Limitations For a Written Contract vs. Open, in Illinois

[cricket00]

regarding the statute of limitations defense in illinois....

SOL for written contract is 10 years
SOL for open/revolving contract is 5 years

the rulings in my state are fuzzy on whether or not credit cards are considered written or open contracts.

if i'm using the SOL as my defense, does the plaintiff have to produce the original signed agreement in order for it to be considered a written contract?

[Mr. Knowitall]

There's a lot of stuff floating around the Internet which doesn't seem to be based upon the actual language of Illinois statutes. The Statute of Limitations for a written contract is normally 10 years. But I don't see how a five year limitations period would arise unless the contract is deemed oral.

As of 2001, a court wrote:

There is little law on this subject and it is not entirely clear which statute of limitations should apply to a credit card debt. In situations in which the financing is provided by the merchant, then the four year statute of limitations should apply because the transaction is one for the sale of goods and the financing aspect is merely a portion of that arrangement. Citizen's Nat'l Bank of Decatur v. Farmer, 395 N.E.2d 1121, 1123, 77 Ill. App. 3d 56, 32 Ill. Dec. 740 (4th Dist. 1979). However, if the financing is provided by a third party, then the suit is one based on the written contract to provide credit and the appropriate statute of limitations is ten years. Harris Trust & Savings Bank v. McCray, 316 N.E.2d 209, 210-11, 21 Ill. App. 3d 605 (1st Dist. 1974).

So if it's a store card the answer appears to be four years; if it's not a store card it appears to be ten years. I could not find a more recent treatment of these issues by an Illinois court, although you should be aware that I do not have full access to an Illinois case law database or annotated statutes.