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

If you are being pursued by a debt collector in Maine, start with the process. A private creditor cannot take money from your paycheck or bank account until it sues you, wins a judgment, and obtains a writ of execution or trustee process order. The two beliefs that cause the most trouble, that garnishment can happen overnight, and that an unanswered lawsuit simply disappears, are both wrong. Most garnishments trace back to a default judgment entered because the person being sued never filed an answer, so responding to a summons is the single most valuable thing you can do.

Maine also happens to be one of the more protective states in the country for wage garnishment, because its formula is tied to Maine's own minimum wage rather than the much lower federal one. That single difference makes a real dollar difference for anyone living paycheck to paycheck.

Wage Garnishment in Maine

Maine calls the process trustee process, and the formula is unusually protective. Under 14 M.R.S. Section 3126-A(3) and the parallel consumer-credit provision at 9-A M.R.S. Section 5-105(2), a creditor can take the lesser of 25 percent of your disposable earnings and exempt income for the week, or the amount by which that sum exceeds 40 times the higher of the federal minimum hourly wage or the Maine state minimum hourly wage.

That second number is where Maine stands out. Most states that use a 30 or 40 times multiplier tie it to the $7.25 federal minimum wage. Maine ties it to whichever of the federal or state wage is higher, and Maine's own minimum wage rose to $15.10 an hour effective January 1, 2026. Forty times that figure is $604 a week. A worker whose disposable earnings and exempt income fall at or below $604 a week cannot be garnished for an ordinary consumer debt at all, and above that line, a creditor can still never take more than 25 percent.

Maine does not have a separate head-of-household or family-size wage exemption; the 25 percent and 40x formula applies the same way regardless of dependents.

Maine Revenue Services levies work differently, and less favorably. Under 36 M.R.S. Section 176-A(5)(D), wages are exempt from a state tax levy only up to the lesser of 75 percent of disposable earnings for the pay period, or 30 times the federal minimum wage multiplied by the number of weeks in the pay period. That is the ordinary federal 30x-and-$7.25 floor, not Maine's more protective 40x-and-state-wage formula used for private-creditor garnishment. In practice, a Maine tax levy can reach deeper into a paycheck than an ordinary civil judgment can.

Maine also recently moved on medical debt. A bill signed by the Governor on April 6, 2026 and enacted as Public Law 2025, Chapter 649, is intended to prohibit medical-debt collectors from placing liens on a person's primary residence and from garnishing wages to collect medical debt. The full statutory text was not available to confirm the exact scope and effective date at the time this page was written, so treat the general protection as real but confirm the details before relying on a specific figure or date.

Bank Account Protections

Maine's property exemptions, set out in 14 M.R.S. Section 4422, are CPI-indexed and cover more than most states' bare wildcard figures. Current amounts include a $500 general wildcard, a separate $3,000 exemption specifically for cash and funds in deposit accounts, a $80,000 homestead exemption ($160,000 if a minor dependent lives there or the debtor or a dependent is 60 or older or disabled), $10,000 of motor vehicle equity, $500 per item of household goods, $9,500 in tools of the trade, $1,000 in jewelry ($4,000 for wedding and engagement rings), and $20,000 for a personal-injury award. These figures adjust every three years for inflation, with the last adjustment effective April 1, 2024, so they are due for another increase around April 2027.

Federal law provides a separate, automatic shield for federal benefits. 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 automatic protection covers direct deposit only; benefits received by paper check and later deposited must be claimed as exempt through the court.

Statute of Limitations on Debt in Maine

Maine keeps its statute of limitations simple. Under 14 M.R.S. Section 752, essentially all civil actions not otherwise specially provided for, including written contracts, oral contracts, open accounts, and credit card debt, must be brought within 6 years of accrual. Maine does not split debt types into separate shorter or longer tracks the way many states do, so the classification fights that matter elsewhere are largely moot here.

Promissory notes generally follow the same 6-year period, now under 11 M.R.S. Section 3-1118(1), which gives a note payable at a definite time 6 years from the due date, or from an accelerated due date. A demand note gets 6 years from the date of demand, or is barred after 10 years if no demand is ever made and no principal or interest is paid. A separate, older statute, 14 M.R.S. Section 751, sets a 20-year period for contracts under seal and promissory notes signed in the presence of an attesting witness, but a 2017 amendment clarified that the 6-year note statute controls ordinary negotiable instruments, leaving the 20-year period as a narrow residual category.

Maine also runs a second, separate clock against debt collectors, and it answers the revival question directly. Under 32 M.R.S. Section 11013(8), a debt collector may not commence a collection action more than 6 years after the date of the consumer's last activity on the debt, and that period applies notwithstanding any other applicable statute of limitations unless a shorter Maine period applies. The same subsection then closes the revival door: notwithstanding any other provision of law, when the applicable limitations period expires, any subsequent payment toward, written or oral affirmation of, or other activity on the debt does not revive or extend the limitations period. Making a payment on a debt that has already run out does not hand a collector a fresh 6 years.

