Mississippi: Statute of Limitations on Debt Collection
The short answer
Mississippi gives a creditor 3 years to sue on an ordinary debt, whether the underlying obligation is written or oral, Mississippi has no separate, longer period for a written contract the way most states do. Each item on a personal open account (like most credit-card debt) generally gets its own accrual date, one bill at a time, rather than the whole balance resetting together. A partial payment or a signed written acknowledgment can restart a still-running clock, but Mississippi's own statute says expiration doesn't just bar the lawsuit, it extinguishes the underlying right itself. There's no separate consumer-debt period, but Mississippi does apply the shorter out-of-state period if the debt arose elsewhere, unless the creditor has always been a Mississippi resident.
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This is the general rule in Mississippi. Ezel applies current Mississippi law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | Miss. Code Ann. §§ 15-1-29, 15-1-31, 15-1-49, 15-1-3, 15-1-73, 15-1-65 |
|---|---|
| Written contract/debt deadline | No separate written-contract period exists: the residual 3-year catch-all statute (§ 15-1-49) governs a written contract debt just as it does an unwritten one |
| Oral contract/open account deadline | 3 years from accrual (§ 15-1-29, open accounts/accounts stated not acknowledged in writing, and unwritten contracts generally) |
| When the clock starts | Date the cause of action accrues (ordinarily the breach/default); a mutual open account between merchants or traders runs from the last item, but an ordinary (non-merchant) open account runs separately from the due date of EACH item (§ 15-1-31) |
| Can a payment or promise restart the clock? | A partial payment, a written or verbal acknowledgment of liability, or a promise to pay restarts a STILL-RUNNING clock (§ 15-1-3(2)); once the period has fully run, only a signed written acknowledgment or new promise revives the claim (§ 15-1-73), and expiration otherwise extinguishes the underlying right, not just the remedy (§ 15-1-3(1)) |
| Special rule for consumer debt | None: the same residual 3-year period applies to consumer and commercial debt alike |
| Out-of-state debt | Applies the shorter out-of-state period unless the claim accrued in favor of a Mississippi resident (§ 15-1-65) |
| What expiration actually does | Beyond the ordinary affirmative-defense default: Mississippi's own statute says expiration "defeat[s] and extinguish[es] the right as well as the remedy" (§ 15-1-3(1)) |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Mississippi's contract-debt deadlines live in Title 15, Chapter 1,
"Limitation of Actions", § 15-1-29 (open accounts and unwritten
contracts), § 15-1-31 (when the clock starts on an open account), § 15-1-49
(the residual catch-all that also reaches written contracts), § 15-1-3
(the effect of expiration and payment-based revival), § 15-1-73
(acknowledgment or new promise), and § 15-1-65 (the out-of-state bar).
How long you have on a written debt
The same 3 years as an unwritten debt. Mississippi has no dedicated
written-contract limitations statute in Title 15, Chapter 1. Section
15-1-49's residual catch-all, "all actions for which no other period of
limitation is prescribed shall be commenced within three (3) years", governs a breach-of-written-contract claim, since nothing else in the
chapter carves out a separate period for it. (A negotiable promissory note
is different: it falls under the Uniform Commercial Code rather than this
chapter, and typically gets 6 years instead.)
How long you have on an oral or unwritten debt
Three years. Section 15-1-29 covers "an open account or account stated not
acknowledged in writing, signed by the debtor, and ... any unwritten
contract, express or implied", landing on the identical 3-year number as
the written-contract catch-all, so this dimension and the written-contract
one carry the same answer in Mississippi. (An unwritten employment contract
claim specifically gets only 1 year, a narrower carve-out inside the same
section.)
When the clock starts
The default is the date the cause of action accrues. For an open account,
§ 15-1-31 draws a real distinction most other states don't: if "both
parties are merchants or traders," the account is treated as truly mutual
and the clock runs "from the true date of the last item proved in such
account", the familiar last-item rule. But "in all other actions upon
open accounts", meaning an ordinary consumer account, like most
credit-card debt, the clock instead runs separately against each item
"from the dates at which the same respectively became due and payable."
In practice, that means each individual charge or billing item on a
consumer account can carry its own accrual date rather than the whole
balance resetting with the most recent activity.
Can a payment or promise restart the clock?
Yes, but the requirements differ depending on whether the clock is still
running or has already expired. Section 15-1-3(2) lets a partial payment,
an acknowledgment of liability, OR a promise to pay restart a STILL-RUNNING
clock, notably, the payment route here doesn't require a signed writing.
But that provision applies only "the statute of limitations not having
run." Once the period has fully expired, § 15-1-73 takes over and is
stricter: an acknowledgment or promise is not "evidence of a new or
continuing contract ... unless such acknowledgment or promise be made or
contained by or in some writing signed by the party chargeable thereby."
