Georgia Debt Collection Statute of Limitations
In Georgia the deadline to sue on a debt turns on one question most people get wrong: was the obligation a written contract or an open account? A written contract carries a six-year limitations period under OCGA section 9-3-24, while an open account, an oral promise, or an implied promise runs out in four years under OCGA section 9-3-25. Credit cards sit in the middle of that split, and Georgia case law decides which side they land on. This guide walks through each debt type, when the clock starts, what restarts it, and how a creditor can lawfully locate a debtor before the window closes. It is general legal information, not legal advice.
The Short Version
Georgia gives creditors six years to sue on a written contract from the date the debt became due and payable, under OCGA section 9-3-24, and only four years on an open account, an oral contract, or an implied promise, under OCGA section 9-3-25. Credit-card debt is generally treated as a written contract in Georgia, putting it on the six-year clock, after the Court of Appeals decisions in Hill v. American Express and Phoenix Recovery Group v. Mehta. The clock usually starts at default. A written acknowledgment of the debt, or a part payment, can reset it to zero under OCGA sections 9-3-110 and 9-3-112. A separate seven-year rule under OCGA section 9-12-60 governs how long a judgment stays enforceable. Once a debt is time-barred, filing suit on it can violate the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. We are a public-records research firm that helps creditors and their counsel locate a debtor while the window is still open.
Watch: Georgia Debt Time Limits
The written-versus-open-account split, in plain terms.
Watch Overview
The Two Georgia Limitation Periods
Everything turns on which category your debt falls into.
Georgia does not apply one flat deadline to every debt. The Official Code of Georgia Annotated splits civil debt claims into two main buckets, and which bucket a debt lands in decides whether a creditor has six years to sue or only four. Getting the classification right is the single most consequential call in any Georgia collection matter, because filing one day after the wrong deadline can be fatal to the case.
The first bucket is the simple written contract. Under the applicable limitations rule codified at OCGA section 9-3-24, an action on a simple written contract must be brought within six years after the contract becomes due and payable. A signed promissory note, a written loan agreement, a financed-purchase contract, and most installment agreements live here. The defining feature is a writing that the debtor agreed to and that sets out the obligation; if all the essential terms are in the document, Georgia treats it as a written contract and grants the longer six-year window.
The second bucket is the open account, oral contract, or implied promise. OCGA section 9-3-25 sets that period at four years. An open account is the running, unsigned tab a customer builds up with a supplier, a medical provider, or a utility, where charges accrue over time without a single signed agreement fixing the total. Purely oral agreements and promises the law implies from conduct also fall under this four-year rule. Because two years separate the two periods, a creditor who misclassifies an open account as a written contract can easily blow the deadline by relying on the wrong number.
A practical point that catches creditors off guard: the label on the paperwork does not control. A Georgia court looks at the substance of the obligation, not what either side calls it. A document titled an agreement that omits essential terms may still be treated as an open account, and a running account backed by a genuine signed agreement may qualify for the six-year period. When the stakes are high, the classification question is exactly the kind of issue a Georgia attorney should evaluate against the actual documents before any deadline is calculated.
Six-Year Written vs. Four-Year Open Account
The Georgia distinction that decides most collection deadlines.
| Factor | Written Contract | Open Account / Oral / Implied |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia statute | OCGA section 9-3-24 | OCGA section 9-3-25 |
| Limitation period | Six years | Four years |
| Clock starts | When the contract becomes due and payable | When the account becomes due, typically the last charge or default |
| Typical debts | Promissory notes, written loans, financed purchases, installment agreements | Medical bills, utility tabs, supplier accounts, purely verbal loans |
| Credit cards | Generally treated here as a written contract (six years) under Georgia case law | Argued here historically, but Georgia courts have largely settled on the written-contract view |
| Defining feature | A signed writing with the essential terms | A running or unwritten obligation with no single signed agreement |
Read down the period row and the stakes are obvious: a debt that qualifies as a written contract gives a creditor two additional years to act. That gap is why the written-versus-open-account analysis comes before everything else in a Georgia matter, and why the same dollar figure can be collectible against one debtor and time-barred against another depending only on the paperwork behind it.