Two features of that rule matter in practice. It runs from your last activity on the debt, which is a different starting point than the accrual date used by Section 752, so the two clocks can expire on different dates. And it applies to a debt collector as chapter 109-A defines that term, which covers collection agencies, debt buyers, repossession companies, and collection attorneys, but not an original creditor collecting its own account in its own name. If the party pursuing you is the original creditor rather than a collector, the ordinary 6-year period under Section 752 is the one that governs, so it is still worth getting advice before making a payment on a very old account.

Two further points apply either way. First, an expired statute of limitations does not erase the debt itself; a collector may still ask you to pay, and the debt can remain on your credit report for up to 7 years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, an entirely separate clock. Second, suing or threatening to sue on a debt after the limitations period has run is a flat violation of federal Regulation F (12 CFR 1006.26), regardless of what the collector believed about the deadline, and Maine adds its own prohibition at 32 M.R.S. Section 11013(7), which bars a debt collector from initiating a collection action when it knows or reasonably should know the action is barred by the Section 11013(8) period.

What Debt Collectors Can and Cannot Do

Third-party collectors working Maine accounts answer to the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Regulation F. They may not 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 action they cannot legally take, such as suing on a time-barred debt. Within five days of first contacting you, a collector must send validation information stating the debt amount and your right to dispute it, and once you dispute a debt in writing, the collector must stop reporting it as valid until it provides verification. You may also tell a collector in writing to stop contacting you altogether, subject to narrow exceptions.

Maine layers its own statute on top of the federal rules. The Maine Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 32 M.R.S. chapter 109-A, applies to debt collectors conducting business in the state, and 32 M.R.S. Section 11002(5-A) provides that a debt buyer is considered a debt collector for all purposes under the chapter. Several of its rules have no federal counterpart. Section 11013(7) bars a collector from initiating a collection action it knows or reasonably should know is time-barred, and Section 11013(8) supplies the 6-year and no-revival rule described above. Section 11013(3)(G) prohibits communicating with a consumer about a debt by postcard.

The debt-buyer documentation rules are the sharpest tool for most consumers. Under Section 11013(9), a debt buyer may not collect or attempt to collect at all unless it actually possesses a specific list of items, including the name of the current owner of the debt, the original creditor's name and account number at the time of charge-off, the amount due at charge-off, an itemization of any post-charge-off interest and fees and who imposed them, the date and amount of the last payment, an unbroken chain of ownership documenting every assignment from the original creditor forward, and a copy of the contract or application, or for a revolving account the most recent monthly statement showing the extension of credit. Section 11013(10) then bars a debt buyer from selling or transferring a debt without that documentation, and from selling a resolved debt, meaning one already paid, settled, or discharged in bankruptcy.

Medical debt gets separate treatment after a 2023 amendment. Section 11013(2), paragraphs Q, R, and S, make it a prohibited misrepresentation for a collector to represent that interest will accumulate on the debt, that a fee will be charged, or that it will pursue litigation to compel payment, when the collector knows the debt is medical debt. Section 11013(11) goes further. Once a collector is notified orally or in writing, by the creditor or by you, of your actual or potential qualification for hospital charity care, it must suspend collection efforts until the creditor confirms you do not qualify, and it may not collect from a consumer who was determined to qualify or who would have qualified but did not apply for good cause.

Car Repossession in Maine

Maine adopted the standard Uniform Commercial Code self-help repossession rule, but with the state's characteristic extra-digit citation: it appears at 11 M.R.S. Section 9-1609, not the Section 9-609 you will find in most other states. After default, a secured party may take possession of collateral through judicial process, or without judicial process if it can do so without a breach of the peace.

Maine's UCC article does not define breach of the peace, but the Maine Fair Debt Collection Practices Act supplies a rule the UCC does not. Under 32 M.R.S. Section 11017(1), a debt collector acting on behalf of a creditor may take possession of collateral only if possession can be taken without entry into a dwelling, unless that entry has been authorized after default, and without the use of force or other breach of the peace. Chapter 109-A defines a debt collector to include a repossession company, so this reaches the third-party agents who carry out most repossessions. It does not reach someone who simply retrieves collateral a consumer has voluntarily surrendered, because that person is excluded from the definition.

Section 11017 adds two rights that come up constantly after a vehicle is taken. Under subsection 2, the collector must inventory any unsecured property taken along with the repossessed collateral and immediately notify you that the property will be made available in a manner convenient to you. Under subsection 3, if the property left in a repossessed vehicle includes a medical device or equipment necessary for your health or welfare and you have no practicable means to retrieve it, you can notify the collector and make a reasonable request for its return, and the collector must arrange to have it promptly returned. The collector's reasonable expenses in actually returning the device may be added to what you owe.

