Indiana Debt Collection Statute of Limitations
In Indiana, the statute of limitations is the deadline a creditor or collector has to file a lawsuit on a debt. Miss it, and the debt becomes “time-barred” — still owed, but no longer enforceable in court if the consumer raises the defense. Indiana does something most state guides gloss over: it splits its written-contract deadlines on a single phrase, “for the payment of money,” so a written agreement to repay money runs on a six-year clock while a different kind of written contract runs on a ten-year clock. This guide explains the Indiana periods by debt type, when the clock starts, the part-payment and acknowledgment rule that can restart it, and where a public-records research firm fits when a creditor needs to locate a debtor while the window is still open.
The Short Version
For most Indiana consumer debt, the statute of limitations is six years. Open accounts and contracts not in writing fall under Indiana Code section 34-11-2-7 (six years), and that is where Indiana courts have generally placed ordinary credit-card debt, because a card balance is not treated as a signed written contract to pay a fixed sum. Promissory notes, bills of exchange, deposit accounts, and other written contracts for the payment of money fall under section 34-11-2-9 — also six years. The ten-year period in section 34-11-2-11 applies to written contracts other than those for the payment of money, so it is generally not the right deadline for an ordinary money debt. The clock usually starts on the first missed payment that is never cured, and a part payment or a signed written acknowledgment can restart it. This is general legal information, not legal advice; confirm any specific deadline with an Indiana attorney.
Watch: Indiana Debt SOL Explained
The six-year window, the written-contract split, and the restart rule.
Watch Overview
How Indiana’s Limitation Framework Works
Where the deadlines live in the Indiana Code.
Indiana’s civil limitation periods sit in Title 34, Article 11 of the Indiana Code — “Limitation of Actions.” For debt, the operative chapter is Chapter 2, “Specific Statutes of Limitation,” which assigns a deadline to each category of claim. A statute of limitations does not erase the debt; it removes the creditor’s ability to win a lawsuit on it once the period has run, provided the consumer raises the expired deadline as an affirmative defense. If the consumer never pleads it, an Indiana court can still enter judgment on an old debt, which is one reason the rule matters as much to consumers as to creditors.
The Indiana structure is unusual because it does not treat all written contracts the same way. Two separate sections divide the written-contract world on the phrase “for the payment of money.” Section 34-11-2-9 covers promissory notes, bills of exchange, deposit accounts, and other written contracts for the payment of money and sets a six-year deadline for instruments executed after August 31, 1982. Section 34-11-2-11 covers written contracts other than those for the payment of money — and certain mortgages, deeds of trust, and recovery-of-real-estate actions — and sets a ten-year deadline. The practical takeaway is the opposite of the common assumption that “written equals longer”: for a straightforward money debt evidenced in writing, the Indiana period is six years, not ten.
Indiana courts have acknowledged that the line between the two sections is not always crisp. In the older Indiana Supreme Court decision Yarlott v. Brown, a mortgage that also obligated repayment of the underlying loan was placed under the ten-year “other than for the payment of money” section, on the reasoning that a mortgage carries obligations beyond the bare promise to pay. Because there are very few published Indiana decisions sorting mixed-obligation contracts into one bucket or the other, the safest approach for any specific agreement is to read the instrument closely and confirm the controlling period with an Indiana attorney. The figures below describe the general rules; they are legal information, not advice for a particular case.
Indiana SOL Periods by Debt Type
The deadline depends on what kind of obligation the debt is.
Accounts & Unwritten Contracts
Open accounts and contracts not in writing carry a six-year deadline. This is where Indiana courts have generally placed everyday credit-card debt, because a revolving card balance is not treated as a signed written contract to pay a fixed amount.
Written Money Contracts & Notes
Promissory notes, bills of exchange, deposit accounts, and other written contracts for the payment of money executed after August 31, 1982 carry a six-year deadline. A written promise to repay a sum certain generally lands here, not in the ten-year section.
Other Written Contracts
Written contracts other than those for the payment of money carry a ten-year deadline, along with certain mortgages and real-estate recovery actions. This longer period is generally not the right one for an ordinary money debt.
Credit-card debt: usually the six-year account period
Credit-card balances are the debt type that confuses people most, so it deserves a direct answer. In Indiana, the strong general rule is six years, and the usual path to that number runs through the account statute, section 34-11-2-7, rather than the written-contract statutes. Indiana case law has treated open-ended revolving credit as something other than a signed written contract for a fixed sum, which keeps it in the six-year account-and-unwritten-contract bucket. The reason the destination matters is the move-it point of this page: a creditor cannot reach for the ten-year period in section 34-11-2-11 just because a cardholder agreement exists on paper. Even when a card is analyzed as a written contract for the payment of money under section 34-11-2-9, the deadline is still six years. Only an agreement that is genuinely a written contract not for the payment of money would carry the ten-year clock, and an ordinary consumer card is not that. For practical purposes, plan around six years and verify the specific facts with counsel.
Medical, auto, and personal-loan debt
Medical debt usually rests on a written financial-responsibility agreement, so it is generally analyzed under the six-year written-money-contract period of section 34-11-2-9, while a purely informal arrangement could fall under the six-year account section — either way, six years is the working number. Auto loans and other financed purchases are typically documented by a written installment contract or note for the payment of money, which again points to the six-year period of section 34-11-2-9. A personal loan memorialized by a promissory note is the textbook six-year case under that same section. Across these everyday consumer categories, the recurring answer in Indiana is six years; the ten-year figure rarely controls a money debt.
Six-Year Account vs. Ten-Year Written Contract
The Indiana distinctive: the written-contract clock turns on “for the payment of money.”
| Factor | Six-Year Track | Ten-Year Track |
|---|---|---|
| Controlling statute | IC 34-11-2-7 (accounts & unwritten contracts) and IC 34-11-2-9 (written contracts for the payment of money) | IC 34-11-2-11 (written contracts other than for the payment of money) |
| What it covers | Open accounts, oral agreements, promissory notes, bills of exchange, and written promises to pay a sum of money | Written contracts whose core obligation is something other than paying money, plus certain mortgages and real-estate actions |
| Typical credit-card debt | Yes — generally the six-year account period; even as a written money contract it stays six years | No — a consumer card is not a written contract that is something other than a promise to pay money |
| Ordinary money debt in writing | Yes — a written promise to repay a sum certain is six years under IC 34-11-2-9 | Rarely — only if the agreement is genuinely not for the payment of money |
| The move-it test | “Written equals six years” is true for money debts in Indiana | “Written equals ten years” is false for money debts — a common cross-state mistake |
Run the move-it test on this table: in many states a written contract simply carries a longer deadline than an oral one, so a paragraph that says “written debts get the long period” travels fine from state to state. In Indiana it does not travel. Because section 34-11-2-9 pins written contracts for the payment of money at six years and reserves the ten-year period of section 34-11-2-11 for written contracts that are not about paying money, the Indiana distinctive is that a written money debt and an oral money debt usually share the same six-year clock. That is the specific, state-true substance that makes this an Indiana page and not a generic one.
When the Indiana Clock Starts Running
Accrual is usually the first uncured missed payment.
A limitation period does not begin when the account is opened or when the balance is first charged. It begins when the cause of action accrues, which for most consumer debt is the date of the breach — the first payment the debtor missed and never cured. From that date, the applicable six-year or ten-year clock counts forward. If the debtor later makes a payment and then defaults again, courts generally look back to the original uncured default for the accrual date rather than treating every later missed payment as a fresh start, although a payment can have a separate restart effect discussed below.
Two wrinkles matter. First, when a loan contract contains an acceleration clause and the creditor accelerates the balance, many courts treat the entire debt as a single cause of action accruing on the acceleration date rather than installment by installment. Second, Indiana recognizes a discovery principle in limited circumstances such as fraud or concealment, where the clock may not start until the wrong is discovered or reasonably should have been; that is the exception, not the everyday rule for a missed credit-card or loan payment. Because accrual disputes turn on the exact contract language and payment history, the start date for any specific debt should be confirmed with an Indiana attorney rather than estimated from a calendar alone.
What Restarts the Clock in Indiana
Part payment and written acknowledgment are the big two.
Indiana, like most states, lets a fresh act by the debtor restart or extend the limitation period. The doctrine sits in Title 34, Article 11, Chapter 9 of the Indiana Code, which addresses acknowledgment, new promise, and partial payment. Two debtor actions are the ones consumers stumble into most often. A partial payment on an old account can be treated as an acknowledgment of the debt, restarting the clock from the date of that payment. A signed written acknowledgment of the debt — a letter or document in which the debtor admits the obligation — can likewise reset the period. Under the acknowledgment chapter, an oral promise alone is generally not enough to revive a barred claim; the new promise or acknowledgment ordinarily needs to be in writing and signed by the party to be charged.
This is where time-barred debt becomes a trap in both directions. A consumer who makes a small good-faith payment, or who signs a statement confirming a stale balance, can unintentionally hand a collector a brand-new six-year window. A creditor, meanwhile, cannot manufacture a restart by pointing to an offhand phone call. Because the precise effect of a payment or a writing depends on the exact words and circumstances, anyone relying on a restart — or worried they triggered one — should confirm the result under the Indiana acknowledgment statute with a qualified attorney. The takeaway for consumers is blunt: do not pay or sign anything on an old debt before you know what year the clock is on.
Time-Barred Debt and the FDCPA
An expired Indiana deadline triggers federal protections.
Once the Indiana period has run, the debt is time-barred. It still exists and can appear on a credit report within the separate federal reporting window, but a collector who sues on it is exposed to liability. Under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, filing or threatening a lawsuit on a debt the collector knows is time-barred can be a false, deceptive, or unfair practice, addressed in 15 U.S.C. 1692e and the unfair-practices provision that follows it. A consumer who is sued on a time-barred debt generally must raise the expired statute of limitations as a defense; it is not applied automatically by the court.
The federal rules go further on disclosure. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Regulation F requires certain affirmative disclosures when a collector communicates about debt that may be time-barred, so a consumer is alerted to the age of the obligation. None of this changes the Indiana deadline itself — it layers federal consumer protection on top of the state clock. For a creditor, the lesson is to confirm the debt is still within the Indiana window before initiating suit; for a consumer, the lesson is that an old debt does not automatically vanish, but suing on it after the deadline carries real legal risk for the collector.
Indiana Judgments Last Far Longer
Winning the suit resets the timeline entirely.
The deadlines above govern the window to file suit. Once a creditor wins and a court enters a money judgment, a much longer enforcement timeline applies. Indiana money judgments are generally enforceable for twenty years, and a judgment that is approaching expiration can often be revived through the proper court procedure, extending the creditor’s ability to collect. A judgment lien on real estate and the creditor’s right to pursue collection tools run on this far longer clock, which is why getting into court before the filing deadline expires matters so much: a six-year window to sue becomes a multi-decade window to collect once a judgment is in hand.
Cross-state debt adds a wrapper. When a debt or a debtor crosses state lines, choice-of-law and borrowing-statute questions can determine which state’s limitation period applies, and a judgment obtained elsewhere may be domesticated in Indiana and then enforced on the Indiana judgment timeline. These are fact-specific determinations. The reliable move for a creditor is to identify the controlling period early and, where a debtor has moved or gone quiet, locate them while the filing window is still open — which is the lawful, public-records research role described next. This section is general information about Indiana enforcement timelines, not advice on a particular judgment.
Why Creditors Run Out of Clock Before They Find the Debtor
The deadline is fixed; the debtor’s whereabouts are not.
Debtor Moved
The address on the account is dead and there is no forwarding trail, so a complaint cannot be served before the deadline passes.
Clock Already Old
By the time a defaulted account is placed for collection, years of the six-year window may already be gone.
Wrong Track Assumed
A creditor who wrongly assumes a ten-year written-contract clock may sit on a debt that actually expired at six years.
Crossed State Lines
The debtor left Indiana, raising choice-of-law questions on top of the basic problem of finding them.
Stale File Data
Phone numbers and employers on file are years out of date, so demand letters bounce and the window keeps shrinking.
Thin Footprint
A debtor with little in their own name leaves few public-record breadcrumbs pointing to a current, serviceable address.
How We Help Within the Window
A lawful public-records locate so a creditor can act before the deadline.
Send What You Have
A name, last known Indiana address, date of birth, phone, employer, or relatives — whatever is on the file becomes the starting point.
