Georgia Debt Collection Laws: Garnishment Caps, the 10-Day Repo Notice, and Debt Time Limits

A Georgia creditor cannot touch your paycheck on its own say-so. Outside of child support, tax collection, and federal administrative garnishment for debts like defaulted student loans, a collector must sue you, win a judgment, and then have a summons of garnishment served on your employer or bank. Most Georgia garnishments trace back to default judgments entered when the borrower never answered the lawsuit, which means answering the summons is the single most consequential thing you can do. Georgia's garnishment math mostly tracks federal law, but the state adds a private student loan carve-out, a long-running continuing garnishment, and one of the country's strictest conditions on car loan deficiency claims.

How Wage Garnishment Works in Georgia

Georgia's cap, in OCGA 18-4-5, looks like the federal formula but runs on hardcoded numbers. A garnishment may not exceed the lesser of:

• 25% of your disposable earnings for the week, reduced to 15% if the judgment arose from a private student loan, or
• the amount by which your weekly disposable earnings exceed $217.50.

Disposable earnings are what remains after legally required withholdings such as taxes and Social Security. Because $217.50 is written into the statute as a dollar figure rather than a formula tied to the current federal minimum wage, Georgia's floor would not rise automatically if the federal minimum wage ever increased; the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act floor would then control wherever it protected more.

The 15% private student loan cap came in with a 2020 law, Senate Bill 443, effective January 1, 2021. It covers private loans only, not federally guaranteed ones, and the employer adjusts the withholding only if the summons conspicuously states the student loan basis. The same law rewrote how long a continuing wage garnishment runs: the enrolled bill text of SB 443, as actually passed and signed, shows the prior figure of 179 days struck through and replaced with 1,095 days from service, roughly three years, at OCGA 18-4-4(c)(1). That is the current, enacted duration; even so, court practice on renewals varies, so confirm the specific garnishment's running period with the clerk in a live case. Garnishments served on banks capture a much shorter window, and the statute also provides an official modification form under OCGA 18-4-5(d) that the creditor and debtor can file jointly to reduce a continuing garnishment voluntarily.

Two more points define the Georgia picture. First, the cap applies in aggregate: OCGA 18-4-5(b) keeps the total at the formula amount even when the employer receives summonses in more than one case against the same debtor, with support garnishments excepted. Second, Georgia has no head of family or head of household wage exemption anywhere in Title 18. The formula, plus whatever exemptions the debtor actually claims, is what stands between a paycheck and a creditor, which makes Georgia meaningfully harsher than neighboring Florida for a breadwinner.

On firing, Georgia copies the federal rule: an employer may not discharge an employee because earnings were garnished for any one obligation, even across multiple summonses on that obligation. A garnishment for a second, separate debt falls outside the protection, same as under 15 U.S.C. 1674.

Bank Accounts and Exempt Property

A summons of garnishment can also reach your bank account, and deposited wages do not automatically lose their character: Georgia's official garnishment forms acknowledge that earnings held at a financial institution may remain exempt to the extent of the 18-4-5 and 18-4-53 limits. Retirement money gets specific treatment under OCGA 18-4-6: pension, retirement, and IRA funds are exempt from garnishment until they are distributed, and once distributed they are protected only to the same disposable earnings extent as wages. Certain unfunded deferred compensation arrangements are not exempt.

What OCGA 18-4-6 does not do is set out a catalogue of Georgia's exemptions. Subsection (b) directs the Attorney General to create and maintain the list of claimable exemptions on the Department of Law website and to transmit it to every clerk of court who issues garnishment summonses, and subsection (e) states plainly that the fact an exemption is not identified by the Attorney General does not preclude a defendant from claiming it. Treat the published list as a starting point rather than a closed universe. Federal benefits such as Social Security carry their own protection, including the automatic two-month shield for directly deposited benefits under 31 CFR Part 212.

Exemptions outside the garnishment title live in OCGA Chapter 44-13, Exemptions from Levy and Sale. The general one is OCGA 44-13-1, which exempts from levy and sale under any process real or personal property of a debtor up to $5,000.00, or $21,500.00 for real or personal property that is the debtor's primary residence. A different section, OCGA 44-13-100, carries a much longer itemized schedule and is the one people usually find first, but it is a bankruptcy provision: by its own terms it applies «in lieu of the exemption provided in Code Section 44-13-1» and «for purposes of bankruptcy», so it is the wrong section to read for an ordinary judgment garnishment. Check the Attorney General's official exemption list, which clerks are required to post with garnishment paperwork, before relying on any specific dollar amount.

