Statute of Limitations on Debt Collection in Mississippi

At a glance

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: "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." 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://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicourt/cic-code-ms/master/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.15.html (accessed 2026-08-24)
• 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://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicourt/cic-code-ms/master/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.15.html (accessed 2026-08-24)
• 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://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicourt/cic-code-ms/master/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.15.html (accessed 2026-08-24)
• 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://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicourt/cic-code-ms/master/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.15.html (accessed 2026-08-24)
• 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://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicourt/cic-code-ms/master/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.15.html (accessed 2026-08-24)
• 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://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicourt/cic-code-ms/master/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.15.html (accessed 2026-08-24)