Statute of Limitations on Debt Collection in Texas

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Texas's general debt deadline lives in the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Chapter 16 ("Limitations"), principally § 16.004 (the four-year period), § 16.051 (a residual four-year catch-all), § 16.065 (acknowledgment), and § 16.067 (the borrowing rule for people who moved to Texas). Layered on top of that, for consumer debt collected by a debt buyer specifically, Finance Code § 392.307 adds its own suit-bar and anti-revival rules.

How long you have on a written debt

Four years, running from the day the cause of action accrues (generally the date of default). Section 16.004(a)(3) sets a four-year deadline simply for "debt", it doesn't require the debt to be backed by a signed writing the way some states' written-contract statutes do. Credit cards, personal loans, medical bills, and written contracts all fall under this same four-year period.

How long you have on an oral or unwritten debt

Also four years, Texas does not cut the period in half for an unwritten agreement. Because § 16.004(a)(3)'s "debt" category isn't limited to written obligations, an oral debt gets the same four years. Any contract-breach claim that somehow doesn't fit squarely into "debt" still lands on four years anyway, through § 16.051's residual limitations period: "every action for which there is no express limitations period ... must be brought not later than four years after the day the cause of action accrues."

When the clock starts

Section 16.004 measures four years from accrual. For an open, stated, mutual, or current account concerning trade between merchants, subsection (c) fixes a more concrete point: the cause accrues when the parties' joint dealings cease. The section does not state a separate last-payment rule for ordinary debt.

Can a payment or promise restart the clock?

For an original creditor, Section 16.065 makes an acknowledgment inadmissible to defeat limitations unless it is in writing and signed by the person to be charged. The text applies to an acknowledgment made after the claim is due and does not make a payment or oral promise alone sufficient.

That said, this general rule doesn't apply to every collector. If a debt buyer, someone who purchased the consumer debt rather than the original creditor, is doing the collecting, Finance Code § 392.307 overrides it entirely for that situation: once the four-year period has run, "the cause of action is not revived by a payment of the consumer debt, an oral or written reaffirmation of the consumer debt, or any other activity on the consumer debt." No writing, no payment, and no promise can bring the claim back once a debt buyer holds it and time has run out.

Is there a special rule for consumer debt?

The underlying number doesn't change, consumer debt still gets the same four years as any other debt under § 16.004. But Finance Code § 392.307 layers real, separate protections on top of that number specifically when a "debt buyer" (a defined term, generally someone who purchased the debt after it was charged off, not the original creditor and not most portfolio purchasers) is doing the collecting: an outright bar on suing or arbitrating after the deadline, a total ban on reviving the claim by any means, and a mandatory notice. The debt buyer (or a collector working for one) must send a specific, boldfaced and capitalized notice in its first written contact about a time-barred debt, stating plainly that the law limits how long the consumer can be sued and that the buyer will not sue, with the exact wording depending on whether the debt can still be reported to a credit bureau.

What if the debt originated in another state?

Texas's borrowing rule, § 16.067, isn't shaped around where the creditor lives (unlike California's or New York's), it's shaped around the debtor's move. It bars a claim "against a person who has moved to this state if the claim is barred by the law of limitations of the state or country from which the person came." But it also protects the creditor with a floor: once someone moves to Texas, "a demand ... incurred prior to his arrival in this state is not barred by the law of limitations until the person has lived in this state for 12 months", so a debtor can't use a quick move to Texas to run out an already-close-to-expiring debt faster than Texas's own four-year clock would otherwise allow.

What actually happens once the deadline passes?

It depends on who's trying to collect. For an original creditor collecting its own debt, Texas follows the ordinary default: expiration is an affirmative defense the debtor has to raise (Tex. R. Civ. P. 94 requires pleading it), not an automatic bar, a court won't dismiss a stale claim on its own if nobody points out the deadline passed. But for a debt buyer collecting consumer debt, § 392.307(c) removes that discretion entirely: "a debt buyer may not, directly or indirectly, commence an action against or initiate arbitration with a consumer to collect a consumer debt" once the period has run, full stop.

What trips people up

Secondary sources online frequently claim Texas gives oral contracts only a 2-year deadline, citing § 16.003, that section is Texas's two-year period for property torts (trespass, conversion, personal injury), and never mentions contracts at all; it doesn't apply to debt or contract claims of any kind. Another common trap: a signed email or text message referencing an old, already-expired debt and a vague intention to pay it can restart the clock under § 16.065, even without any payment attached, something an original creditor can use, but that a debt buyer specifically cannot, since § 392.307 shuts that door entirely once a debt buyer holds the claim past the deadline. Whether a given collector counts as the "original creditor" or a "debt buyer" under the Finance Code's technical definition can matter enormously to which set of rules applies.

Common questions

Does Texas give me less time to be sued over an oral agreement than a written one? No. Both get the same 4 years under § 16.004(a)(3) or the § 16.051 residual period, Texas doesn't split written and oral contract debt into different deadlines the way some states do.

I got a letter from a debt buyer about an old debt, and it says they won't sue me. Why? If the four-year period has already run, Finance Code § 392.307 legally bars a debt buyer from suing or arbitrating to collect, and requires them to tell you so in writing in their first contact with you.

I made a payment on an old debt from before I moved to Texas, does that change anything? Whether your out-of-state debt is already time-barred depends on the law of the state you moved from, but Texas's § 16.067 gives you at least 12 months after moving to Texas before Texas's own four-year clock can be used against you on a pre-move debt.

Can I revive my own time-barred debt by accident? If the original creditor (not a debt buyer) is the one collecting, signing something in writing, even an email, that acknowledges you owe an already-expired debt can revive it under § 16.065. A bare, unwritten payment or verbal promise, standing alone, doesn't meet that statute's signed-writing requirement.

Statutes and sources

• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.004, "A person must bring suit on the following actions not later than four years after the day the cause of action accrues: ... (3) debt...", https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/cp/pdf/cp.16.pdf (accessed 2026-08-09)
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a), the two-year section lists property torts, personal injury, and forcible-entry claims, not debt or contract actions., https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/cp/pdf/cp.16.pdf (accessed 2026-08-09)
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.051, "Every action for which there is no express limitations period, except an action for the recovery of real property, must be brought not later than four years after the day the cause of action accrues.", https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/cp/pdf/cp.16.pdf (accessed 2026-08-09)
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.065, "An acknowledgment of the justness of a claim that appears to be barred by limitations is not admissible in evidence to defeat the law of limitations if made after the time that the claim is due unless the acknowledgment is in writing and is signed by the party to be charged.", https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/cp/pdf/cp.16.pdf (accessed 2026-08-09)
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.067, "A person may not bring an action to recover a claim against a person who has moved to this state if the claim is barred by the law of limitations of the state or country from which the person came. ... A demand ... incurred prior to his arrival in this state is not barred by the law of limitations until the person has lived in this state for 12 months.", https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/cp/pdf/cp.16.pdf (accessed 2026-08-09)
• Tex. Fin. Code § 392.307, "A debt buyer may not, directly or indirectly, commence an action against or initiate arbitration with a consumer to collect a consumer debt after the expiration of the applicable limitations period ... If an action to collect a consumer debt is barred under Subsection (c), the cause of action is not revived by a payment of the consumer debt, an oral or written reaffirmation of the consumer debt, or any other activity on the consumer debt.", https://tcss.legis.texas.gov/resources/fi/pdf/fi.392.pdf (accessed 2026-08-09)