Where Credit-Card Debt Falls in Georgia
The classification fight that took two appellate decisions to settle.
Credit-card debt is the debt type that sits right on the fault line between the two Georgia periods, and for years debtors and creditors fought over which side it belonged to. The argument for the four-year open-account treatment is intuitive: a credit card is a revolving balance that goes up and down with each purchase and payment, which looks a great deal like the running tab the open-account statute describes. The argument for the six-year written-contract treatment is that the cardholder agreement is a signed or accepted writing setting out the terms, which is precisely what OCGA section 9-3-24 contemplates.
Georgia largely resolved the question in 2008. In Hill v. American Express, the Georgia Court of Appeals held that the limitations period on the unpaid credit-card balance was six years, treating the account as governed by a written contract. Later that year, Phoenix Recovery Group, Inc. v. Mehta affirmed the same approach, and together the two decisions pushed Georgia toward treating credit-card debt as a written contract carrying the six-year period rather than the four-year open-account window. For most credit-card matters in the state, the practical working rule is six years.
That working rule is not bulletproof, and this is where careful lawyering matters. A trial court is not absolutely bound to follow a Court of Appeals decision in every fact pattern, and the outcome can hinge on the specific evidence a plaintiff produces, particularly whether the actual cardholder agreement is in the record. Where a creditor cannot produce the signed or accepted agreement, a debtor may renew the argument that the obligation should be treated as an open account on the four-year clock. The safe posture for a creditor is to assume the six-year period may apply, calendar the four-year date as a conservative fallback, and have a Georgia attorney confirm which controls against the documents actually in hand.
When the Clock Starts Running
Accrual decides the deadline as much as the period does.
Knowing whether a debt carries a four-year or six-year period only solves half the problem. You also have to know the day the clock started, because the period runs from that accrual date. In Georgia, the limitations clock on a debt generally begins when the debtor first defaults and fails to cure the obligation, that is, when payment was due and the debtor did not pay. From that date, you count forward the four or six years to find the deadline to sue.
Installment debts add a wrinkle. Where a contract has an acceleration clause and the creditor accelerates the balance after a default, the limitations clock for the whole accelerated amount typically begins on the acceleration date rather than restarting with each later missed payment. Without acceleration, each installment can carry its own accrual date as it comes due. Because these mechanics decide whether part of a debt is still live while another part has expired, the accrual analysis is fact-specific and is another point where a Georgia attorney should review the actual loan terms.
One more accrual point matters for the most common dispute over old debts: the date of the last activity. Georgia courts have treated the limitations clock as running from the date of the last payment on the account, which means the period is measured from the most recent qualifying activity, not necessarily from the original purchase. That is why pinning down the true date of last payment is so often the central factual fight in a Georgia time-barred-debt case.
How a Dead Clock Can Restart
Revival under OCGA sections 9-3-110 and 9-3-112.
A limitations period that looks expired is not always the end of the story, because Georgia law lets certain debtor conduct revive it. Under OCGA section 9-3-112, a payment made on the debt, or a written acknowledgment of the existing liability, is treated as the equivalent of a new promise to pay. The effect is significant: a qualifying acknowledgment or part payment creates a fresh point from which the limitations period begins to run again, effectively resetting the clock to zero from the date of that act.
Georgia is strict about what counts, and the rules protect debtors from accidentally reviving an old debt by talking. Under OCGA section 9-3-110, a new promise generally has to be in writing to restart the period. An oral promise to pay an old debt does not constitute the kind of new promise that restarts the clock. To qualify as an acknowledgment, the writing must refer to the particular debt as an existing liability and either expressly promise to pay it or admit it so clearly and unconditionally that the law will imply a promise to pay. A vague or hedged statement will not do.
Part payment can have the same reviving effect, and courts have found that payments accompanied by account notations can amount to new promises that renew the running of the period. The takeaway for a creditor is twofold. First, a debt that appears time-barred may still be live if the debtor made a recent qualifying payment or signed a qualifying acknowledgment, so the file is worth a careful look before it is written off. Second, the precise documentation of any payment or written admission is what makes or breaks a revival argument, which again is territory for a Georgia attorney rather than guesswork.
