Missouri Debt Collection Laws: Wage Garnishment, Statute of Limitations, and Repossession

If a collector is pursuing you in Missouri, understand the sequence before anything else. A private creditor has to sue you, win a judgment, and get a court order before any of your paycheck or bank account can legally be reached. The two beliefs that cause the most trouble, that garnishment can start the moment you fall behind, and that an unanswered lawsuit simply disappears, are both wrong. Most Missouri garnishments trace back to a default judgment entered because the person being sued never answered the petition, which makes responding to a summons the single most valuable thing you can do.

Missouri also has one of the country's clearest examples of a protection that exists on paper but does nothing unless you actually claim it. The state's strongest wage protection, a reduced 10 percent cap for heads of family, is not automatic.

Wage Garnishment in Missouri

Missouri's baseline wage-garnishment formula, at RSMo 525.030.2, tracks the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act: the lesser of 25 percent of aggregate earnings for the week, or the amount by which earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage, currently $217.50 a week. Missouri's statute uses the phrase aggregate earnings rather than the federal disposable earnings language, though it defines earnings the same way, as compensation for personal services including pension and retirement payments; quote the statute's own wording rather than assuming it tracks the federal text verbatim.

Missouri adds a genuinely strong third option that most states do not have: if the employee is the head of a family and a resident of Missouri, the cap drops to just 10 percent, whichever of the three figures is least. That 10 percent figure interlocks with a separate property exemption, RSMo 513.440, which lets a head of family select $1,250 of any property, or debts and wages, plus $350 for each unmarried dependent child under 21 or a dependent who is disabled under Social Security standards, except that 10 percent of any debt, income, salary, or wages due that head of family remains exempt. Together, the two provisions mean that roughly 90 percent of a qualifying head-of-family's wages stay protected.

That protection does not apply itself. It must be affirmatively claimed: file a verified claim of exemption, using the court's form CV96, with the circuit court that issued the writ, and serve the garnishing creditor, within 20 days after you are served with the garnishment notice. A head-of-family affidavit also has to go to your employer so it can compute the reduced percentage correctly. Missing that 20-day window can mean losing the reduced cap even though you would otherwise qualify for it.

Missouri's job protection mirrors federal law rather than exceeding it. Under RSMo 525.030.5, an employer cannot discharge an employee because their earnings were subjected to garnishment for any one indebtedness, and a willful violation is a misdemeanor under subsection 6, but, as under federal law, that protection covers only the first debt.

Missouri's Department of Revenue collects unpaid state tax debt by first filing an Administrative Judgment with the circuit clerk, which has the effect of a default judgment, and then pursuing garnishment; the exact percentage limit that applies to a state tax garnishment was not confirmed against a primary source and should be checked directly with the Department of Revenue. No post-2023 medical-debt-specific garnishment statute was found for Missouri.

A real caution belongs here on Missouri's property exemptions generally. Missouri's revised statutes website currently displays the version of RSMo 513.430 as it will read after a 2026 legislative update, House Bill 1870 as merged with two Senate bills, takes effect on January 1, 2027, with substantially higher dollar figures for household goods, a general wildcard exemption, and motor-vehicle equity. Those higher figures are not in force yet. The dollar amounts that actually apply between now and the end of 2026 were not independently confirmed against the currently operative version of the statute this session, so this page does not print either the future figures or an unconfirmed prior number. If you are relying on Missouri's wildcard, household-goods, or vehicle exemption for a specific dollar amount, confirm the currently effective figure with the court clerk or an attorney before you rely on it, and expect the amounts to increase starting January 1, 2027.

Bank Account Protections

Missouri has no self-executing dollar exemption specifically for bank deposits comparable to some other states. The head-of-family property exemption under RSMo 513.440 can cover debts and wages generally, as described above, and Missouri's broader property exemption statute, RSMo 513.430, covers categories like household goods, tools of the trade, and motor vehicle equity, with the caution above about which dollar figures currently apply.

Federal law provides an automatic shield for federal benefits specifically. Under 31 CFR Part 212, a bank that receives a garnishment order must review the account and protect an amount equal to the last two months of directly deposited Social Security, VA, and certain other federal benefit payments, without the account holder needing to claim an exemption first. That protection covers direct deposit only, not benefits later deposited by paper check.

Statute of Limitations on Debt in Missouri

Missouri splits its written-obligation statute of limitations by the kind of writing involved. A writing, sealed or unsealed, for the payment of money or property gets a long 10-year period under RSMo 516.110(1). Other written contracts, along with oral contracts and open accounts, get 5 years under RSMo 516.120(1).

Credit card debt generally falls into the shorter bucket. Missouri courts have generally treated credit card debt under the 5-year period of RSMo 516.120, on the reasoning that a card agreement is not an unconditional written promise to pay a specific sum, unlike the kind of writing that qualifies for the 10-year period. A specific controlling Missouri appellate decision on this point was not independently confirmed this session, so treat the 5-year period as the working assumption, not a guarantee, if you are relying on it against an actual lawsuit.

