A Georgia collection agency helps businesses, healthcare providers, schools, and other organizations recover valid overdue accounts while following applicable Georgia and federal collection requirements. Just as important, the right agency should recover revenue without damaging the customer, patient, or community relationships your organization has worked hard to build.
Nexa helps Georgia organizations recover aging receivables through professional outreach, payment negotiation, skip tracing, and appropriate escalation—while keeping reputation protection at the center of the process. Our patient- and debtor-friendly approach is reflected in our strong online reputation, with a 4.85/5 rating from more than 2,000 reviews. Local knowledge matters because a Savannah logistics invoice, an Atlanta B2B account, and a Macon healthcare balance should never be handled the same way.
Nexa offers fixed-fee early intervention for eligible newer receivables and contingency recovery for qualifying older or more complex accounts—helping clients improve cash flow while protecting their brand and hard-earned online ratings.
Georgia’s 2026 Compliance Landscape: What Creditors Need to Know
Georgia’s debt collection rules aren’t especially restrictive compared to some states, but they’re specific — and getting a classification wrong can quietly cost years off a collection window. Recovering revenue here tends to go better when the approach starts with getting the details right rather than treating every invoice the same way.
| Georgia issue | Practical effect |
|---|---|
| Simple written contracts | Generally subject to a six-year limitation period |
| Open accounts and certain other obligations | Generally subject to a four-year period |
| Sales of goods | A separate UCC four-year period may apply |
| Continuing garnishment | May reach wages after judgment for a defined period |
| Medical liens | Strict provider-specific filing deadlines may apply |
| Magistrate Court | Handles qualifying civil claims up to $15,000 |
| Bankruptcy homestead exemption | Increases effective July 1, 2026 |
| Construction liens | Separate notice and filing deadlines must be preserved |
The Written Contract vs. Open Account Distinction — and Why It Costs Two Years
Georgia gives creditors six years to sue on a written contract (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24), but only four years on an open account or oral agreement (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-25). A patient registration form or B2B invoice that lacks specific repayment terms can be classified as an open account even when everyone involved thought of it as a written agreement — and that classification alone determines whether an account still has two years of runway left or none at all.
Continuing Garnishment: A Single Filing, Months of Reach
Georgia allows a “continuing garnishment” that, with a single filing, can capture wages for up to 179 days rather than requiring a new filing for each pay period (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-5). The amount is capped at the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount above 30 times the federal minimum wage — the same formula used federally, just with a longer reach per filing.
HB 1024: Georgia’s Homestead Exemption Is About to Change
Effective July 1, 2026, Georgia’s bankruptcy homestead exemption more than doubles — from $21,500 to $50,000 for an individual debtor, and from $43,000 to $100,000 for qualifying joint filers (O.C.G.A. § 44-13-100, as amended by HB 1024). For creditors evaluating whether a judgment against a homeowner is worth pursuing, this is a meaningful shift worth factoring in before, not after, the effective date.
Illustrative Example: When an Invoice’s Classification Becomes the Whole Case
Consider a composite scenario: a B2B invoice for consulting services is four years and two months old, and the debtor’s attorney argues it’s an open account — meaning the four-year window already closed. A review of the onboarding documents turns up a signed service agreement that was never referenced in the original file, reclassifying the debt as a written contract still well within its six-year window. The outcome of a case like this often comes down entirely to which document gets found before the deadline, not to what was owed.
Medical & Healthcare Practices: Recovering Revenue in a State With Fewer Guardrails
No State Credit-Reporting Ban — But Federal Rules Still Apply
Unlike a growing number of states, Georgia currently has no law banning medical debt from appearing on credit reports and no state-mandated waiting period before a provider can pursue collection. That doesn’t remove the federal layer, though: the No Surprises Act still limits balance billing for emergency and certain out-of-network care, and nonprofit hospitals still have to meet IRS § 501(r) financial-assistance-policy requirements before pursuing collection. A practice operating as if Georgia had adopted the same rules as its neighbors would be leaving a real option — collection under the general 6-year rule — on the table.
The 75-Day and 90-Day Windows for Accident-Related Medical Liens
For medical debt tied to an accident with a liable third party, Georgia law gives hospitals, nursing homes, and burn-care providers 75 days after discharge to file a lien, and physician or chiropractic practices 90 days after treatment begins (O.C.G.A. § 44-14-471). These liens attach to the injured person’s claim or settlement, not to the patient directly, and missing the filing window generally means losing lien rights on that claim entirely.