What Pauses the Georgia Clock
Tolling can extend a deadline well past the bare period.
Debtor Leaves Georgia
Under OCGA section 9-3-94, a defendant’s absence from the state can toll the limitations period while they are gone, pausing the clock until they return.
Bankruptcy Stay
A federal bankruptcy filing triggers the automatic stay, and federal law can suspend the limitations period while the stay is in effect, extending the creditor’s deadline.
Minority or Disability
Georgia tolling rules under OCGA sections 9-3-90 and 9-3-91 can pause the period for a party who was a minor or legally incapacitated when the claim accrued.
New Written Promise
A written acknowledgment or qualifying part payment does more than pause the clock, it restarts it from zero under OCGA sections 9-3-110 and 9-3-112.
Out-of-State Roots
If a debt was created in another state, Georgia choice-of-law and borrowing-statute analysis may bring a different state’s shorter period into play.
Reduced to Judgment
Once a debt becomes a judgment, the underlying contract clock is replaced by the seven-year enforcement window under OCGA section 9-12-60.
Tolling is why a creditor should never assume a debt is dead from a calendar count alone. Absence, bankruptcy, incapacity, and a qualifying new promise can each push the real deadline well past the bare four-year or six-year figure. Each of these is a legal determination, so treat the tolling questions as items to confirm with counsel rather than conclusions to reach on your own.
After You Win: The Seven-Year Judgment
A different clock governs collecting on a judgment.
The four-year and six-year periods govern how long a creditor has to file suit. Once a creditor wins and the court enters a money judgment, a separate Georgia rule takes over. Under OCGA section 9-12-60, a Georgia judgment becomes dormant if no action is taken to enforce it within seven years, but it can be renewed or revived to extend the enforcement window. In practical terms, reducing a contract claim to a judgment can give a creditor a longer and renewable runway to collect than the underlying contract period allowed, with post-judgment interest accruing along the way.
That mechanic is why timing the lawsuit matters so much. A creditor who sues inside the limitations window and obtains a judgment converts a debt with a hard four-year or six-year expiry into a judgment that can be kept alive for years through renewal. A creditor who lets the contract period lapse first never gets that far. The lesson for anyone holding Georgia debt is to calendar the contract deadline accurately, act before it expires, and then manage the judgment under its own seven-year renewal rule.
Time-Barred Debt and the FDCPA
Suing on an expired debt carries federal risk.
When the limitations period has truly run, the debt becomes time-barred. The underlying obligation does not vanish, but the creditor loses the legal power to win a lawsuit on it if the debtor raises the statute of limitations as a defense. That changes how the debt may lawfully be handled, and the change is governed not only by Georgia law but by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The federal consumer-protection rules are strict here. Filing or threatening a lawsuit on a debt the collector knows is time-barred can be treated as a false, deceptive, or unfair collection practice, exposing the collector to liability. Federal rules also require certain disclosures when a covered collector communicates about debt that may be beyond the limitations period, so the debtor understands a suit may no longer be enforceable. These obligations fall on collectors covered by the act, and they are a major reason accurate limitations math is not optional.
None of this turns a public-records research firm into a debt collector or a credit reporting agency. Our role is narrow and lawful: for a creditor or its counsel with a permissible purpose, we locate the debtor and develop the public-records picture so the client can make its own legal decisions, on its own timeline, with its own counsel. We do not give legal advice, we do not collect debts, and we do not decide whether a debt is enforceable.
Locate the Debtor Before Time Runs Out
How a public-records research firm supports your filing window.
Send What You Have
A name, last known address, the account history, and any dates of payment give us the starting point and help frame the accrual date.
We Research Public Records
A current address and employment picture are rebuilt from public records and licensed databases under a permissible purpose, never as a credit report.
We Verify and Report
Candidate locations are confirmed and ranked so your counsel can serve and file inside the limitations window without chasing dead leads.
