Time Limits

• The Kansas statute of limitations on debt differentiates between different kinds of debt categories, according to Kansas Statutes Annotated section 60-511 et. seq.: oral contracts, open-ended accounts, written contracts and promissory notes. Oral contracts are any contract that the parties enter into without writing the agreement down, while written contracts have a written document that formalizes the transaction. Open-ended accounts are debts such as lines of credit, while promissory notes are written contracts with a specific promise to pay. The time limit for oral contracts and open-ended accounts is three years while the limit for promissory notes is five years and the limit for written contracts is six years.
  
  

Time Limits

• The Kansas statute of limitations states that the creditor must bring an action to collect on the debt with a specific number of years, which means that the creditor must file a lawsuit in court asking the court to grant a judgment in the creditor's favor so he can collect on the debt. Even if a creditor tries to collect on the debt by, for example, hiring a credit collection agency to try to persuade the debtor to pay, this does not stop the statute of limitations or extend the time the creditor has to file a lawsuit.
  
  

Judgment Limitations

• The state of Kansas also limits how long a debtor can take to collect on a debt for which she has already sued and won a judgment. This statute of limitations only applies to judgments, meaning the creditor must have taken the debtor to court and received a judgment ruling in the creditor's favor from the court. In Kansas, anyone who wins the judgment has five years to initiate a collection of action. After this time, the judgment holder is barred from collecting.
  
  

Choice of Law

• Creditors often include choice of law provisions whenever entering into a credit agreement with a consumer. These provisions allow the creditor to select the laws of the state that will govern any debt collections or conflicts arising out of the agreement. For example, credit card companies commonly include a choice of law clause that selects estate where there is no effective statute of limitations for collections. So, even though the creditor lives in Kansas, the Kansas statute of limitations do not necessarily apply if there is such a choice of law provision as part of the contract.