What Is the Statute of Limitations on Debt in Louisiana?

In Louisiana, the statute of limitations on debt — called “liberative prescription” in state law — gives creditors three years to sue on credit card and open-account debt, five years on promissory notes, and ten years on most other written or oral contracts.¹ Once the applicable period runs out, a creditor can no longer win a lawsuit against you on that debt. But the deadline is not self-enforcing: if you’re sued, you have to raise prescription yourself in a written answer, and you have only 21 days to do it.

How Long Creditors Have to Sue, by Debt Type

The clock on each of these periods runs from the date the debt became due or the date of breach — not from when the account was opened or the contract signed.

Credit Cards and Open Accounts: Three Years

Credit cards, retail charge accounts, and other revolving lines of credit fall under the three-year prescriptive period in Civil Code Article 3494.² The same three-year window applies to actions to recover compensation for services rendered. This is the shortest and most commonly litigated period, because credit card accounts bought by debt buyers are the bulk of consumer collection suits. If no payment has been made and no acknowledgment given for more than three years, a lawsuit on that account is vulnerable to a prescription defense.

Promissory Notes: Five Years

Actions on promissory notes and other instruments, negotiable or not, prescribe in five years under Civil Code Article 3498.³ The period starts the day the payment becomes “exigible,” meaning the day it was actually due. On a note with monthly installments, each missed payment carries its own five-year clock. A creditor can be time-barred on older missed payments while remaining within the window on newer ones.

Written and Oral Contracts: Ten Years

Most other contract-based debts fall under the general ten-year prescriptive period for personal actions in Civil Code Article 3499.¹ This is the default when no shorter period applies. It covers both written and oral agreements. A handshake deal and a signed loan agreement carry the same ten-year window — a point that surprises people who assume verbal contracts expire faster.

What Can Restart or Pause the Clock

Prescription is not a quiet countdown. Louisiana law allows the period to be interrupted (reset to zero) or suspended (paused) in certain circumstances, and the interruption rule is where consumers most often undo their own defense.

Acknowledgment Resets Everything

Civil Code Article 3464 provides that prescription is interrupted when the debtor acknowledges the creditor’s right.⁴ “Interrupted” means the full prescriptive period starts over from the moment of acknowledgment. The statute does not list every act that qualifies, but Louisiana courts have treated a partial payment on an old debt, or a signed written statement recognizing the obligation, as enough. Even a token payment on a credit card balance you believed was expired can restart the three-year clock. That is why collectors on old accounts sometimes press hard for any payment at all, even a few dollars.

If a collector contacts you about an old account and you are not certain whether the period has run, the safe move is to make no payment and offer no admission until you have confirmed the timeline.

Suspension

Separately, Civil Code Article 3472 recognizes suspension, which pauses the clock without erasing the time already elapsed; once the grounds for suspension end, the count resumes where it stopped.⁵ The grounds for suspension sit in other articles of the Civil Code and can include certain situations of legal incapacity. Suspension is less common than interruption in consumer debt matters, but it can push the effective deadline past what you would get by counting years from the last payment.

If You’re Sued on an Old Debt

A Louisiana court will not check the prescriptive period on its own. Prescription is an affirmative defense, which means the burden is on you to raise it, in writing, on time.

The 21-Day Answer Deadline

Under Code of Civil Procedure Article 1001, a defendant must file an answer within 21 days after being served.⁶ If the plaintiff served discovery requests along with the petition, that period becomes 30 days. Miss it, and the creditor can ask for a default judgment, which means the creditor wins without you ever presenting a defense.

Raising Prescription in Writing

Your written answer should state specifically that the debt is prescribed and cite the applicable Civil Code article: 3494 for an open account or credit card, 3498 for a note, 3499 for a general contract. If you do not raise prescription in your answer, the court treats the debt as fully enforceable. This is the single most important step after being served, and the one most often skipped — either because the defendant ignores the suit entirely or assumes the judge will notice the age of the debt.

What a Collector Can Still Do After Prescription Runs

Prescription bars the lawsuit, not the phone call. A collector can still contact you about a prescribed debt. What federal law forbids is suing or threatening to sue on it. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, as clarified by the CFPB’s Regulation F, prohibits debt collectors from suing or threatening suit on time-barred debt.⁷ The ban covers explicit threats and any statement designed to leave you believing the debt is legally enforceable when it isn’t. Violations can bring statutory damages and attorney’s fees.

You also have a right to make the collector prove the debt. When a collector first contacts you, federal law requires a validation notice listing the amount owed, the current and original creditor, an itemization, and an explanation of your dispute rights.⁸ You have 30 days from receipt to dispute in writing. A timely dispute forces the collector to stop collection activity until it sends verification. On an old account, that pause buys time to confirm whether the prescriptive period has run.

Credit Reporting Runs on a Different Clock

Prescription does not pull a debt off your credit report. Credit reporting follows a separate federal timeline. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a delinquent account can remain on your report for seven years from the date of the initial delinquency that led to the collection or charge-off.⁹ That seven-year figure has nothing to do with Louisiana’s three, five, or ten years. A credit card debt can be fully prescribed in Louisiana after three years and still sit on your credit report for four more. The reverse happens too: a contract debt may drop off your report after seven years while remaining legally suable for another three.

Quick Reference: Louisiana Prescriptive Periods on Debt

Credit cards and open accounts: 3 years (Civil Code Article 3494)
Promissory notes and other instruments: 5 years from the date payment was due (Civil Code Article 3498)
Written contracts: 10 years (Civil Code Article 3499)
Oral contracts: 10 years (Civil Code Article 3499)

Each period runs from the date the obligation became due or the date of breach, not the date the contract was signed, and any of them can be reset to zero by an acknowledgment of the debt.⁴

1
Justia. Louisiana Civil Code Article 3499 – Personal Action
2
Justia. Louisiana Civil Code Article 3494 – Actions Subject to a Three-Year Prescription
3
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Article 3498 – Actions on Negotiable and Nonnegotiable Instruments
4
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Article 3464 – Interruption by Acknowledgment
5
Justia. Louisiana Civil Code Article 3472 – Effect of Suspension
6
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 1001 – Delay for Answering
7
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (Regulation F); Time-Barred Debt
8
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation F 1006.34 – Notice for Validation of Debts
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports