Stage guide
Every state's law gives a collector a limited number of years to sue on a card debt. When those years run out, the debt is 'time-barred': they may still ask, but the courthouse door closes. Two traps guard that door — and both are sprung by the person who owes, not the collector.
Regulation F, 12 CFR 1006.26(b), makes it a violation to sue — or threaten to sue — over a debt the collector knows or should know is time-barred. It does not stop calls or letters. That is why old debts stay profitable: the asking is legal, and the paying is voluntary.
In many states, a partial payment or a signed written acknowledgment after the deadline restarts the entire clock — a fresh set of years, from a $25 payment. A few states have abolished revival by statute; New York did it in 2022 (CPLR §214-i). Your state's trigger is printed on its state page, and the decoder turns it into a personal alarm from your own dates.
Your card agreement probably picked another state's law — Delaware (3 years) for Chase, Bank of America, Discover and Barclays accounts; South Dakota (6 years) for Citi and Wells Fargo. Courts often use the shorter of the two deadlines, under a rule called a borrowing statute. A debt can be too old to sue on under the card company's picked law while still live under yours — or the reverse. The free checker works out both clocks, which is why it asks whose card it was.
A lawsuit over a time-barred debt is a Regulation F violation — and limitations is also your defense in that suit. Either way, the worst response is no response: an unanswered suit becomes a judgment even when the debt was legally dead. See the sued page for your deadline.
One payment. Every stage of the road, and the deadline tables for all 50 states — every number with its law cited. No account, no subscription — and the free checker above stays free whether you buy or not.
DebtDecoded is education, not a law firm. If the checker points you to a free route — legal aid, a lawyer who fights debt collectors, a nonprofit counselor — take it. We would rather lose the sale than sell you the wrong tool.
The clock generally starts at the first missed payment that was never made up. The free checker works it out from your last-payment month, your state, and the state your card company picked — and labels the result 'borderline' when the two clocks disagree, instead of pretending to be certain.
In writing, briefly, and without acknowledging the debt is yours or promising anything. The kit's time-barred response is built for exactly this. Never deliver the news by making a payment 'to close it out' — in revival states, that payment reopens everything.