How Long Collectors Have to Sue: Georgia's Statute of Limitations

Georgia splits its contract deadlines by documentation:

• Written contracts: 6 years from when the debt becomes due, under OCGA 9-3-24.
• Open accounts and contracts not under hand of the party: 4 years, under OCGA 9-3-25.
• Oral contracts generally: 4 years, under OCGA 9-3-26.
• Negotiable promissory notes: 6 years under OCGA 11-3-118, because 9-3-24 expressly carves out negotiable instruments.

Credit cards are the contested middle ground. Georgia courts have litigated whether a card account is a 4-year open account or a 6-year written contract, and collectors routinely assume the longer period while consumer lawyers argue the shorter. The answer turns on the paperwork in the specific case, so treat any confident blanket statement about the Georgia credit card deadline with suspicion.

Georgia's revival rule is distinctive and stricter than most people assume. A new promise to pay a stale debt must be in writing under OCGA 9-3-110. A payment revives the debt only when it is «entered upon a written evidence of debt» or accompanied by another written acknowledgment of the liability, under OCGA 9-3-112. In plain terms, a naked partial payment on an oral account is not a statutory revival in Georgia, but a payment noted on a signed writing, or paired with one, restarts the clock. Courts have applied these rules to modern payment records, so a payment with a written notation or an accompanying signed letter can still be enough. When the deadline passes, the debt is not erased: the collector loses the courthouse, but can still request payment, and credit reporting runs on its own roughly 7-year federal clock.

For deadlines on other Georgia case types, see the Georgia statute of limitations guide.

Rules Debt Collectors Must Follow

Third-party collectors in Georgia are governed by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: no harassment, no misrepresenting the amount or legal status of a debt, and validation information at first contact. Under Regulation F, 12 CFR 1006.26, a collector must not sue or threaten suit on a time-barred debt, full stop. Voluntary payment requests remain legal, which is why Georgia's payment-on-a-writing revival rule matters: an old debt plus a payment recorded on a signed document can become a fresh, suable debt.

Car Repossession in Georgia: The 10-Day Notice Rule

Georgia follows the standard self-help rule under its Uniform Commercial Code, OCGA 11-9-609: after default, the lender may repossess without a court order if it can do so without a breach of the peace. There is no general pre-repossession right-to-cure statute in Georgia.

What Georgia does have, and what lenders most often get wrong, is OCGA 10-1-36. After repossessing a motor vehicle, the seller or finance company cannot recover any deficiency, the gap between what the car sells for and what you still owed, unless within 10 days of the repossession it sends you notice by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery of its intent to pursue a deficiency claim. The notice must also tell you about your redemption rights and your right to demand a public sale. If you demand a public sale in writing within 10 days of that notice, the sale must be public, in the county of the original sale, the repossession, or your residence, at the seller's election. The statute is cumulative with the UCC rules, meaning it is an additional condition precedent: a lender who skips the 10-day notice keeps the car but forfeits the deficiency lawsuit. If you are sued for a deficiency after a Georgia vehicle repossession, whether that notice was properly sent is the first thing to check.

If You Are Being Garnished or Sued in Georgia

Work the problem in order. Answer the lawsuit before the deadline on the summons; every defense, including the statute of limitations, dies with a default judgment. If a garnishment has issued, file your exemption claim promptly using the official forms the clerk provides, and check whether the 25% cap, the 15% student loan cap, or the aggregate rule is being exceeded. If the judgment was entered by default without proper service, ask the court about setting it aside. If the debt is old, verify the dates before paying anything, and remember that in Georgia a payment recorded on a writing can revive an expired debt. If garnishments or judgments are stacking beyond what the formula leaves you to live on, bankruptcy's automatic stay stops wage garnishment immediately; see Georgia bankruptcy laws for how the exemptions carry over.

Information last verified on 2026-08-12. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Related Resources

• Debt Collection Laws by State
• Statute of Limitations on Debt
• How to Stop Wage Garnishment
• Car Repossession Laws
• Georgia Statute of Limitations
• Georgia Bankruptcy Laws

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Last updated: 2026-08-12.

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