Wages
9
Texas State Law Library. Exempt Property – Small Claims Cases
10
Federal Trade Commission. Fair Credit Reporting Act
11
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 34.001 – No Execution on Dormant Judgment