Michigan Statute of Limitations on Credit Card Debt: 6 Years, Plus a 30-Day Quirk
Quick answer
Michigan’s six-year clock has a counting quirk that decides borderline cases, and a signed-writing revival rule that protects defendants better than most states.
- Do this first: verify the deadline, court listed on your papers, plaintiff, and service details.
- Do not rely on education alone: long guides help after the deadline and filing path are under control.
Quick answer
Michigan's statute of limitations on credit card debt is six years under MCL 600.5807(9), the period for breach-of-contract claims. Two features of Michigan's rule decide the borderline cases:
The 30-day counting quirk. The conventional accrual anchor in Michigan credit-card cases is last payment plus roughly 30 days — the breach occurs when the next payment came due and was missed, about a billing cycle after your last payment. On a claim filed a few weeks either side of the six-year line, those ~30 days are the whole case. Build your timeline to the day.
The signed-writing revival rule. Under MCL 600.5866, a claim that is already time-barred is revived only by a signed written acknowledgment or promise to pay. A phone conversation cannot resurrect an expired Michigan debt — a meaningfully stronger protection than states where oral promises revive claims. The caution that remains: a partial payment while the clock is still running may restart it under common-law principles, so the safe sequence is always dates first, decisions second.
One more distinction worth checking on financed purchases: claims on retail installment or sale-of-goods contracts can fall under the UCC's four-year period (MCL 440.2725(1)) rather than the six-year contract rule — shorter, and worth raising where the paper fits.
The defense only works if you use it: a time-barred claim still wins by default when nobody answers. If a summons has arrived, check your response deadline free — no card, no account. Answered is self-help software, not a law firm; this is general information, not legal advice, and limitations analysis is fact-specific — verify against your account history.
The Michigan limitations map
| Claim type | Period | Statute | Clock starts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit card / written contract | 6 years | MCL 600.5807(9) | Breach — conventionally last payment + ~30 days |
| UCC sale of goods / retail installment | 4 years | MCL 440.2725(1) | Tender of delivery |
| Judgment | 10 years, renewable | MCL 600.5809(3) | Entry — judgments outlive debts |
| Revival of a barred claim | Signed writing only | MCL 600.5866 | — |
Working the map:
1. Date the last payment precisely. Statements or bank records, not memory — the +30-day anchor then sets the accrual date.
2. Compare against the filing date on the summons. Outside six years (or four, on qualifying goods paper)? The limitations defense belongs in your Answer — Michigan courts do not raise it for you, and unpleaded affirmative defenses are generally waived.
3. Audit the plaintiff's payment history. Debt-buyer records sometimes show a late "payment" that conveniently restarts the clock — the same records whose ownership gaps you should be probing anyway. Your bank history is the counter-evidence.
4. Sign nothing without reading twice. Given the signed-writing revival rule, the documents a collector asks a Michigan defendant to sign — hardship forms, payment-plan stipulations — can carry limitations consequences beyond their stated purpose. Dates first, decisions second, everything in writing you have read.
Using the defense, and its honest limits
Time-barred is not gone. Expiration bars the lawsuit remedy; voluntary collection requests can continue and the account can still appear on credit reports within the separate ~7-year reporting window. What a collector cannot lawfully do is sue — or threaten suit — on a debt it knows is time-barred: federal rules prohibit it, and violations feed the sue-them-back playbook with statutory damages and fee-shifting.
The defense must be pleaded, on time. In our six-year study of Wisconsin court data, 62% of debt lawsuits ended in default or uncontested judgment — and expired claims convert into enforceable judgments through exactly that silence. Filing an Answer that pleads the statute of limitations from your documented dates is the entire mechanism; there is no automatic screening.
Close cases get litigated. When the filing date sits near the six-year line, expect the fight to be about accrual (which missed payment was the breach?) and about alleged late payments. Michigan's +30-day convention usually favors the defendant on the margin — one more reason precision beats approximation in your timeline.
Where Answered supports your case type, the $99 Full Defense Packet builds the Michigan court-ready Answer with the limitations defense computed from your actual dates plus the proof-issue report on the plaintiff — the deadline check and a watermarked preview are free first. The broader Michigan picture lives at the Michigan hub, and the national map at the state-by-state guide.
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Frequently asked questions
Common questions
How long is the statute of limitations on credit card debt in Michigan?
Six years under MCL 600.5807(9), conventionally measured from your last payment plus roughly 30 days — the breach occurs when the next payment came due and was missed. Retail-installment and sale-of-goods claims can instead fall under the UCC’s four-year period. On borderline filings, that 30-day anchor is often the whole case, so date your last payment from records, not memory.
Can a payment or phone call restart the clock on an old Michigan debt?
Once a claim is fully time-barred, Michigan law revives it only through a signed written acknowledgment or promise (MCL 600.5866) — a phone conversation cannot resurrect it. But a partial payment made while the clock is still running may restart the period, so know your dates before paying anything, and be deliberate about any document a collector asks you to sign.
What happens if I’m sued on a time-barred debt in Michigan?
Answer by the deadline and plead the statute of limitations as an affirmative defense with your payment timeline — courts do not apply it automatically, and an unanswered time-barred claim still becomes a default judgment. Suing on debt a collector knows is expired also violates federal collection rules, which can support statutory damages and attorney’s fees against them.
How long does a judgment last in Michigan?
Ten years, and renewable (MCL 600.5809(3)) — so a judgment entered because nobody raised the limitations defense can outlive the original six-year period twice over, accruing interest and supporting garnishment throughout. Preventing the judgment by answering is worth far more than the underlying debt numbers suggest.