Kentucky gives creditors one of the longest windows in the country on a written contract: ten years if it was signed after July 15, 2014, and fifteen years if it was signed before. An agreement that is not in writing gets five. Which of those applies to an old credit card or loan balance turns on two facts most people never think about: whether there is a signed writing at all, and when it was signed.
The deadlines, and where each one is written
| What is being collected | Deadline to file suit | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Written contract executed after July 15, 2014 | 10 years | KRS 413.160 |
| Written contract executed on or before July 15, 2014 | 15 years | KRS 413.090(2) |
| Contract not in writing, express or implied | 5 years | KRS 413.120(1) |
| Merchant’s account for goods sold and delivered, or an article charged in a store account | 5 years | KRS 413.120(9) |
| Promissory note placed upon the footing of a bill of exchange | 5 years | KRS 413.120(7) |
| Note payable at a definite time (commercial code) | 6 years | KRS 355.3-118(1) |
| Contract for the sale of goods | 4 years | KRS 355.2-725(1) |
| Judgment of a Kentucky or other U.S. court | 15 years from the last execution | KRS 413.090(1) |
The 2014 date comes from the legislature itself. In 2014 the General Assembly amended KRS 413.090(2) so that it now covers written contracts “except that actions upon written contracts executed after July 15, 2014, shall be governed by KRS 413.160,” and amended 413.160 to give those newer contracts ten years. Both changes took effect July 15, 2014. A contract signed on or before that date still carries the old fifteen-year period.
Two of the rows above overlap. KRS 413.120(7) gives five years on “a promissory note, placed upon the footing of a bill of exchange,” while the commercial code at KRS 355.3-118(1) gives six years on “a note payable at a definite time.” The statutes do not say which controls a given consumer note, so we list both rather than pick one.
Five, ten, or fifteen years? The code does not say for credit cards
The words credit card, revolving, and consumer appear nowhere in Kentucky’s limitations chapter, KRS Chapter 413. A card balance could be argued as a written contract (ten or fifteen years, depending on the date), as a contract not in writing (five years), or, for a store card, as a merchant’s account for goods “charged in such store account” (five years, with its own way of counting time). No section assigns it to one of those.
What this means in practice: anyone quoting a single Kentucky number for credit card debt is relying on a court’s reasoning or a guess, not on the statute. The spread is unusually wide here, from five years to fifteen, so the paperwork matters: whether the creditor can produce a signed agreement, and the date on it.
When the clock starts
Every period in KRS 413.090, 413.120, and 413.160 runs from when the cause of action “accrued,” and the code does not define that for an ordinary loan or card. It does give one special rule that matters for store accounts. Under KRS 413.130(1), on a merchant’s account the limitation “shall be computed from January 1 next succeeding the respective dates of the delivery of the several articles charged in the account,” and judgment can be given only for articles charged or delivered within the five years before the year the suit was filed.
An action counts as started, under KRS 413.250, “on the date of the first summons or process issued in good faith from the court.” And under KRS 413.190, time can stop running while the debtor is out of the state or “by absconding or concealing himself” obstructs the lawsuit.
What restarts the clock in Kentucky: the code is nearly silent
Most states have a section saying whether a payment or a written acknowledgment revives an old debt. Kentucky’s limitations chapter does not. We read every section in Chapter 413, and the only one that mentions a promise, acknowledgment, or payment is KRS 413.100, which deals with debts secured by a lien:
No promise, acknowledgment, or payment of money by any person bound on any bond or obligation for the payment of money secured by a lien shall operate as an extension of the time within which the lien may be enforced as against purchasers or creditors, unless, before expiration of the limitations period for enforcement of the debt under KRS 413.090(2) or 413.160, as applicable [the extension is recorded].
That section only protects later purchasers and creditors of secured property. It assumes that a promise, acknowledgment, or payment can extend a debt between the borrower and the lender, but it does not say so, and it says nothing about unsecured debt like a credit card. Kentucky’s statute of frauds, KRS 371.010, lists the promises that must be in writing to be enforced, and a promise to pay a time-barred debt is not on that list.
