Credit Card lenders and their debt collectors have a limited amount of time to sue debtors for failing to repay credit card debt. In the state of Texas, the statute of limitations for open ended type debts such as a credit card is four years. A debt collector pursuing a debtor for payment on a credit card debt is prohibited from filing a lawsuit against that debtor after the statute of limitations has run out. However, debt collectors are not prohibited from pursing a debtor for payment after the statute of limitations has expired they just cannot use the court system to do so. If a debt collector sues a debtor after the statute of limitations has expired, that debtor will need to prove that statute of limitations has expired and the case will be dismissed. Generally speaking it is up to the debtor to prove that the statute of limitations has expired. How will the debtor know when the statute of limitations has expired? Well, generally speaking the statute of limitations is determined by the last date of activity on an account. For example, if a debtor last paid on credit card account in January 2010, the statute of limitations would typically expire around February 2014 if the statute of limitations is four years. However, there have been cases where a debtor inadvertently reset the statute of limitations by making a payment on a credit card. Making any type of payment on your credit card, no matter how small can reset the statute of limitations. For example, if the debtor mentioned above made a $20 payment in December 2013, then the statute of limitations would expire four years after that date if they lived in Texas.