Where Maine goes further than plain UCC self-help is its statutory right to cure. Under 9-A M.R.S. Sections 5-110 and 5-111, once a consumer has been in default for 10 or more days for a missed payment, and has not voluntarily surrendered the collateral, the creditor must send a notice stating the exact amount due and the date by which paying it lets the consumer continue as though the payment had never been late. The creditor cannot accelerate the debt or repossess the collateral until 14 days after that notice, or 10 days for an insurance-premium loan. Motor-vehicle notices must also warn the consumer that repossession could leave them owing a deficiency. A consumer who already received one cure notice does not get a second one for a default on the same obligation within the following 12 months, and a consumer who voluntarily surrenders collateral loses the cure right entirely, since the creditor may accelerate and enforce immediately.

Maine also caps deficiency liability on small transactions. Under 9-A M.R.S. Section 5-103, if a creditor repossesses or accepts voluntary surrender of goods securing a consumer credit sale or supervised loan with an amount financed of $2,800 or less, neither the consumer nor any surety owes any deficiency at all. That $2,800 figure traces to a 1997 amendment, and the mechanism that used to adjust it for inflation was repealed the same year, so it may be a fixed, non-indexed number rather than one that has kept pace with prices; confirm the current figure before relying on it in a specific case.

Servicemembers get one further layer of 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, regardless of state law.

If You Are Being Garnished or Sued in Maine

Move in this order. First, if you are served with a lawsuit, file an answer before the deadline, even a simple general denial, because a default judgment forfeits every defense you had, including the statute of limitations. Second, if a garnishment or trustee process order is already in effect, check the math against the 25 percent and 40x-minimum-wage formula, and check whether any of the funds being taken come from an exempt source like Social Security or retirement income. Third, if the debt is old, raise the statute of limitations yourself, since the court will not raise it for you. Finally, if you are behind on a secured loan, use the 14-day cure window before the creditor can accelerate or repossess, and if the overall debt picture is unmanageable, bankruptcy's automatic stay stops most garnishments and collection lawsuits while the case is pending.

Check which court the case was filed in, too. Under 32 M.R.S. Section 11021, a debt collector may not commence a collection action against a consumer to collect a debt in small claims court under Title 14, chapter 738. That means a collection agency or debt buyer suing you on a consumer debt in Maine small claims court has filed somewhere the statute does not allow, which is a point to raise with the court rather than a reason to skip the hearing.

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?
• Maine Statute of Limitations
• Maine Bankruptcy

---

Last updated: 2026-08-12.

More Maine Laws

• Maine Final Paycheck Laws
• Maine Statute of Limitations
• Maine Unclaimed Property

Frequently Asked Questions

How much of my paycheck can be garnished in Maine?

A creditor can take the lesser of 25 percent of your disposable earnings or the amount above 40 times the higher of the federal or Maine state minimum wage. With Maine's minimum wage at $15.10 an hour, that floor is $604 a week, so nothing can be garnished if your disposable earnings and exempt income fall at or below that amount.

Does Maine have a head-of-household wage exemption?

No. Maine's 25 percent and 40-times-minimum-wage formula under 14 M.R.S. Section 3126-A applies the same way regardless of whether you support dependents.

What is the statute of limitations on credit card debt in Maine?

Six years under 14 M.R.S. Section 752. Maine does not split written, oral, open-account, or credit card debt into separate SOL tracks, so the same 6-year period applies to all of them. Separately, 32 M.R.S. Section 11013(8) bars a debt collector from suing more than 6 years after your last activity on the debt.

Does making a payment restart the clock on old debt in Maine?

Not against a debt collector once the period has expired. Under 32 M.R.S. Section 11013(8), when the applicable limitations period expires, any subsequent payment toward, written or oral affirmation of, or other activity on the debt does not revive or extend it. That rule applies to debt collectors as Maine defines them, including debt buyers and collection agencies. If the party pursuing you is the original creditor collecting in its own name, the general 6-year period under 14 M.R.S. Section 752 governs instead, so get advice before paying on a very old account.

Can a debt collector sue me in small claims court in Maine?

No. 32 M.R.S. Section 11021 provides that a debt collector may not commence a collection action against a consumer to collect a debt in small claims court under Title 14, chapter 738. If a collection agency or debt buyer has filed against you there, raise the statute with the court.

Can a lender repossess my car in Maine without warning?

Not for a payment default. Once you are 10 or more days late, the lender must send a notice giving you 14 days to cure the default before it can accelerate the loan or repossess the collateral, under 9-A M.R.S. Sections 5-110 and 5-111. Voluntarily surrendering the collateral removes that right. A repossession agent also may not enter your dwelling to take the collateral unless you authorized that entry after default, under 32 M.R.S. Section 11017(1).

Can I owe money after my car is repossessed in Maine?

Usually, but not always. If the amount financed was $2,800 or less, Maine law bars any deficiency judgment entirely. Above that amount, the lender can generally pursue you for the difference between what you owed and what the sale brought, subject to standard commercial-reasonableness rules.

What happens to the personal items left in my repossessed car in Maine?

Under 32 M.R.S. Section 11017(2), the debt collector must inventory any unsecured property taken with the collateral and immediately notify you that it will be made available in a manner convenient to you. If the property includes a medical device or equipment necessary for your health or welfare and you cannot practicably retrieve it, subsection 3 lets you request its return and requires the collector to arrange prompt return.