Kansas gives creditors five years to sue on a written agreement and three years on one that is not in writing. A payment restarts that clock with no paperwork at all, while an acknowledgment or a promise to pay only counts if it is in writing and signed. Those two rules sit in the same sentence of K.S.A. 60-520, and they are why a small “good faith” payment on an old Kansas debt can matter more than anything you say on the phone.
The deadlines, and where each one is written
| What is being collected | Deadline to file suit | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Any agreement, contract, or promise in writing | 5 years | K.S.A. 60-511(1) |
| Contracts, obligations, or liabilities, express or implied, not in writing | 3 years | K.S.A. 60-512(1) |
| Liability created by statute (other than a penalty or forfeiture) | 3 years | K.S.A. 60-512(2) |
| Relief not provided for elsewhere in the article (except real property) | 5 years | K.S.A. 60-511(5) |
| Note payable at a definite time (commercial code) | 6 years | K.S.A. 84-3-118(a) |
| Contract for the sale of goods | 4 years | K.S.A. 84-2-725(1) |
K.S.A. 60-510 sets the frame for all of these: civil actions “can only be commenced within the period prescribed in the following sections of this article, after the cause of action shall have accrued.” The written-versus-unwritten split in 60-511 and 60-512 has been in place since the 1963 code took effect on January 1, 1964, and neither section has been amended since 1965.
Five years or three? The code does not say for credit cards
The words credit card and revolving do not appear in the contract sections of Kansas’s limitations article, K.S.A. 60-510 through 60-520. A card balance could be an “agreement, contract or promise in writing” at five years, or an obligation “expressed or implied but not in writing” at three. The statute does not say which, and the answer can depend on what documents the creditor can actually produce.
What this means in practice: in Kansas the gap is two years, and it turns on the writing. A creditor or debt buyer that cannot produce the signed or accepted agreement may have a harder time claiming the five-year period. That is a question for the court in your case; the statute itself only describes the two categories.
When the clock starts, and what pauses it
The periods run from accrual, which the article does not define for an ordinary loan or card account. Two sections can stop the clock. Under K.S.A. 60-517, if the debtor is out of the state, or “has absconded or concealed himself or herself,” the time does not count, but the section “shall not apply to extend the period of limitation as to any defendant whose whereabouts are known and upon whom service of summons can be effected.” In other words, simply living in another state does not pause a Kansas deadline if the creditor can still serve you. And K.S.A. 60-519 stops the clock while an injunction prevents the suit.
What restarts the clock in Kansas
K.S.A. 60-520(a) covers payments, acknowledgments, and promises in one sentence:
In any case founded on contract, when any part of the principal or interest 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, an action may be brought in such case within the period prescribed for the same, after such payment, acknowledgment or promise; but such acknowledgment or promise must be in writing, signed by the party to be charged thereby.
Read closely, that does three things. A payment of principal or interest starts a fresh period running from the payment, and the writing requirement at the end does not mention payments, so none is needed. An acknowledgment or a promise to pay also starts a fresh period, but only if it is in writing and signed by the person being charged. A spoken “yes, I owe that” on a collection call is not enough under the statute.
The section does not say whether a payment made after the period has already run revives the debt or only extends one still running. It says “an action may be brought … within the period prescribed for the same, after such payment,” with no limit on timing, and it is silent beyond that.
Subsection (b) protects co-borrowers: when two or more people owe a debt jointly, one person’s payment, acknowledgment, or promise does not restart the clock against the others “unless done with the knowledge and consent of” the person being charged.
Debts from other states
K.S.A. 60-516 is a borrowing statute. When a claim arose in another state and that state’s deadline has already run, “no action can be maintained thereon in this state,” except in favor of a Kansas resident who has held the claim from the time it accrued. A debt buyer that bought an account after it accrued does not fit that exception on the statute’s own words.
How often Kansas consumers report collection problems
Kansas consumers filed 803 debt collection complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the 12 months ending October 7, 2026, which is 0.3% of the 316,737 filed nationwide and ranks 35th among reporting states.
Of those, 130, or 16% of the Kansas 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
K.S.A. 60-208(c)(1) says that in responding to a pleading, “a party must affirmatively state any avoidance or affirmative defense,” and the list that follows expressly includes the statute of limitations. If you do not raise it in your answer, the court is not required to raise it for you.
Two Kansas-specific things to work out: whether the creditor is relying on a written agreement (five years) or an unwritten one (three), and whether any payment, or any signed letter or form acknowledging the debt, falls within the period, since K.S.A. 60-520 runs the new period from that date. Court deadlines are short, so this is a point at which speaking with a Kansas attorney or a legal aid organization is worth the call.
How Kansas compares
The same question gets a different answer a state line away. These are the closest comparisons to Kansas:
- Oklahoma: the same five-year written and three-year unwritten split, with payment also outside the writing rule
- Missouri: next door, with ten years on a writing
- Colorado: next door, six years on a liquidated debt and three otherwise
The full comparison table covers every state we have published.
Sources and verification
Statutes quoted from the Kansas Statutes Annotated as published by the Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes on the Kansas Legislature website (2025–2026 statute database). Provisions cited: K.S.A. 60-208, 60-510, 60-511, 60-512, 60-516, 60-517, 60-519, and 60-520; and K.S.A. 84-2-725 and 84-3-118. Section histories show 60-511 last amended in 1965 and 60-512 and 60-520 unchanged since the 1963 code took effect on January 1, 1964. The Revisor’s own site, ksrevisor.org, served a browser check that our tools could not pass, so we used the same office’s text on the Legislature’s site. Text retrieved October 2, 2026. Complaint data: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, filtered to the Debt collection product and the Kansas 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 Kansas statutes say. It is general information, not legal advice. It does not state a single deadline for credit card debt, because no Kansas statute assigns that category, and it does not say whether a payment made after the deadline revives a debt, because K.S.A. 60-520 does not address timing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the statute of limitations on debt in Kansas?
Five years on any agreement, contract, or promise in writing under K.S.A. 60-511(1), and three years on contracts and obligations not in writing under K.S.A. 60-512(1). A note payable at a definite time carries six years under the commercial code, K.S.A. 84-3-118(a).
Does a payment restart the statute of limitations in Kansas?
Yes. Under K.S.A. 60-520(a), when any part of the principal or interest has been paid, a new period runs from the payment. The writing requirement in that section applies to acknowledgments and promises, not to payments.
Can I restart the clock just by admitting the debt on the phone?
Not under the statute. K.S.A. 60-520(a) requires an acknowledgment or promise to pay to be in writing and signed by the person being charged.
Is Kansas credit card debt three years or five?
No Kansas statute says. The limitations article never mentions credit cards. A card balance could be treated as a written agreement at five years or an unwritten obligation at three, and the code leaves that to the courts.