The statute of limitations on debt in Indiana is six years for most consumer obligations, including credit card balances, medical bills with written payment terms, personal loans, and oral agreements. Some debts run on shorter or longer clocks, and the deadline can pause or restart under specific circumstances. Once the window closes, you have a strong defense against any collection lawsuit, but only if you raise it correctly.
How Long Creditors Have to Sue, by Debt Type
Indiana law sorts debts into categories with different filing deadlines. The category that covers most consumer situations is written contracts for the payment of money.
Written Contracts for the Payment of Money
Credit card agreements, medical bills with signed payment terms, and personal loan contracts fall under a six-year statute of limitations. This applies to any written contract for money executed after August 31, 1982.1Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-2-9 Nearly every current consumer debt fits here.
Oral Agreements
Verbal promises to pay, with no written contract, also carry a six-year deadline. Indiana Code 34-11-2-7 groups unwritten contracts and accounts together under this same window.2Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-2-7 – Six Year Limitation
Promissory Notes
Promissory notes are governed by Indiana’s version of the UCC. A creditor must sue within six years after the due date stated in the note. If the note is payable on demand and no demand has been made, the claim is barred after ten continuous years with no payment of principal or interest.3Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 26-1-3.1-118 – Statute of Limitations If the lender accelerates the loan and calls the full balance due early, the six years run from the acceleration date.
Sale of Goods
Contracts for the sale of goods carry a four-year statute of limitations, the shortest window for a common debt. The clock starts when the breach occurs, not when you discover it, unless a warranty specifically covers future performance.4Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 26-1-2-725 – Statute of Limitations in Contracts for Sale The parties can agree in the original contract to shorten this to as little as one year, but they cannot extend it past four.
Mortgages
A lender has ten years after the last installment becomes due to file a foreclosure action. Once that window closes, the mortgage itself expires as a matter of law.5Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 32-28-4-1 – Limitation of Actions Because the “last installment due” date can be decades after the loan originates, active mortgages effectively have a very long enforcement window.
Other Written Contracts
Written contracts not primarily about paying money, such as service agreements or real estate performance disputes, run on a ten-year clock.6Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-2-11 – Written Contract Actions If you owe money on a normal consumer account, this category likely does not apply to you.
When the Clock Starts, and What Can Restart It
For most debts, the statute of limitations begins running on the date of your first missed payment that you never cured. For promissory notes with a stated due date, the clock starts on that date. For sale-of-goods contracts, it starts at the breach.4Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 26-1-2-725 – Statute of Limitations in Contracts for Sale
The bigger risk is resetting the clock. In Indiana, a partial payment or a written acknowledgment of the debt can restart the limitations period from that date. This is where people give up their strongest defense without realizing it. A collector calls about a five-year-old credit card balance, you send $25 as a gesture, and the creditor now has a fresh six-year window to sue. If you are contacted about an old debt and think the deadline may have passed, be cautious about any payment or written statement acknowledging what you owe.
What Happens Once the Deadline Passes
After the statute of limitations expires, the debt is “time-barred.” The creditor can no longer file a valid lawsuit to collect it. The underlying debt does not vanish, so technically you still owe the money, but the legal mechanism for forcing you to pay is gone.
Collectors can still contact you about a time-barred debt. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has confirmed that collectors may send letters and make phone calls attempting collection, as long as they follow the law.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can Debt Collectors Collect a Debt That’s Several Years Old What they cannot do is sue or threaten to sue. Filing or threatening a lawsuit on a time-barred debt violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.8Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (Regulation F) – Time-Barred Debt A collector who crosses that line can be sued for actual damages, additional damages up to $1,000, and your attorney fees and court costs.9Federal Trade Commission. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Text
You can choose to pay a time-barred debt voluntarily if you want to. Nothing in the law prevents it. Just understand the trade-off: a partial payment can restart the Indiana limitations period, reopening the door to a lawsuit for the full remaining balance.
Credit Reports Run on a Different Clock
A debt falling off your credit report does not mean the statute of limitations has expired, and vice versa. These are separate timelines under separate laws.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a delinquent or collection account can appear on your credit report for seven years, starting 180 days after the delinquency that led to charge-off or collection placement.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports Because Indiana’s window is six years for most debts, a creditor can lose the right to sue you a full year before the account disappears from your report. And a debt removed after seven years is not automatically time-barred if the limitations period was paused or restarted.
You Have to Raise the Defense in Court
An expired statute of limitations does not protect you automatically. If a creditor files suit on a time-barred debt and you ignore the case, the court can enter a default judgment against you. The judge will not check the dates on your behalf.
Indiana Trial Rule 8(C) lists the statute of limitations as an affirmative defense you must raise in a responsive pleading.11Indiana Courts. Rule 8 – General Rules of Pleading In practice, that means filing a written answer to the lawsuit stating the claim is time-barred and citing the relevant dates. Fail to raise it in the answer and you may waive the defense entirely.
This is where most people get burned. A collection agency sues on a seven-year-old credit card debt knowing the six-year deadline has passed. The debtor, unaware or intimidated, does not respond. The court enters a default judgment, and now the creditor has a fresh enforcement tool. Responding to the lawsuit, even when the case looks obviously time-barred, is not optional.
Circumstances That Pause the Clock
Several situations can toll the statute of limitations, giving creditors more time than the standard deadlines suggest.
- Leaving Indiana. Time spent living outside the state does not count toward the limitations period. Move away for three years during a six-year window and the creditor effectively gets nine years. The exception is if you keep a registered agent for service of process in Indiana while you are gone.12Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-4-1 – Tolling of Time While Nonresident
- Legal disability. If you were a minor or legally incapacitated when the debt accrued, you have two years after the disability is removed for actions to be brought by or against you.13Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-6-1 – Legal Disabilities; Accrual of Action
- Active military service. Under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, time on active duty does not count toward any state statute of limitations, and this protection extends to the servicemember’s heirs and representatives.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 U.S. Code 3936 – Statute of Limitations
- Fraud. When a debtor conceals a debt or engages in fraud that prevents the creditor from discovering the obligation, Indiana courts may toll the deadline until the fraud is discovered or reasonably should have been.
You cannot just count backward from today and assume you are safe. Time outside Indiana, active-duty service, or a fraud allegation can push the effective deadline well past what the calendar seems to say.
If the Creditor Sued in Time and Won
Once a creditor files within the deadline and obtains a judgment, the analysis changes. Indiana treats a judgment as satisfied only after twenty years.15Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-2-12 – Satisfaction of Judgment After Expiration of 20 Years Throughout that period, the creditor can use wage garnishment, bank levies, and other enforcement tools. A judgment also creates a lien on real property you own in the county where it is entered and indexed, lasting ten years and pausing during any appeal, injunction, or agreement of the parties.16Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-55-9-2 – Liens Upon Real Estate and Chattels Real That is why raising the statute-of-limitations defense at the lawsuit stage matters so much: once a judgment is on the books, you are dealing with a very different clock.