How Long Negative Information Stays on a Credit Report
Seven years for most things, ten for some bankruptcies, and a few items with their own rules. Plus the date that actually starts the clock.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act sets maximum reporting periods. After those periods pass, the information has to come off, whether or not the debt was ever paid. Here is the actual schedule, and the detail that trips people up most.
The standard periods
- Late payments: 7 years from the date of the missed payment
- Collection accounts: 7 years plus 180 days from the date of first delinquency on the original account
- Charge-offs: 7 years plus 180 days from the same date of first delinquency
- Chapter 13 bankruptcy: 7 years from the filing date
- Chapter 7 bankruptcy: 10 years from the filing date
- Hard inquiries: 2 years, though most scoring models stop counting them after 12 months
- Closed accounts in good standing: generally about 10 years, and these help rather than hurt
- Unpaid tax liens: no longer appear on consumer credit reports at all, following industry changes in 2017 and 2018
The date that starts the clock
This is the part that matters most, and it is the part debt collectors most often get wrong.
The clock runs from the date of first delinquency on the original account — the first missed payment that was never brought current. It does not restart when:
- The debt is sold to a collection agency
- A second, third, or fourth collector buys it
- You make a payment on it
- You acknowledge the debt in writing
- The collector reports it as a "new" account
A collection account opened last month for a debt that first went delinquent in 2019 still has to come off around 2026, not 2032.
What happens when something ages off
It disappears from the report and stops affecting your score. Nobody notifies you, and it may come off one bureau's report a few weeks before another's. If an item is past its date and still showing, that is a straightforward dispute: the claim is not that the debt never existed, but that the reporting period has expired.
What this does not affect
Two separate clocks exist and they are frequently confused:
- The credit reporting period — how long an item can appear on your report
- The statute of limitations — how long a creditor has to sue you over a debt
They are different lengths, set by different laws, and one ending does not end the other. A debt can be too old to report but still legally collectible, or legally uncollectible but still on your report. Statutes of limitations are set by state law and vary widely.
Should you just wait it out?
Sometimes, honestly, yes. If an accurate collection is six and a half years past its first delinquency, the effect on your score has already faded considerably and it will be gone soon. Time is doing the work.
Where waiting does not help is when the date itself is wrong, when the account is not yours, or when the balance or status is inaccurate. Those are worth acting on now.