How Long Does a Company Have to Bill You for Services?

A company can send you a bill for services whenever it wants, but its power to force you to pay through a lawsuit expires after a set period called the statute of limitations. In most states, that window runs three to six years, though it can be as short as two or as long as ten depending on the type of agreement and where you live.¹ After that window closes, the debt becomes “time-barred.” You still technically owe it, but a court will no longer force you to pay if you show up and raise the deadline as a defense.

The Bill and the Lawsuit Are Two Different Things

There’s no federal rule that stops a company from sending you an invoice a year, three years, or even a decade after the service. What the law limits is the company’s ability to sue. Once the statute of limitations passes, the company can keep calling and mailing bills, and in some circumstances it can still report the debt to the credit bureaus. What it cannot do is get a court to make you pay.

The defense isn’t automatic, and this is where people get hurt. If a creditor files suit on an expired debt and you don’t respond, a judge can enter a default judgment against you.¹ That judgment can lead to wage garnishment, bank levies, and property liens on a debt no court would have enforced had you appeared. Ignoring old bills because you assume the deadline has run is one of the most expensive mistakes consumers make.

Third-party debt collectors are held to a stricter standard than the original company. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Regulation F, a debt collector cannot sue or threaten to sue on a time-barred debt, and violating that rule can give you a separate legal claim against them.² Those protections apply only to third-party collectors. The original creditor can still file suit on a time-barred debt, though it would lose if you raise the statute of limitations.

How Long the Deadline Runs

The length of the deadline depends on two things: what kind of agreement you had, and which state’s law applies. Legal systems sort service agreements into categories, and each category carries its own limit.

Written Contracts

A signed service agreement, engagement letter, or any other written contract gets the longest window. Deadlines range from three years in states such as Alaska and Maryland to ten years in states like Indiana and Iowa. Most states land in the four-to-six-year range.

Oral Contracts

A verbal agreement to pay carries a shorter deadline. These run from two years in California to ten in a handful of states, but three to six years is typical. Oral deals are harder to prove, which is part of why the law gives creditors less time to sue on them.

Promissory Notes

If you signed a promissory note, the Uniform Commercial Code takes over. For a note with a set due date, the creditor generally has six years from that due date to sue. For a demand note with no payment made and no demand issued, the deadline is ten years from the date the note was created.³

Open-Ended Accounts

Revolving credit lines and ongoing service accounts where charges pile up over time sit in their own category. The clock on these accounts can be tricky because it may restart with each new charge or payment, making the calculation less straightforward than a one-time service invoice.

When the Clock Starts, and What Can Restart It

The countdown doesn’t begin the day the service was provided. It begins on the date of the first missed payment.¹ A plumber who did work for you in January 2020 and stopped getting paid in March 2020 started the clock in March.

Two actions can wipe out the time you’ve already banked and put the clock back at zero:

Making a payment. In many states, even a $25 “good faith” payment on a five-year-old debt restarts the statute of limitations to day one, giving the creditor another full period to sue.¹
Acknowledging the debt. In some states, a written confirmation that you owe the money or a promise to pay restarts the clock. Some states treat even a verbal acknowledgment during a collection call as enough.

Debt collectors know this. A common approach is asking for a small token payment to “show good faith,” or getting you to confirm on the phone that the debt is yours. Either move can revive an otherwise expired debt. If you’re unsure whether a bill has passed the deadline, stay noncommittal until you’ve checked the timeline.

Which State’s Law Applies

When you and the company are in different states, figuring out which state’s deadline controls isn’t always obvious. The answer may depend on where you live, where the company is based, or which state’s law is named in the agreement.¹ Many service contracts include a choice-of-law clause in the fine print that names a particular state. If yours does, that clause often controls.

Without a choice-of-law clause, courts usually apply the statute of limitations of the state where the lawsuit is filed. Some states have “borrowing statutes” that require the court to use the shorter of the two states’ periods. If you’ve moved since the original agreement, that adds another wrinkle. Check the contract for a governing-law provision before calculating any deadline.

Medical Bills Have Extra Rules

Medical debt is one of the most common reasons a bill lands months or years after the service. For statute-of-limitations purposes, medical bills are generally treated as written or oral contracts, so the same three-to-six-year range usually applies. A few extra rules only affect medical billing.

