Alabama gives creditors six years to sue on most debts and three years on an open account, and the difference between those two categories is the whole question. Unusually, the state also puts a hard time limit on the most common way debts get revived: a partial payment restarts the clock only if it is made before the deadline has already passed.
The deadlines, and where each one is written
| What is being collected | Deadline to file suit | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Open or unliquidated account | 3 years | Ala. Code § 6-2-37(1) |
| Promises in writing not under seal | 6 years | Ala. Code § 6-2-34(4) |
| Money upon a loan, or a stated or liquidated account | 6 years | Ala. Code § 6-2-34(5) |
| Any simple contract not specifically enumerated | 6 years | Ala. Code § 6-2-34(9) |
| Contract or writing under seal | 10 years | Ala. Code § 6-2-33(1) |
| Note payable at a definite time | 6 years | Ala. Code § 7-3-118(a) |
| A judgment | 20 years | Ala. Code § 6-2-32 |
Two distinctions worth getting right, because both are commonly collapsed. Alabama splits open accounts from stated accounts and puts them in different sections at different periods: an “open or unliquidated account” gets three years under § 6-2-37(1), while a “stated or liquidated account” gets six under § 6-2-34(5). And Alabama’s two-year residual at § 6-2-38(l) does not reach debt at all, because it is limited by its own words to claims “not arising from contract.” The contract catch-all is § 6-2-34(9), at six years.
Alabama also does not set a different period for oral agreements. Written promises fall under § 6-2-34(4) and everything else under the § 6-2-34(9) catch-all, both at six years.
Three years or six? The code does not say
The words credit card, revolving, and consumer appear nowhere in Alabama’s limitations chapter. A card balance could plausibly be an open account at three years, a written promise at six, a stated account at six, or a simple contract at six, and no statutory text assigns it.
What this means in practice: there is no Alabama statute that answers the most common question about this topic, and pages that state a flat number are supplying a court’s reasoning rather than the legislature’s. There is a reason for the silence. Sections 6-2-16, 6-2-34, and 6-2-37 have not been substantively amended since the Code of 1940. Alabama’s debt limitations regime was written decades before consumer credit cards existed, which is exactly why it does not mention them.
When the clock starts
The general rule in § 6-2-30(a) runs the period from accrual. For accounts, § 6-2-37(1) supplies its own trigger, computing time “from the date of the last item of the account or from the time when, by contract or usage, the account is due.” A companion rule at § 6-2-11 handles mutual accounts between non-merchants, also running from the last item.
Note carefully what those say and do not say. They run from the last item, not from the last payment. No Alabama statute makes the date of your last payment the accrual date for a debt. Payment operates through a different provision entirely, and that provision has a condition attached.
What restarts the clock in Alabama, and the deadline on doing it
Section 6-2-16 is one sentence and it does three things at once:
No act, promise, or acknowledgment is sufficient to remove the bar to an action created by the provisions of this chapter, nor is such evidence of a new and continuing contract, except a partial payment, made upon the contract by the party sought to be charged before the bar is complete or an unconditional promise in writing signed by the party to be charged thereby.
Parsed out: a bare acknowledgment is never sufficient, however clear it is. A partial payment works with no writing and no signature, but only if made “before the bar is complete.” An unconditional promise works, but must be in writing and signed by the person being charged, and the word unconditional is doing real work.
That timing condition on payments is unusual and matters. In most states a payment is treated the same whenever it is made. Alabama’s text authorizes payment as a revival mechanism only while the period is still running. What a payment made after the bar is complete does is not addressed by the statute, which leaves an unconditional signed writing as the only mechanism the text supplies at that point.
One more consumer-favorable rule: under § 6-2-15, any agreement shortening the limitations period below what the law provides is void, outside the commercial code.
Alabama debt collection statute of limitations: what state law does not add
Alabama has no state analogue to the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, no collection agency conduct statute, no prohibition on suing over expired debt, and no required disclosure about a debt’s age. The only collection agency provision in the code is a licensing tax in Title 40 that regulates no conduct whatsoever.
The Deceptive Trade Practices Act does not fill the gap either. We read all twenty-seven prohibited practices in § 8-19-5; none concerns debt collection or limitations. More decisively, § 8-19-7 exempts from the entire chapter any bank or bank affiliate regulated by state or federal banking authorities, and any violation of the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act. For most credit card and bank debt, that closes the door before the practices list matters. Whether an independent debt buyer falls into a gap between those exemptions is not something the code answers.