The Mississippi Supreme Court has required that a written acknowledgment
be specific enough to identify the debt, stating (or making calculable)
when, to whom, and for what the balance was due.
Is there a special rule for consumer debt?
No. The same residual 3-year period in § 15-1-49, or the specific 3-year
period in § 15-1-29 for an unwritten obligation or open account, applies
whether the debt is a personal credit-card balance or a commercial
contract.
What if the debt originated in another state?
Section 15-1-65 is Mississippi's borrowing statute: if a claim is already
time-barred under the law of the place where it arose, Mississippi won't
let a creditor revive it by suing here instead, "no action thereon shall
be maintained in this state", unless the claim "accrued in favor of a
resident of this state," in which case Mississippi's own period applies
instead. This is the same shorter-of-two-periods structure with a
resident-creditor exception used by several other states.
What actually happens once the deadline passes?
More than the ordinary default. Most states treat expiration as merely an
affirmative defense the debtor has to raise, leaving the underlying debt
technically intact. Mississippi's § 15-1-3(1) goes further: "the completion
of the period of limitation prescribed to bar any action, shall defeat and
extinguish the right as well as the remedy." The same subsection adds a
notable caveat, though, even an extinguished obligation "shall be a
sufficient consideration to uphold a new promise based thereon," meaning a
fresh, separate promise to pay an old, fully time-barred debt can still be
enforced as its own new obligation, just not as a revival of the original
one.
What trips people up
Because an ordinary consumer open account's items each carry their own due
date under § 15-1-31, rather than the whole account resetting on the most
recent charge, part of an old credit-card balance can already be time-barred
while a more recent portion of the same account is still enforceable, don't assume the entire balance shares one deadline. Separately, the two
revival provisions pull in different directions depending on timing: a bare
payment can restart a still-running clock under § 15-1-3(2), but the exact
same payment, made after the clock has already run out, does nothing at
all, only a signed written acknowledgment under § 15-1-73 can revive a
fully expired claim.
Common questions
Does Mississippi give more time for a written contract than an oral
one?
No. Unlike most states, Mississippi applies the same 3-year period to both, there's no separate, longer written-contract statute in Title 15,
Chapter 1.
I made a payment on an old debt, did that restart the clock?
It depends on timing. If the debt wasn't already time-barred, a partial
payment restarts the clock under § 15-1-3(2), no writing required. If the
debt was already time-barred, only a signed written acknowledgment or new
promise under § 15-1-73 can revive it, a bare payment on an already-
expired debt does not.
Can a debt collector still contact me after the statute of limitations
runs?
Mississippi's limitations statute governs whether a lawsuit can succeed,
not whether a collector can contact you. Federal FDCPA rules and
Mississippi's own consumer protection law govern collector conduct, which
is outside this survey's scope.
Does the debt just disappear once the time limit passes?
Mississippi goes further than most states here: § 15-1-3(1) says
expiration extinguishes the underlying right itself, not just the remedy
of suing on it, though a fresh new promise to pay can still create a new,
separately enforceable obligation.
Statutes and sources
- Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-29, "actions on an open account or account
stated not acknowledged in writing, signed by the debtor, and on any
unwritten contract, express or implied, shall be commenced within three
(3) years next after the cause of such action accrued...", https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-15/chapter-1/section-15-1-29/
(accessed 2026-07-09) - Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-49, "All actions for which no other period of
limitation is prescribed shall be commenced within three (3) years next
after the cause of such action accrued, and not after.", https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-15/chapter-1/section-15-1-49/
(accessed 2026-07-09) - Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-31, "the cause of action shall be deemed to have
accrued at the time of the true date of the last item proved in such
account. In all other actions upon open accounts, the period of
limitation shall commence to run against the several items thereof from
the dates at which the same respectively became due and payable.", https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-15/chapter-1/section-15-1-31/
(accessed 2026-07-09) - Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-3, "The completion of the period of limitation
prescribed to bar any action, shall defeat and extinguish the right as
well as the remedy. ... [W]hen any part of the debt shall have been
paid, or an acknowledgment of an existing liability, debt or claim, or
any promise to pay the same shall have been made, the statute of
limitations not having run, an action may be brought...", https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-15/chapter-1/section-15-1-3/
(accessed 2026-07-09) - Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-73, "an acknowledgment or promise shall not be
evidence of a new or continuing contract ... unless such acknowledgment
or promise be made or contained by or in some writing signed by the
party chargeable thereby.", https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-15/chapter-1/section-15-1-73/
(accessed 2026-07-09) - Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-65, "no action thereon shall be maintained in
this state; provided, however, that where such a cause of action has
accrued in favor of a resident of this state, this state's law on the
period of limitation shall apply.", https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-15/chapter-1/section-15-1-65/
(accessed 2026-07-09)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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