The No Surprises Act, effective January 2022, targets unexpected charges from out-of-network providers during emergencies or at in-network facilities. It requires disclosure notices about balance billing protections and good-faith cost estimates for scheduled non-emergency care when the patient is uninsured or self-pay. The law governs what providers can charge more than when they must send the bill, but many states have their own timely-billing laws requiring itemized statements within a set number of business days after discharge. Those deadlines vary by state.

Medical debt also gets special treatment on credit reports. Since 2022, the three major credit bureaus no longer include paid medical debts, medical debts less than one year old, or medical collection debts under $500.⁴ A very late medical bill that ends up in collections won’t touch your credit score for at least a year, and if you pay it during that window, it won’t appear at all.

Federal Government Bills Are Different

If the “company” that billed you is actually a federal agency, the standard framework largely doesn’t apply. Federal agencies do face a six-year deadline to sue, but administrative collection tools such as offsetting your tax refund, garnishing federal benefits, or deducting from federal wages carry no time limit. The Government Accountability Office has confirmed that the statute of limitations reaches only the right to sue, and administrative collection on a time-barred federal debt remains available indefinitely. If you owe a federal agency for overpaid benefits, unreturned grants, or government services, waiting it out doesn’t work.

The Credit Report Clock Is a Separate Timeline

The statute of limitations and the credit reporting period are two different clocks, and mixing them up leads to bad decisions. The statute of limitations decides whether a creditor can sue. The Fair Credit Reporting Act decides how long a delinquent account can appear on your credit report.

Under the FCRA, a collection account or charged-off debt can appear for seven years, starting 180 days after the first delinquency that led to the collection.⁵ Bankruptcies can stay up to ten years. Lawsuit judgments stay for seven years or until the statute of limitations on the judgment expires, whichever is longer.⁶

These clocks often don’t line up. A debt can drop off your credit report after seven years while still being suable in a state with a ten-year window. It can also be time-barred for lawsuit purposes while still weighing down your score. Making a payment on an old debt may restart the statute of limitations, but it does not restart the seven-year credit reporting clock, which stays fixed to the original delinquency date.

What to Do When a Late Bill Arrives

A bill from months or years ago calls for a careful response. Doing nothing risks a default judgment. Paying quickly risks restarting an expired clock. A steady sequence protects you.

Verify the Details First

Check service dates, charges, account numbers, and provider name against your own records. Confirm the debt is yours, that the amount is right, and note when the underlying service happened. That’s what tells you whether the statute of limitations has likely run.

Don’t Pay or Acknowledge Anything Yet

Until you know whether the debt is time-barred, don’t make a payment, don’t promise to pay, and don’t say “yes, I owe this.” Any of those can restart the clock in many states.¹ Keep any call short and noncommittal.

Use Your Debt Validation Rights

If a third-party debt collector contacts you, federal law gives you 30 days to dispute the debt in writing. Within five days of first contacting you, the collector must send a written notice showing the amount owed, the original creditor’s name, and your right to dispute.⁷ A written dispute inside that 30-day window forces the collector to stop all collection activity until it verifies the debt. A collector that can’t verify can’t keep pursuing you.

Put Any Dispute in Writing

Whether you’re dealing with the original company or a collector, send your dispute by certified mail with return receipt. Say you are disputing the validity and timeliness of the charge. You do not need to admit you owe anything. The return receipt is your proof if things escalate.

Stop Collector Calls If You Need To

If a collector’s calls won’t stop, you can send a written notice directing the collector to cease communication. Once received, the collector must stop contacting you, with one narrow exception for a single final message about ending contact or taking a specific action such as filing suit.⁸ A cease-communication letter doesn’t erase the debt, and if the debt is still within the statute of limitations, the collector may respond by suing rather than calling.

Show Up If You Get Sued

If a lawsuit does arrive, appear. This is where the statute of limitations does its work. Raise the expired deadline as your defense and the case gets dismissed. Skip the hearing and you can end up with a judgment enforceable through garnishment and levies on a debt no court would have made you pay if you’d walked in the door.¹

1
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can Debt Collectors Collect a Debt That’s Several Years Old?
2
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (Regulation F) – Time-Barred Debt
3
Legal Information Institute (LII) / Cornell Law School. U.C.C. 3-118 – Statute of Limitations
4
Library of Congress – Congressional Research Service. An Overview of Medical Debt – Collection, Credit Reporting, and Consumer Protections
5
Federal Trade Commission. Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Text
6
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does Information Stay on My Credit Report?
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692g – Validation of Debts
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692c – Communication in Connection With Debt Collection