Illustrative Example: A Savannah Practice Weighing Its Options
Picture a Savannah-area dental practice with a patient balance from a routine procedure — not an accident claim, so no lien deadline applies, just the standard statute of limitations. With no state credit-reporting ban to lean on and no interest-rate restriction in play, the practice’s most useful options tend to be a documented, patient-first payment plan rather than any single aggressive tactic — the account has more runway than a similar one might in a more heavily regulated state, but that runway is only useful if it’s tracked accurately.
B2B, Logistics & Commercial Accounts in Georgia
Magistrate Court: An Efficient Path for Claims Up to $15,000
Georgia’s Magistrate Courts handle civil claims up to $15,000 — one of the higher small-claims limits in the Southeast — which can make litigation a faster and less expensive option here than in states with lower thresholds, for accounts that fall within that range.
The 7% Default Interest Rate on Unpaid Invoices
Where a contract doesn’t specify an interest rate, Georgia’s legal rate defaults to 7% simple interest per year (O.C.G.A. § 7-4-2); once a judgment is entered, post-judgment interest instead follows a separate formula tied to the Federal Reserve rate plus 3% (O.C.G.A. § 7-4-12). Referencing the applicable rate in a demand can make the growing cost of nonpayment concrete rather than abstract.
Construction & O.C.G.A. § 44-14: Working Within Georgia’s Lien Deadlines
Georgia’s mechanic’s and materialman’s lien statute (O.C.G.A. § 44-14) runs on its own strict filing and notice deadlines. Contractors and suppliers who track these closely tend to have meaningfully more leverage than those who wait until a dispute is already underway to check what’s still available.
Why Georgia Businesses Work With Nexa
FDCPA-Careful Communication Practices
Georgia doesn’t have a state-specific consumer collection practices act extending liability to original creditors the way some states do, but the federal FDCPA still governs third-party collection activity, and every notice and demand is built with that framework in mind.
Zero Onboarding Fees & Pre-Suit Screening Included
There are no setup costs or hidden monthly fees to place an account, and pre-suit litigation and bankruptcy screening — including a look at how an account’s classification affects its remaining statute-of-limitations window — is included rather than billed separately.
Reputation-Conscious Recovery From Metro Atlanta to Rural Georgia
A collection approach built for Buckhead doesn’t necessarily fit a small practice in rural south Georgia, where a debtor is more likely to be a neighbor or a familiar face. Recovery is handled with that difference in mind rather than a single statewide script.
Georgia Success Stories
The scenarios below are illustrative composites drawn from the kinds of situations that come up repeatedly across Georgia receivables, not verified individual case results, but they reflect the actual mechanics of how each type of recovery tends to get resolved.
The Savannah Dental Balance and a Seasonal Opportunity
Problem: An uninsured Savannah patient owed roughly $2,400 for dental work and had gone unresponsive to calls for several months.
Approach: Rather than pursuing litigation that might yield little against modest wages, Nexa reached out ahead of tax season with a documented settlement offer timed to when the patient was more likely to have funds available.
Outcome: The balance was resolved in a lump-sum payment, avoiding both litigation costs and a prolonged dispute.
The Atlanta “Open Account” Dispute
Problem: An Atlanta IT consulting firm was owed $42,000 on an invoice that was just over four years old; the debtor argued it qualified as a time-barred open account under the 4-year rule.
Approach: A review of the original onboarding correspondence turned up a signed service agreement, reclassifying the debt as a written contract still within its 6-year window, and that documentation was presented directly to the debtor’s counsel.
Outcome: Facing continued liability for two more years, the debtor settled the balance without further litigation.
The Savannah Port Logistics Account
Problem: A logistics firm serving the Port of Savannah was owed a substantial balance from a shipping client that stopped responding after relocating operations.
Approach: Skip tracing confirmed the client’s new location and active business status before further legal spend was committed, and a documented demand followed.
Outcome: The balance was resolved through negotiation, without the account needing to go to litigation.
Industries We Serve in Georgia
Georgia’s economy runs on the Port of Savannah, Atlanta’s logistics and corporate hub, and healthcare and manufacturing sectors spread across the state, and the approach that works for an Atlanta tech vendor doesn’t work for a Macon senior-living facility or a Savannah dental practice.
