In California, the deadline to sue on a written contract is four years, and on an unwritten obligation it is two. Those periods are set by Code of Civil Procedure § 337(a) and § 339(1). California then does something most states do not: once the § 337 period runs, the statute itself says no one may file suit, and a payment cannot bring the claim back.
The deadlines, and where each one is written
| What is being collected | Deadline to file suit | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Obligation founded on a written instrument | 4 years | Code Civ. Proc. § 337(a) |
| Account stated, book account, mutual open account | 4 years | Code Civ. Proc. § 337(b) |
| Contract or obligation not founded on a writing | 2 years | Code Civ. Proc. § 339(1) |
| Promissory note payable at a definite time | 6 years from the due date | Com. Code § 3118(a) |
| Any claim not otherwise provided for | 4 years | Code Civ. Proc. § 343 |
| A court judgment | 10 years | Code Civ. Proc. § 337.5(b) |
Which category a credit card balance falls into
California’s code does not answer this directly, and that matters more here than in most states. No section of the limitations statutes names credit cards, revolving credit, or open-end credit. Whether a particular balance is treated as a written contract under § 337(a), an account stated under § 337(b), or an unwritten obligation under § 339 has been worked out through court decisions rather than by the legislature, and the difference between those categories is four years versus two.
The commonly published answer, that California credit card debt is a four-year book account, also rests on a rule the legislature has since narrowed. Section 337a, as amended effective January 1, 2024, now states plainly that a “‘book account’ does not include consumer debt,” and defines that debt as an obligation incurred on or after July 1, 2024 for personal, family, or household purposes “where the obligation to pay appears on the face of a note or in a written contract.” For accounts opened after that date, the book-account theory is off the table by statute. Older accounts are unaffected.
What this means in practice: treat any flat statement that credit card debt in California is four years, full stop, as an approximation rather than a rule you can read out of the code. The four-year figure is defensible for balances resting on a signed written agreement. The category question is genuinely contested, the answer can change the deadline by two years, and for accounts incurred since July 2024 one of the traditional routes to four years no longer exists.
What the deadline does, and what it does not do
A limitations period governs how long someone has to file a lawsuit. It does not erase the balance or remove the account from your credit reports. Credit reporting runs on a separate federal clock, generally seven years for most negative account information under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. California also does not extinguish time-barred debt. The state bars the remedy and bars revival, but the obligation itself continues to exist, which is why the notices described below tell consumers a collector may keep reporting the account even while promising not to sue.
What restarts the clock in California, and what does not
The controlling provision is Code of Civil Procedure § 360, and it is considerably narrower than the general warnings about old debt suggest. Three things are true on the face of the statute.
- An acknowledgment or new promise must be written and signed. No acknowledgment or promise counts “unless the same is contained in some writing, signed by the party to be charged thereby.” A conversation with a collector does not qualify.
- The partial-payment restart applies only to promissory notes. Section 360’s payment rule is written for “any payment on account of principal or interest due on a promissory note.” The statute provides no equivalent payment restart for ordinary contracts, book accounts, or accounts stated.
- A payment cannot revive an expired claim. The section ends: “no such payment of itself shall revive a cause of action once barred.”
Section 337(d) closes the door further for claims within § 337, providing that the period “shall only be extended pursuant to Section 360.” A waiver of the defense is subject to its own signed-writing requirement and a four-year cap under § 360.5.
California debt collection statute of limitations: suing on old debt is prohibited
Two separate statutes bar the lawsuit itself rather than merely giving the consumer a defense.
For claims within § 337, subsection (d) provides: “When the period in which an action must be commenced under this section has run, a person shall not bring suit or initiate an arbitration or other legal proceeding to collect the debt.” Read carefully, this prohibition is tied to “this section,” so it attaches to the four-year § 337 categories rather than to every limitations period in the code.
For debt buyers, Civil Code § 1788.56 is broader: “A debt buyer shall not bring suit or initiate an arbitration or other legal proceeding to collect a consumer debt if the applicable statute of limitations on the debt buyer’s claim has expired.” That applies whichever limitations period governs.