We Research
A current address and place of work are rebuilt from public records and licensed databases, cross-checked against known associates.
We Verify
Candidate addresses are confirmed and ranked so your attorney or process server is not chasing dead ends as the clock runs.
You Act in Time
With a verified location in hand, your counsel can file and serve before the Indiana limitation period closes — typically within 24 hours of your request.
Who We Help in Indiana
We locate; your counsel handles the legal action.
Creditors
Debtors located before the clock runs
Collection Attorneys
Verified addresses for filing and service
Law Firms
Skip-located parties for collection suits
Judgment Holders
Debtors traced on the long enforcement clock
Small-Claims Plaintiffs
Self-represented and on a deadline
Process Servers
Confirmed Indiana addresses to serve
Whoever you are, the wall is the same: an Indiana deadline you cannot beat if you cannot find the debtor. We are a public-records research firm, not a law firm and not a collection agency, and we do not give legal advice or collect debts. What we do is locate people lawfully through professional skip tracing, delivering a current address and employment where available so your counsel can file before the limitation period closes. This page pairs naturally with our guides to the Illinois debt collection statute of limitations and the Ohio debt collection statute of limitations for multi-state portfolios, the separate question of Indiana bankruptcy exemptions when a debtor files, and the playbook for how to find hidden assets behind a judgment. For a legitimate matter, a verified locate typically comes back within 24 hours.
Our Commitment
We find the debtor so your case can move while the Indiana clock is still open — a verified current address for filing and service, drawn lawfully from public records. Court-ready locating for creditors, attorneys, and judgment holders since 2004.
Indiana Debt SOL Questions
What is the statute of limitations on credit-card debt in Indiana?
Generally six years. Indiana courts have placed ordinary revolving credit-card debt under the six-year account-and-unwritten-contract period of Indiana Code section 34-11-2-7, and even when a card is analyzed as a written contract for the payment of money under section 34-11-2-9, the deadline is still six years. This is general information; confirm your facts with an Indiana attorney.
How long is the SOL on a written contract in Indiana?
It depends on the phrase “for the payment of money.” A written contract for the payment of money, including a promissory note, is six years under section 34-11-2-9. A written contract other than one for the payment of money is ten years under section 34-11-2-11. For an ordinary money debt, the six-year period usually controls.
What about an oral or unwritten debt in Indiana?
Accounts and contracts not in writing carry a six-year deadline under Indiana Code section 34-11-2-7. So in Indiana an oral money debt and a written money debt usually share the same six-year clock, which is unusual compared with states that give written contracts a longer period.
Does making a payment restart the Indiana clock?
It can. Under Indiana’s acknowledgment, new-promise, and partial-payment rules in Title 34, Article 11, Chapter 9, a partial payment or a signed written acknowledgment of the debt can restart the limitation period from that date. An oral promise alone is generally not enough. Do not pay or sign anything on an old debt before confirming what year the clock is on.
When does the Indiana clock start?
Usually on the date of the breach, which for most consumer debt is the first missed payment that is never cured, not the date the account was opened. Acceleration of a loan and, in limited fraud or concealment cases, a discovery rule can change the start date, so confirm accrual with an attorney for any specific debt.
Can a creditor sue on a time-barred Indiana debt?
They can file, but it is risky. Once the Indiana period has run the debt is time-barred, and filing or threatening suit on a debt the collector knows is expired can violate the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The consumer generally must raise the expired deadline as a defense, because the court does not apply it automatically.
How long is an Indiana judgment enforceable?
Indiana money judgments are generally enforceable for twenty years and can often be revived as they near expiration through the proper court procedure. So a six-year window to file suit becomes a far longer window to collect once a judgment is entered, which is why filing before the deadline matters.
How does People Locator Skip Tracing fit a debt collection matter?
We are a public-records research firm, not a law firm or collection agency, and we do not give legal advice or collect debts. We lawfully locate a debtor’s current address and employer from public records so your counsel can file and serve before the Indiana limitation period closes, typically returning a verified locate within 24 hours.
Indiana Clock Running on a Debt?
We locate the debtor lawfully from public records so your attorney can file and serve before the Indiana statute of limitations closes — typically within 24 hours. Contact us to get started.
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