Medical & Dental
Practices operating without a state credit-reporting ban or interest-rate cap to contend with still benefit from careful classification of each account and HIPAA-aligned handling throughout.
Logistics & Supply Chain
Recovery for businesses tied to the Savannah Port and Atlanta’s transportation hubs, where debtors relocating out of state is common enough to plan for with routine skip tracing.
Senior Living & Estate Recovery
Georgia’s growing retiree population in areas like Macon and Augusta means recovery here often involves families and estates, calling for a measured approach rather than standard collection tactics.
Manufacturing & Aerospace
B2B recovery for Georgia’s automotive and aerospace suppliers, where the written-contract-versus-open-account distinction often determines how much runway a receivable actually has left.
Construction & Trades
Contractors and suppliers working within O.C.G.A. § 44-14’s lien deadlines, where early, accurate tracking tends to matter more than aggressive tactics after the fact.
Small Business & Retail
Local retail and service businesses recovering smaller balances where a fixed-fee model without commissions is often the more cost-effective starting point.
Trust, Security & Compliance
FDCPA Alignment
Georgia doesn’t operate its own consumer collection practices statute the way some states do, so the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, alongside the state’s general Fair Business Practices Act, forms the primary compliance framework every account is worked within.
HIPAA & BAA Coverage for Medical and Dental Accounts
Patient billing records carry protected health information regardless of what state-level credit-reporting rules do or don’t apply. Nexa maintains HIPAA-aligned handling procedures for medical and dental accounts and executes a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with practices that require one.
SOC 2 Type II & PCI-DSS Data Security
Data handling is SOC 2 Type II certified — meaning security and privacy controls have been independently audited, not self-reported — and payment processing runs at PCI-DSS Level 1, a high tier of card data encryption.
Secure Client Portal for Documentation & Case Tracking
Patient ledgers, invoices, service agreements, and correspondence are exactly the kind of sensitive documentation that shouldn’t live in an email thread — especially in a state where a single missing document can change a debt’s entire statute-of-limitations classification. A secure client portal lets you upload that documentation, track account status, and monitor recovery progress without exposing patient or client data to unnecessary risk.
Transparent Pricing for Georgia Accounts
Fixed-Fee Recovery ($15/account)
Best suited to early-stage receivables where a firm, professional first contact is often enough to resolve the balance. Debtors pay 100% directly to you — there are no commissions taken from what’s recovered.
Contingency Service (40%)
Built for older, disputed, or harder-to-reach accounts that need sustained investigation, skip tracing, and negotiation. No Recovery, No Fee — payment is owed only when the account is successfully collected.
See the full breakdown on the collection agency fee schedule page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you collect a Georgia debt that’s several years old?
It depends on how the debt is classified. A written contract carries a 6-year statute of limitations (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24); an open account or oral agreement carries only 4 years (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-25). The same underlying debt can fall on either side of that line depending on the paperwork behind it.
Can you garnish wages in Georgia?
Yes, up to 25% of disposable earnings, and Georgia’s continuing garnishment allows that to run for up to 179 days from a single court filing rather than requiring monthly refiling (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-5).
Is there a Georgia law banning medical debt from credit reports?
No. Unlike some other states, Georgia has no state law restricting medical debt credit reporting or capping interest on medical debt. Federal protections like the No Surprises Act and nonprofit hospitals’ IRS financial-assistance obligations still apply.
What’s the deadline for a medical lien after a car accident?
Hospitals, nursing homes, and burn-care providers have 75 days after discharge to file; physician and chiropractic practices have 90 days after treatment begins (O.C.G.A. § 44-14-471). These liens apply to accident-related claims with a liable third party, not to general patient billing.
Is Georgia’s homestead exemption changing?
Yes. Effective July 1, 2026, HB 1024 raises Georgia’s bankruptcy homestead exemption from $21,500 to $50,000 for an individual debtor, and from $43,000 to $100,000 for qualifying joint filers.
Is our patient billing data handled under HIPAA?
Yes. Medical and dental accounts are processed under HIPAA-aligned procedures, with a Business Associate Agreement executed where the engagement requires one.
Restart Your Georgia Cash Flow
Georgia’s rules reward getting the details right — the difference between a 6-year and a 4-year window often comes down to a single document. Working from an accurate classification of each account tends to go better than discovering the gap after the deadline has already passed.