Promissory notes line up with that 10-year period rather than fighting it. RSMo 516.110(1) gives a note 10 years as a writing for the payment of money, and Missouri's UCC Article 3 enactment reaches the same answer: RSMo 400.3-118(a) requires an action to enforce a note payable at a definite time to be commenced within 10 years, and subsection (b) sets 10 years after the demand for a demand note. The six-year periods in that section are narrower and do not touch an ordinary note. They cover a certificate of deposit under subsection (e) and an acceptor's obligation on an accepted draft under subsection (f).

Missouri's revival rule splits cleanly by method. Under RSMo 516.320, an acknowledgment or promise does not revive a time-barred claim unless it is contained in a writing signed by the party being charged. But RSMo 516.340 separately preserves the effect of an actual payment: nothing in the writing-requirement sections alters, takes away, or lessens the effect of a payment of principal or interest made by any person, though that payment binds only the person who made it. In practice, a genuine partial payment can restart Missouri's clock even without a writing, while a bare oral promise with no payment cannot.

Missouri's borrowing statute, RSMo 516.190, makes a claim's bar in the state where it originated a complete defense in Missouri as well, so a claim already time-barred in another state stays barred here.

Two points hold regardless of classification. Time-barred debt is not erased debt: a debt can remain on your credit report for up to 7 years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a separate clock from the statute of limitations. And suing or threatening to sue on a debt after the statute of limitations has run is a flat violation of federal Regulation F (12 CFR 1006.26).

What Debt Collectors Can and Cannot Do

Third-party collectors working Missouri accounts answer to the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Regulation F. They cannot call before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. your local time, harass you, misrepresent the amount or legal status of a debt, or threaten to sue on a debt that is already time-barred. Within five days of first contacting you, a collector must send validation information, and once you dispute a debt in writing, the collector must stop reporting it as valid until it verifies the debt. You can also demand in writing that a collector stop contacting you.

Car Repossession in Missouri

Missouri enacted the standard UCC self-help rule at RSMo 400.9-609: a secured party may take possession through judicial process, or without judicial process if it proceeds without a breach of the peace. Missouri's statute does not define breach of the peace, leaving that content to case law that was not confirmed for this page.

Missouri gives consumer-credit borrowers a genuine, statutory right to cure. Under RSMo 408.554, default for a payment-only reason means being 10 days past due on a required payment, with no voluntary surrender of the collateral. Under RSMo 408.555, once that default occurs, the lender cannot accelerate the loan or repossess the collateral until 20 days after sending a notice of the right to cure, or 13 days for an insurance-premium loan. The statutory notice must state that paying the amount then due by the deadline lets you continue with the contract as though you had not been late.

That right does not repeat indefinitely, and this is the point most likely to catch a borrower out. Under RSMo 408.555.3, a lender is not bound by the 20-day cure requirement at all once default by the same borrower on the same credit transaction with the same lender has occurred twice, notwithstanding the cure of those earlier defaults, or three times in the case of a second mortgage loan. The limit is counted per transaction, not per calendar year, so there is no annual reset. On a qualifying repeat default the lender may accelerate and repossess without sending a fresh right-to-cure notice, and the 20-day window you relied on the first time is simply not there.

Missouri's deficiency rules are unusually consumer-protective. Under RSMo 408.556.4, after disposing of the collateral a lender may recover a deficiency only if the amount financed in the transaction was more than $500 and the amount remaining unpaid at the time of default is $300 or more. Because that threshold requires more than $500, a transaction financed at exactly $500 or less supports no deficiency judgment. A separate and narrower rule, RSMo 408.556.3, cuts off liability entirely in one case: where the lender takes possession or voluntarily accepts surrender of goods in which it holds a purchase money security interest, on a credit transaction with a principal amount of less than $500, the borrower is not liable to the lender for the unpaid balance. A creditor seeking a deficiency must plead the facts of the default, show compliance with the UCC's Article 9 disposition rules, and explain how the deficiency amount was calculated; no default judgment can be entered without a verified petition or sworn proof.

Servicemembers get one further protection: for a vehicle financed before military service, the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 3952) requires a court order before repossession.

If You Are Being Garnished or Sued in Missouri

Move in this order. First, if you are served with a lawsuit, file an answer before the deadline, even a bare general denial, because a default judgment forfeits every defense you had, including the statute of limitations. Second, if you qualify as a head of family, file the CV96 claim of exemption within 20 days of the garnishment notice to bring your cap down to 10 percent; that protection does not apply on its own. Third, if the debt is old, raise the statute of limitations yourself, and understand that a genuine payment, even without a writing, can restart the clock. Finally, if a secured loan is behind, use the 20-day cure window while you still have it, because it disappears after a second default on the same transaction, and if the overall debt picture is unmanageable, bankruptcy's automatic stay stops most garnishments and collection lawsuits while the case is pending.

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
• Can Social Security Be Garnished?
• Missouri Statute of Limitations
• Missouri Bankruptcy

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Last updated: 2026-08-12.

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