Connecticut gives creditors six years to sue on an account, a written contract, or a simple or implied contract, all in one sentence of § 52-576. Only an express agreement that was never put in writing gets the shorter three years. What the statutes do not contain is any rule on whether a payment or an acknowledgment restarts the clock. In Connecticut that question is answered by court decisions, not by the legislature.
The deadlines, and where each one is written
| What is being collected | Deadline to file suit | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| An account, or any simple or implied contract, or any contract in writing | 6 years | C.G.S. § 52-576(a) |
| An express contract not reduced to writing (and with no signed note or memorandum) | 3 years | C.G.S. § 52-581(a) |
| Execution on a judgment of a Connecticut court | 20 years from the date of judgment | C.G.S. § 52-598(a) |
| Execution on a small claims judgment | 10 years from the date of judgment | C.G.S. § 52-598(b) |
Both contract sections exclude “any cause of action governed by article 2 of title 42a,” the commercial code’s rules on the sale of goods. The three-year rule in § 52-581 once had its own exception for “actions for a debt due by book”; the section’s history notes that P.A. 82-160 deleted it.
Credit cards: six years under most readings of the text
Connecticut’s limitations chapter, Chapter 926, never mentions credit cards. It does not have to for most purposes. Section 52-576(a) puts “an account,” “any simple or implied contract,” and “any contract in writing” in the same six-year period, so a card balance gets six years whether it is described as an account, a written cardholder agreement, or an implied contract. The three-year rule in § 52-581 applies only to an express contract “not reduced to writing, or of which some note or memorandum is not made in writing and signed by the party to be charged.”
What this means in practice: unlike most states, Connecticut’s code largely removes the written-versus-unwritten fight for card debt, because accounts and written contracts share one period. The harder question here is not the deadline, it is whether something you did restarted it, and the statutes do not answer that.
When the clock starts, and what pauses it
Both sections run from when “the right of action accrues,” and the chapter does not define that for a card or loan. Section 52-590 pauses the clock for time the defendant “is without this state,” but caps it: “the time so excluded shall not exceed seven years.”
What restarts the clock in Connecticut: no statute says
We read Chapter 926 for a provision on payments, acknowledgments, or new promises and found none. The rules exist, but they come from court decisions. The annotations the General Assembly publishes alongside the chapter summarize decades of Connecticut cases on the point, including that “an acknowledgment of a debt as just and subsisting is sufficient,” that “payment of interest removes bar,” and that “payment of part of debt, with refusal to pay more, does not remove bar.”
Those lines are summaries of case law, not statutory text, and we quote them only to show where the rule lives. Because there is no statute, there is also no statutory writing requirement, and one annotated case is summarized as “revival by general acknowledgment; implied from silence or acquiescence.” Anyone telling you exactly what restarts a Connecticut debt is describing case law, which can turn on the facts.
Judgments last a long time
If a creditor wins, the clock changes completely. Under § 52-598(a), execution on a Connecticut money judgment may issue for twenty years, and a new action based on the judgment may be brought for twenty-five. A small claims judgment allows execution for ten years and an action on it for fifteen, under § 52-598(b). A motion to revive a judgment must be filed before those periods expire, and § 52-598(c) says no revival may extend them.
How often Connecticut consumers report collection problems
Connecticut consumers filed 1,979 debt collection complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the 12 months ending October 7, 2026, which is 0.6% of the 316,737 filed nationwide and ranks 30th among reporting states.
Of those, 479, or 24% of the Connecticut total, were categorized as a collector taking or threatening to take negative or legal action, against 25% nationally.
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
The statute of limitations is a defense you have to raise in your answer. A person who does not respond to a Connecticut collection suit can lose by default, and a default judgment can be enforced for decades under § 52-598.
Two Connecticut-specific things to check: whether the claim is really six years under § 52-576 or could be an unwritten express contract under § 52-581; and whether the creditor is claiming a payment or acknowledgment restarted the clock, which is a question of case law rather than statute. Court deadlines are short, so this is a point at which speaking with a Connecticut attorney or a legal aid organization is worth the call.
How Connecticut compares
The same question gets a different answer a state line away. These are the closest comparisons to Connecticut:
- New York: next door, three years, and nothing revives an expired consumer debt
- Massachusetts: next door, six years, with a regulation requiring collectors to warn you
- New Jersey: six years, written or oral, and a statute that expressly declines to answer the payment question
The full comparison table covers every state we have published.
Sources and verification
Statutes quoted from the General Statutes of Connecticut, revised to January 1, 2025, as published by the Connecticut General Assembly, checked against the 2026 Supplement, which amends only §§ 52-592 and 52-593a in this chapter. Provisions cited: C.G.S. §§ 52-576, 52-581, 52-590, and 52-598. Section histories show 52-576 and 52-581 last amended by P.A. 82-160. The case-law summaries quoted above are from the annotations published with Chapter 926. Text retrieved October 2, 2026. Complaint data: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, filtered to the Debt collection product and the Connecticut 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 Connecticut statutes say. It is general information, not legal advice. It does not state what restarts the clock on a Connecticut debt, because no Connecticut statute addresses it, and it cannot establish when a particular debt accrued.
Frequently asked questions
What is the statute of limitations on debt in Connecticut?
Six years for an account, a written contract, or a simple or implied contract under C.G.S. § 52-576(a). Three years for an express contract that was never reduced to writing under § 52-581(a).
Is credit card debt six years in Connecticut?
The statute does not name credit cards, but § 52-576(a) gives accounts, written contracts, and implied contracts the same six years, so a card balance gets six years under any of those descriptions. Only an express oral contract gets three.
Does a payment restart the statute of limitations in Connecticut?
No Connecticut statute says. Chapter 926 has no provision on payments or acknowledgments. Court decisions, summarized in the annotations to the chapter, have held that some payments and acknowledgments remove the bar and others do not.
How long does a Connecticut judgment last?
Execution on a money judgment may issue for twenty years, and an action on it may be brought for twenty-five, under § 52-598(a). A small claims judgment allows execution for ten years and an action for fifteen under § 52-598(b).