You and Your Attorney Decide
You receive a documented locate. Whether and how to sue, and which limitations period applies, stays with you and your Georgia attorney.
Who We Help
We do the locate; your counsel handles the law.
Creditors
Debtors located before the window closes
Collection Attorneys
Current address and employment for filing
Small-Business Owners
Account debtors traced for legitimate suit
Judgment Holders
Debtors found before dormancy sets in
Lenders
Borrowers on written notes located
Medical Providers
Open-account debtors traced lawfully
Whoever you are, the obstacle is usually the same: you cannot serve or sue a debtor you cannot find, and the four-year or six-year clock keeps running while you look. We locate the debtor through professional skip tracing and public-records research, deliver a current address and employment where available, and document the work, so your counsel can act inside the window. Creditors comparing state deadlines often read this alongside our Oklahoma debt limitations guide and our Louisiana debt limitations guide, and pair it with our work on finding a debtor before the statute expires, locating hidden assets, and understanding Georgia bankruptcy exemptions when a debtor threatens to file. For a legitimate, permissible-purpose matter, a verified locate typically comes back within 24 hours.
Our Commitment
We help creditors and their counsel locate Georgia debtors lawfully and fast, so you can act while the limitations window is still open. A current address, an employment picture where available, and a documented search, delivered for legitimate, permissible-purpose matters since 2004. We do not collect debts and we do not give legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the statute of limitations on debt in Georgia?
It depends on the debt type. A written contract carries a six-year limitations period under OCGA section 9-3-24, while an open account, an oral contract, or an implied promise runs out in four years under OCGA section 9-3-25. This is general legal information; confirm your specific deadline with a Georgia attorney.
How long is the statute of limitations on credit-card debt in Georgia?
Georgia generally treats credit-card debt as a written contract, putting it on the six-year clock, following the Court of Appeals decisions in Hill v. American Express and Phoenix Recovery Group v. Mehta. The result can still depend on the evidence, particularly whether the cardholder agreement is produced, so a Georgia attorney should confirm which period applies.
What is the difference between a written contract and an open account?
A written contract is a signed writing that sets out the essential terms, such as a promissory note or loan agreement, and carries the six-year period. An open account is a running, unsigned obligation like a medical bill or supplier tab, which carries the four-year period. A Georgia court looks at the substance of the debt, not the label on the document.
When does the Georgia debt clock start running?
The limitations clock generally begins when the debtor defaults and fails to cure the obligation, and Georgia courts have measured it from the date of the last payment. For accelerated installment debts, the clock for the accelerated balance typically starts on the acceleration date. The exact accrual date is fact-specific.
Can a part payment or written acknowledgment restart the clock in Georgia?
Yes. Under OCGA sections 9-3-110 and 9-3-112, a qualifying part payment or a written acknowledgment of the existing liability is treated as a new promise to pay and can restart the limitations period from zero. A new promise generally must be in writing; an oral promise to pay an old debt does not restart the clock.
What happens when a Georgia debt is time-barred?
The debt still exists, but the creditor loses the legal power to win a lawsuit if the debtor raises the limitations defense. Filing or threatening suit on a debt known to be time-barred can violate the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and covered collectors face disclosure obligations when communicating about time-barred debt.
How long can a creditor enforce a Georgia judgment?
A separate rule governs judgments. Under OCGA section 9-12-60, a Georgia judgment becomes dormant if no enforcement action is taken within seven years, but it can be renewed or revived to extend the window. Reducing a debt to a judgment inside the limitations period can give a creditor a longer, renewable runway to collect.
Are you a debt collector, and how do you help with the limitations window?
No. We are a public-records research firm, not a debt collector, a law firm, or a credit reporting agency. For a creditor or its counsel with a permissible purpose, we locate the debtor and develop a public-records picture so you can act before the deadline. For a legitimate matter, a verified locate typically comes back within 24 hours; the legal decisions stay with you and your Georgia attorney.
Need to Find a Georgia Debtor Before Time Runs Out?
We are a public-records research firm that locates debtors lawfully for creditors and their counsel, so you can act inside the four-year or six-year window, typically within 24 hours. Contact us to get started.
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