So the code gives no answer to whether a small payment on an old Kentucky debt restarts the clock, and no writing requirement for an acknowledgment. Those questions are left to the courts. If a collector tells you a payment you made restarted the deadline, that is a legal argument, not something a Kentucky statute says.
Other Kentucky rules that move the deadline
Three more sections can change the answer. KRS 413.320 is a borrowing statute: when a claim arose in another state with a shorter deadline, “said action shall be barred in this state at the expiration of said shorter period.” KRS 413.330 applies the same idea to judgments from other states. And KRS 413.265 makes “written agreements entered into in good faith and at arms length to extend limitations periods” valid and enforceable, so a signed extension agreement can lengthen the deadline.
How often Kentucky consumers report collection problems
Kentucky consumers filed 1,606 debt collection complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the 12 months ending October 7, 2026, which is 0.5% of the 316,737 filed nationwide and ranks 31st among reporting states.
Of those, 351, or 22% of the Kentucky 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 yourself. Nothing in Chapter 413 tells a court to apply it on its own, so a person who does not answer a Kentucky collection suit can lose by default even on a debt the creditor waited too long to bring.
Three Kentucky-specific things to work out: whether the creditor has a signed written agreement or is suing on an unwritten account; if it is written, whether it was signed before or after July 15, 2014; and, for a store account, whether the January 1 counting rule in KRS 413.130(1) applies. Court deadlines are short, so this is a point at which speaking with a Kentucky attorney or a legal aid organization is worth the call.
How Kentucky compares
The same question gets a different answer a state line away. These are the closest comparisons to Kentucky:
- West Virginia: a similar long period on a signed writing, five years otherwise
- Illinois: ten years written and five unwritten, with a clear rule on written promises
- Ohio: next door, six years, and a payment alone restarts the clock
The full comparison table covers every state we have published.
Sources and verification
Statutes quoted from the Kentucky Revised Statutes as published by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, which states the database includes enactments through the 2026 Regular Session and was last updated October 2, 2026. Provisions cited: KRS 413.090, 413.100, 413.120, 413.130, 413.160, 413.190, 413.250, 413.265, 413.320, and 413.330 (every section of Chapter 413 was read); KRS 371.010; and KRS 355.2-725 and 355.3-118. The 2014 changes to KRS 413.090 and 413.160 are recorded in each section’s history as 2014 Ky. Acts ch. 142, effective July 15, 2014. Text retrieved October 2, 2026. Complaint data: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, filtered to the Debt collection product and the Kentucky 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 Kentucky statutes say. It is general information, not legal advice. It deliberately does not state a single deadline for credit card debt, because no Kentucky statute assigns that category, and it does not say whether a payment restarts the clock, because Chapter 413 does not address that for unsecured debt.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a creditor sue on a debt in Kentucky?
It depends on the paperwork. A written contract signed after July 15, 2014 carries ten years under KRS 413.160, and one signed on or before that date carries fifteen under KRS 413.090(2). A contract not in writing carries five years under KRS 413.120(1). A judgment can be enforced for fifteen years from the last execution under KRS 413.090(1).
Is Kentucky credit card debt five years or ten?
No Kentucky statute says. Chapter 413 never mentions credit cards. Depending on how a court sees the account, it could be a written contract (ten or fifteen years, depending on when it was signed), a contract not in writing (five years), or, for a store card, a merchant’s account (five years). Any single number you see published comes from case law or a guess, not the code.
Does making a payment restart the statute of limitations in Kentucky?
The Kentucky code does not say for unsecured debt. The only section in the limitations chapter that mentions a payment, KRS 413.100, deals with liens against later purchasers and creditors. Whether a payment on an old card or loan restarts the clock is left to the courts.
Can an old debt still show up on my Kentucky credit report?
Yes. A limitations period stops a lawsuit; it does not control credit reporting. Credit reporting runs on a separate federal clock, generally seven years for most negative account information.