How Long Do Negative Items Stay on a Credit Report?

The seven-year rule

Most adverse information may be reported for seven years. That includes late payments, collection accounts, charge-offs, civil judgments and most other derogatory marks. The seven years run from the date of first delinquency on the original account — the date the account first became late and was never brought current again — not from the date a collection agency purchased the debt, not from the date it was charged off, and not from the date you last made a payment.

This is the detail that trips up the most consumers. A debt can be sold two or three times, and each new collector may report a new-looking open date. None of those dates matter for the seven-year clock. Only the original date of first delinquency does.

The ten-year rule for bankruptcy

Chapter 7 bankruptcy may be reported for up to ten years from the filing date. Chapter 13 bankruptcy, because it involves a repayment plan and typically discharges sooner, is generally reported for seven years from the filing date, though bureaus have historically applied the longer period inconsistently, which is itself worth checking against your specific filing.

What starts the clock on different account types

Re-ageing: when the clock gets illegally reset

Re-ageing happens when a furnisher reports a new, later date of first delinquency than the account's true original date — intentionally or through sloppy recordkeeping — which makes the item look younger than it is and extends how long it stays on the file. This most often happens when a debt changes hands between collection agencies and each new holder reports the date it acquired the account rather than tracking down the true original delinquency date.

Re-ageing is a violation of accurate reporting requirements under the FCRA. It is also one of the more common and more provable errors we find when we pull a client's three-bureau report and compare the dates against original account statements.

• Compare the date of first delinquency shown by each bureau for the same debt — it is common to see three different dates across three bureaus for one account.
• Compare that date against your own bank or account records from when the account first went delinquent.
• If a collection agency's reported date is later than the true original delinquency date, that is a specific, documentable basis for a dispute under §611.

What to do if an item is past its reporting period

An item still reporting after its seven- or ten-year window has closed is disputable on that basis alone, separate from any question about the underlying accuracy of the debt. This is one of the more straightforward disputes to win because the calculation is objective: identify the true date of first delinquency, add seven years, and compare it to today's date.

It is also one of the more common items we find still sitting on files, because bureaus do not proactively audit every account for its exact reporting-period expiration. The obligation to catch it generally falls on the consumer, or on whoever is reviewing the file for them.

What passing the reporting period does not mean

An item aging off a credit report does not erase the underlying debt or any legal obligation to pay it, and it does not affect a creditor's ability to pursue collection through other means where state law still allows it. Credit reporting periods and debt collection statutes of limitations are governed by different laws and often run on different timelines. Aging off a report is a reporting question; whether a debt can still be legally collected is a separate one, and worth checking against your state's rules if a collector is still actively pursuing you.

Frequently asked questions