Ohio Debt Collection Laws: Garnishment Formula, the 6-Year Consumer Debt Rule, and Repossession

No collector can take money out of an Ohio paycheck on the strength of a phone call or a threatening letter. For ordinary consumer debt, an Ohio creditor must first sue you, win a judgment, and then obtain a garnishment order from the court before your employer withholds a cent. Most garnishments trace back to default judgments entered because nobody answered the lawsuit, which makes answering the summons the single most valuable step an Ohio debtor can take. The other half of the picture is just as important: once a creditor does have a judgment, Ohio's protections are thinner than many neighboring states, because Ohio ties its wage floor to the federal minimum wage rather than its own higher one, and shields only $625 in a bank account.

How Much of Your Paycheck Can Be Garnished in Ohio

Ohio's wage exemption, ORC 2329.66(A)(13), protects the greater of two amounts each pay period: 75 percent of your disposable earnings, or a multiplier of the federal minimum wage (30 times the federal hourly minimum if paid weekly, 60 times if biweekly, 65 times if semimonthly, 130 times if monthly). Put the other way around, a judgment creditor can take up to 25 percent of disposable earnings, but never so much that your remaining pay drops below the wage-multiplier floor.

The detail that separates Ohio from many states: the statute expressly pegs that multiplier to the federal minimum hourly wage under 29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1), currently $7.25, not Ohio's higher state minimum wage. So the weekly floor is 30 x $7.25 = $217.50. States like Washington, Illinois, and New York compute similar floors from their own higher wage rates, producing floors two or three times higher. In Ohio, a worker earning above roughly $290 in weekly disposable pay is exposed to the full 25 percent.

Disposable earnings means pay left after legally required deductions such as taxes and Social Security. Voluntary deductions like health insurance or a 401(k) contribution do not reduce the garnishable base. Support withholding runs under a different, higher set of ceilings (50 to 65 percent of disposable earnings under federal law) and is a separate regime from judgment garnishment; see Ohio child support laws.

Before any of that starts, Ohio puts a mandatory warning step in front of a wage garnishment, and it is the cheapest point in the whole process to act. Under ORC 2716.02, a judgment creditor must serve a statutory-form written demand headed "Notice of Court Proceeding to Collect Debt" at least 15 days and not more than 45 days before it asks the court for the order, by personal service through the court, by certified mail with return receipt, or by regular mail evidenced by a certificate of mailing. The notice spells out three ways to avoid the garnishment within 15 days: pay the amount demanded, return the attached "Payment to Avoid Garnishment" form with a payment large enough to prevent the garnishment, or apply to your municipal or county court for the appointment of a trustee to receive the non-exempt part of your earnings. ORC 2716.03(A)(3) and (A)(4) then require the affidavit that commences the garnishment to state that this demand was made and went unsatisfied, so a garnishment sought without it is open to challenge.

One feature that surprises people: Ohio garnishment orders are continuous. Under ORC 2716.041, an order against personal earnings keeps withholding from every pay period until the judgment plus interest and costs is satisfied. There is no need for the creditor to refile each month.

Ohio's exemption statute contains no head-of-household or dependent-based enhancement. Unlike Florida or Texas, supporting a family does not change the formula. The dollar figures in ORC 2329.66 are adjusted for inflation every third year under ORC 2329.66(B), most recently on April 1, 2025. The adjustment is published by the Ohio Judicial Conference in the Register of Ohio and the codified text is never renumbered, so the amounts printed in the statute are stale base figures rather than the amounts actually in force. Always check the current memorandum before relying on a number you read in the code.

Bank Accounts: The $625 Problem

Ohio protects only $625 of "cash on hand, money due and payable, tax refunds, and money on deposit" from execution, under ORC 2329.66(A)(3). Be careful reading the statute itself here: the codified text of that subsection still says four hundred dollars, because Ohio never rewrites the printed figures. That $400 is the un-adjusted base. The operative amount, set by the Ohio Judicial Conference under ORC 2329.66(B), is $625 for judgments and orders from April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2028. The same adjustment puts the homestead exemption at $182,625 and the motor vehicle exemption at $5,025. Everything above that in an ordinary account is reachable by a judgment creditor with a bank garnishment. Ohio wages that were protected in your employer's hands enjoy no special traced protection in the account beyond what the exemption categories provide.

The meaningful shields for deposited money are categorical. ORC 2329.66(A)(9) and (10) exempt workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, Ohio Works First assistance, earned income tax credit and child tax credit payments, and a broad set of pensions, IRAs, Roth IRAs, 529 and ABLE accounts. Directly deposited federal benefits (Social Security, VA, and similar) carry the automatic federal two-month protection under 31 CFR Part 212 on top of that; see Can Social Security be garnished?.

Can You Be Fired Over a Garnishment?

Ohio's rule, ORC 2716.05, mirrors the federal one: no employer may discharge an employee solely because of a successful garnishment by only one judgment creditor in any twelve-month period. That word "solely" does real work. An employer that has any other stated ground for the firing sits outside the prohibition, so the section is narrower than it first sounds. Once a second creditor garnishes within the same year, the statutory protection runs out, which matches the federal one-indebtedness rule in 15 U.S.C. 1674 rather than the broader protections some states provide. Like the repossession sections below, this rests on a verbatim official-text corpus capture rather than a live open of codes.ohio.gov during this research session, so confirm the current text before relying on it in a specific case.