One provision is genuinely useful if you are the one being sued. Section 8-19-10(b) allows the Act’s liability to be enforced by counterclaim in an action arising from the same transaction “without regard to the statute of limitations” in the Act’s own one-year provision. A consumer sued on a debt is not time-barred from raising a Deceptive Trade Practices counterclaim that would otherwise be too late.
Alabama bars the remedy rather than extinguishing the debt. The code never uses either word, but the structure points one way: § 6-2-30(a) directs that actions be commenced within the period “and not afterwards,” and § 6-2-16 speaks of removing “the bar to an action,” which presupposes an obligation still capable of supporting one.
How often Alabama consumers report collection problems
Alabama consumers filed 7,622 debt collection complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the 12 months ending August 26, 2026, which is 2.4% of the 323,584 filed nationwide and ranks 13th among reporting states, high for its population.
Of those, 974, or 13% of the Alabama total, were categorized as a collector taking or threatening to take negative or legal action, against 25% nationally, one of the lower shares we track.
These are raw complaint counts, not rates. They are not adjusted for population, and a complaint is an allegation the CFPB has published, not a finding that a company broke the law. The figures refresh weekly from the CFPB’s public database.
If you are sued on a debt you believe is too old
Rule 8(c) of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure requires a party to “set forth affirmatively” a list of defenses that expressly includes the statute of limitations, and the rule applies in the district courts where most consumer collection suits are filed.
Two Alabama-specific things to work out. Which category the plaintiff is claiming, since three years and six years are both available depending on how the account is characterized. And the date of the last item on the account, which is what § 6-2-37(1) actually measures from, rather than the date of your last payment. Court deadlines are unforgiving, so this is a point at which speaking with an Alabama attorney or a legal aid organization is worth the call.
How Alabama compares
The same question gets a different answer a state line away. These are the closest comparisons to Alabama:
- Mississippi: the other state where a short period ends in the right being extinguished
- Georgia: the same open-account versus signed-writing split
- Nevada: payment also works only before the period runs out
The full comparison table covers every state we have published.
Sources and verification
Statutes quoted from the Code of Alabama 1975 as published by the Alabama Legislature. The Legislature’s code site renders its text through a client-side application; we retrieved the operative text through that same site’s own data service rather than from any third party. Provisions cited: Ala. Code §§ 6-2-1, 6-2-2, 6-2-11, 6-2-15, 6-2-16, 6-2-17, 6-2-30, 6-2-32, 6-2-33, 6-2-34, 6-2-37, 6-2-38; §§ 7-2-725 and 7-3-118; §§ 8-19-1, 8-19-5, 8-19-7, 8-19-10, 8-19-14; and § 40-12-80. Sections 6-2-16, 6-2-34, and 6-2-37 carry no amendment later than the Code of 1940. The site publishes no currency statement and no official-versus-unofficial disclaimer; we confirmed the database carries 2026 Regular Session enactments, so it is current at least through that session, which adjourned April 9, 2026. Rule 8(c) is published by the Alabama Judicial System. Text retrieved August 26, 2026. Complaint data: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, filtered to the Debt collection product and the Alabama state field over a rolling 12-month window, re-queried weekly by this site. Our data sources and update policy lists every figure on this site that refreshes automatically and how often.
This page explains what the Alabama statutes say. It is general information, not legal advice. It deliberately does not state a single deadline for credit card debt, because no Alabama statute assigns that category, and it does not resolve what a payment made after the bar is complete accomplishes, because § 6-2-16 does not address it.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a debt collector pursue an old debt in Alabama?
It depends on how the account is characterized. An open or unliquidated account carries three years under Ala. Code § 6-2-37(1). A written promise, a loan, a stated or liquidated account, or any other simple contract carries six years under § 6-2-34. The code does not say which of those a credit card balance is.
Is Alabama credit card debt three years or six years?
No Alabama statute answers this. The limitations chapter never uses the words credit card, revolving, or consumer, and its core sections have not been substantively amended since 1940, decades before consumer credit cards existed. Any single number published for Alabama credit card debt comes from case law rather than the code.
Does making a payment restart the statute of limitations in Alabama?
Only if the payment is made before the deadline has already passed. Section 6-2-16 allows a partial payment to remove the bar with no writing or signature, but only where it is “made upon the contract by the party sought to be charged before the bar is complete.” After that point the only mechanism the statute provides is an unconditional promise in writing, signed by the person being charged. A bare acknowledgment never suffices.
Can a time-barred debt still appear on my Alabama credit report?
Yes. Alabama bars the action rather than extinguishing the debt, and it has no state collection statute or disclosure requirement about a debt’s age. Credit reporting runs on a separate federal clock, generally seven years for most negative account information.