A collector calling about a debt you haven’t paid in years may have run out of time to sue you. That deadline is the statute of limitations, and in some states even a small payment or promise to pay restarts it. Pay nothing until you’ve checked your last payment date against your state’s deadline.
Say a collector calls about a store card you stopped paying in 2018, says you owe $1,800, and offers to settle for $200 today. In most states, zombie debt that old is past the deadline for a lawsuit.
Pay the $200 without a written settlement, though, and in some states you’ve revived the debt. The collector could then sue for the remaining $1,600 plus any interest and fees.
That expired deadline protects you. Federal rules bar a collector from suing you, or threatening to sue, over a time-barred debt, one past its deadline. Where state law allows it, the collector can still call and ask you to pay.
Your credit report runs on a separate clock that a payment can’t restart. A collection account comes off about seven years after you first fell behind, whatever the lawsuit deadline. That old store card should already be off your report, so the $200 buys nothing there.
Most states set the lawsuit deadline at three to six years, depending on the kind of debt, and it usually starts running when you miss a payment. Federal student loans have no deadline.
If you don’t recognize the debt, make the collector verify it first. If it’s yours, compare your last payment date with your state’s deadline for that kind of debt, and confirm it with your state’s attorney general or a legal aid office near you.
Keep the deadline on your side:
- Don’t pay any part of the debt until you’ve checked, not even a small good-faith amount.
- Don’t promise to pay or agree that you owe it, on the phone or in writing.
- Don’t settle without a signed letter saying your payment clears the entire debt.
- Don’t skip court if you’re sued anyway. Show up, tell the judge the debt is time-barred, and bring proof of your last payment date.
Before the call ends, ask the collector what its records show as your last payment date. Then say nothing else about the debt until you’ve checked it.
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