California also requires collectors to say so in writing. Under Civil Code § 1788.14(d), and in parallel for debt buyers under § 1788.52(d), the first written communication about a time-barred debt must carry one of two notices. Where the account can still be credit-reported:
The law limits how long you can be sued on a debt. Because of the age of your debt, we will not sue you for it. If you do not pay the debt, [insert name of debt collector] may [continue to] report it to the credit reporting agencies as unpaid for as long as the law permits this reporting.
Where the reporting period has also expired, the required notice instead ends: “we will not sue you for it, and we will not report it to any credit reporting agency.” Receiving either notice is useful information, because it is a statement, required by law, that the sender treats the debt as too old to sue on.
The Fair Debt Buying Practices Act backs this with consequences. Civil Code § 1788.62(a)(1) makes a judgment obtained “as a result of a time-barred suit” recoverable as actual damages, and § 1788.60(c) directs that a court “shall not enter a default judgment” for a debt buyer that has not complied with the act’s requirements.
How often California consumers report collection problems
California consumers filed 28,771 debt collection complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the 12 months ending August 26, 2026, which is 8.9% of the 323,584 filed nationwide and ranks 3rd among reporting states.
Of those, 9,115, or 32% of the California total, were categorized as a collector taking or threatening to take negative or legal action, the category covering threats to sue. That is the conduct § 337(d) and § 1788.56 address directly.
These are raw complaint counts, not rates. They are not adjusted for population, and California is the most populous state, so its ranking reflects size as well as collector behavior. 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
Even where the statute prohibits the suit, nothing happens automatically. Limitations is an affirmative defense that the person being sued has to raise; Code of Civil Procedure § 458 governs how it is pleaded and places the burden on the party asserting it. A court does not check the calendar on its own, so someone who is served and does not respond can have a default judgment entered on a debt no one was entitled to sue over.
Respond by the deadline on the papers you were served with, raise the limitations defense in that response, and keep every written notice you received, including any § 1788.14(d) or § 1788.52(d) notice, which is evidence about the age of the debt. Because the category question can move the deadline from four years to two, and because accrual dates are frequently disputed, this is a point at which speaking with a California attorney or a legal aid organization is worth the call.
How California compares
The same question gets a different answer a state line away. These are the closest comparisons to California:
- Texas: a debt buyer is barred from suing once the period runs
- North Carolina: a debt buyer is barred from collecting at all
- Washington: suing on an expired debt is prohibited, and the penalty is permanent
The full comparison table covers every state we have published.
Sources and verification
Statutes quoted from California Legislative Information, the state’s official code database: Code of Civil Procedure § 337, § 337a, § 339, § 343, § 344, § 360, § 360.5, § 458; Commercial Code § 3118; Civil Code §§ 1788.14, 1788.52, 1788.56, 1788.60, 1788.62. Section 337a as amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 688 (AB 1414); § 1788.14 as amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 522 (SB 1286). California’s database does not publish a per-section “current through” date, so each provision above is identified by its own enactment credit line; text retrieved August 26, 2026. Complaint data: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, filtered to the Debt collection product and the California 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 California statutes say. It is general information, not legal advice, and it cannot resolve which limitations category a particular account falls into or when a particular debt accrued.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a debt collector pursue an old debt in California?
A collector may contact you about a debt indefinitely, but the deadline to sue is four years for an obligation founded on a written instrument under Code of Civil Procedure § 337(a) and two years for an unwritten obligation under § 339(1). Once the § 337 period runs, § 337(d) prohibits filing suit or starting arbitration, and § 1788.56 separately prohibits a debt buyer from suing on any time-barred consumer debt.
Does making a payment restart the statute of limitations in California?
Usually not. Under § 360, an acknowledgment or new promise only counts if it is in writing and signed by the person being charged, and the partial-payment restart in that section is written specifically for promissory notes rather than ordinary accounts. The statute also states that no such payment by itself revives a claim that is already barred.
Is California credit card debt a four-year or two-year debt?
The code does not say. No California limitations statute names credit cards, so the category is determined by case law, and it can be four years as a written contract or account stated, or two years as an unwritten obligation. Section 337a, amended effective January 1, 2024, also excludes consumer debt incurred on or after July 1, 2024 from the “book account” category entirely.
Can a time-barred debt still appear on my California credit report?
Yes. California bars the lawsuit but does not extinguish the debt. Credit reporting runs on a separate federal clock, generally seven years for most negative account information, and the notice California requires collectors to send says explicitly that an unpaid debt may continue to be reported.