How Long Does Negative Information Stay on a Credit Report?

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) dictates how long a negative item will remain your report. Some states have additional laws that limit reporting even further for their residents. Those laws won't' override the FCRA. Although, they can put more restrictions on the length of time the credit bureaus can report negative information.

The length of time information stays on your credit report depends on what's being reported and whether the information is positive, neutral, or negative. The good news is, positive and neutral information can stay on indefinitely and might help improve your credit score. Most negative information will drop off your reports after seven to ten years, but in rare cases, the info will appear longer than ten years.

Here are some common items and when you can expect them to drop off your reports.

Credit Accounts

When you have trouble making your credit card and loan payments on time, your creditor will report those slow and missed payments to the credit reporting agencies. Anything but an on-time payment is considered a negative item. Delinquencies can be reported for up to seven years from the due date for the last scheduled payment before the delinquency occurred.

Repossessions and Foreclosures

When your creditor seizes your collateral to pay for your debt (property that you put up to guarantee the loan, such as a house or car), the repossession or foreclosure can stay on your credit report for seven years after your original delinquency date.

Accounts in Collection

If your account was sent to a collection agency, it can be reported for seven years and 180 days from the date of the delinquency that led the account to collections.

Charged Off Accounts

If you stop making payments on a credit account, eventually the lender is required to remove it from its list of active accounts. The creditor does this by selling your account—usually to a collection agency or debt buyer. You'll remain responsible for paying the debt to the new owner.

When a creditor reports a charge off, it can appear on your report for up to seven years and 180 days from the last delinquency.

Accounts Included in Bankruptcy

Even if a credit account is included in a bankruptcy case, negative items like skipped payments and slow payments can remain on your credit record for seven years. The bankruptcy itself is subject to a different rule (see below).

Student Loans

Credit reporting rules for student loans are convoluted. Different rules apply to different types of student loans, but the general rule for a federally insured or federally issued loan is that negative information can be reported for seven years from several dates:

• the date the account is first reported to the credit bureau
• if you were previously in default, started repaying, and then went into default again, the date you went into default again, or
• the date it is transferred to the Department of Education.

One exception is the Perkins loan, which can be reported indefinitely.

Private student loans are treated like other credit accounts. The negative information stays on the report for seven years, or seven years and 180 days if it goes to collections.

Child Support

Child support delinquencies are usually reported by child support agencies or by collection agencies hired by custodial parents. Child support delinquencies can also result in judgments. Delinquencies and judgments can remain on the credit report for seven years.

Bankruptcy

Under the FCRA, bankruptcies can't be reported for more than ten years. Because Chapter 13 bankruptcies involve repaying some debt, these bankruptcies stay on reports for up to seven years. By contrast, Chapter 7 bankruptcies get reported for the entire ten years (from the date of filing). If your case was dismissed (and therefore you did not get an order discharging your debts), the bankruptcy could be reported for up to ten years, although some bureaus drop it after seven.

Lawsuits or Judgments

A lawsuit or judgment can be reported for up to seven years from the date a lawsuit was filed and seven years from the date a judgment was entered against you, or until the governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is longer. Most statutes of limitation are shorter than seven years, so seven years is the likely maximum time judgments or lawsuits will show up in your credit report. And, because you eliminate any statute of limitations when you pay a judgment, paid judgments may be reported no more than seven years after their dates of judgment.

If you'd like to learn what you can do to repair your credit and negotiate with your creditors, read Nolo's book Credit Repair, by Amy Loftsgordon and Cara O'Neill.