State Tax Debts Work Differently, but Not Bigger

Unpaid Ohio taxes that go delinquent are certified to the Ohio Attorney General for collection. The important number: wage garnishment for certified state debts is capped by the same formula as an ordinary civil judgment, the lesser of 25 percent of disposable earnings or the amount above the 30-times-federal-minimum-wage floor. Ohio does not give its tax collectors an elevated percentage the way the IRS's federal levy tables can reach deeper. The IRS itself, and federal administrative garnishment for defaulted federal student loans at 15 percent of disposable pay, operate under federal law and are unaffected by Ohio's rules.

The Statute of Limitations on Debt in Ohio

Ohio rewrote its limitations law in 2021 (Senate Bill 13, effective June 16, 2021), and the current structure has a twist that most summaries miss:

• Written contracts: 6 years under ORC 2305.06 (shortened from 8 by SB 13).
• Oral contracts: 4 years under ORC 2305.07(A) as the general rule.
• Consumer transactions: 6 years regardless of form. ORC 2305.07(C) creates a carve-out that overrides both rules above for any obligation arising from a consumer transaction, one incurred primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, "whether or not reduced to writing." The claim accrues 30 calendar days after the date of the last charge or last payment, whichever is later.

That consumer-transaction rule is the one that governs most real-world collection lawsuits. Credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, and retail installment debts are consumer transactions, so the practical answer for most Ohio consumer debt is 6 years from 30 days after your last charge or payment, and the old written-versus-oral characterization fight rarely matters anymore.

Other periods: promissory notes payable at a definite time get 6 years under ORC 1303.16, and contracts for the sale of goods get 4 years under ORC 1302.98.

Revival: under ORC 2305.08, a partial payment on the debt, or a signed written acknowledgment or promise to pay, restarts a fresh limitations period from that date. A small payment on an old Ohio debt can therefore give a collector six more years to sue. Think carefully, and consider advice, before paying anything on a debt that may be near or past its limitations date.

Two federal points complete the picture. Suing, or threatening to sue, on a time-barred debt is a violation of Regulation F (12 CFR 1006.26) no matter what the collector knew. And time-barred is not erased: collectors may still request payment, and the separate seven-year credit reporting clock runs on its own schedule. The full state-by-state table is in our statute of limitations on debt guide.

Medical Debt: The Proposed Ban Is Not Law

You may have seen coverage of the Ohio Medical Debt Fairness Act, House Bill 257, which as introduced would ban wage garnishment for medical debt, cap medical debt interest at 3 percent, and bar credit reporting of medical debt. As of this writing it remains a pending bill in committee, not law. Today, a medical judgment garnishes like any other consumer judgment in Ohio. One further caveat: multiple 2026 news reports describe a House Health Committee amendment that would delete the blanket wage-garnishment ban and replace it with a narrower 10-percent-of-wages cap after 120 consecutive days of missed payment. That reported amendment could not be independently verified against the bill's current text this session, so it is not asserted as fact here, but it means the bill's substance may already differ from its as-introduced description. Check the bill's current text on legislature.ohio.gov before relying on specifics.

Car Repossession and Cure Rights

A note on sourcing: Ohio's official statute website could not be re-opened during this review, so the repossession details below reflect the most recent official code text available to us, captured in July 2026. The section numbers are stable, but confirm current text before acting on a specific repossession.

Ohio follows the standard UCC self-help rule (ORC 1309.609): after default, a secured lender may repossess without a court order, but only without a breach of the peace. Ohio then layers on unusually strong consumer protections through its Retail Installment Sales Act for covered consumer transactions:

• Post-repossession cure right (ORC 1317.12). Within 5 business days after taking the collateral, the creditor must send a notice itemizing the default and the exact amount required to cure. The borrower may then cure within 20 days after the repossession or 15 days after the notice, whichever is later, by paying the past-due installments, delinquency charges, limited retaking expenses, and a deposit of two installments as security. Cure once, and you get the property back. The right can be used only once per debt.
• The sanction has teeth. A secured party that disposes of the collateral without sending the required notice cannot recover repossession costs and is not entitled to any deficiency judgment.
• Late-loan repossession bar (ORC 1317.13). For covered consumer collateral, a secured party may not take possession at all if, at the time of default, the remaining time balance is less than 25 percent of the sum of two figures: the time balance on the day the retail installment contract was executed, plus the down payment recited in that contract. Counting against the original time balance alone, as many summaries do, sets the trigger point too low. Motor vehicles, manufactured homes, and mobile homes are excluded from this bar.
• Public sale requirements (ORC 1317.16). Covered dispositions must be by public sale, with at least 10 days' certified-mail notice to the debtor stating the time, place, and minimum price, plus newspaper publication.

Which financing contracts fall inside the Retail Installment Sales Act versus the plain UCC rules is a scope question that depends on how the loan was made, so treat these as rights to ask a lawyer about rather than certainties. The national baseline is covered in car repossession laws.

If You Are Being Garnished or Sued in Ohio

Do not let the lawsuit default. An answer forces the plaintiff, often a debt buyer several assignments removed from the original creditor, to prove it owns the debt and that the amount is right, and it preserves the six-year limitations defense, which is lost if never raised. If what arrived is the pre-garnishment "Notice of Court Proceeding to Collect Debt" rather than a garnishment order, you have not been garnished yet and the 15-day window described above is still open. If a garnishment is already running, check the math against the 75 percent and $217.50 floors, claim your exemptions for any bank levy quickly, and ask the court about a hearing if the calculation looks wrong. If multiple judgments are stacking, bankruptcy's automatic stay halts garnishment while the case is open, and Ohio debtors use both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 for exactly this situation; see Ohio bankruptcy law. None of this is a promise about any individual outcome; it is the process the law provides.

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
• Ohio Bankruptcy
• Ohio Child Support Laws

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Last updated: 2026-08-12.

More Ohio Laws

• Ohio Final Paycheck Laws
• Ohio Statute of Limitations
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