How Far Back Does an Accurate Background Check Go?

An Accurate Background check generally reaches back seven years for most negative non-criminal records, ten years for bankruptcies, and with no federal time limit at all for criminal convictions. How far back an Accurate Background check goes depends on the type of record, the state you live in, and in some cases the salary of the job you are applying for.

Accurate Background is a consumer reporting agency, so it follows the same federal rules as any other screening company. The Fair Credit Reporting Act sets the baseline, and a handful of states tighten it further.

Seven Years for Most Negative Records

The seven-year rule is the one most people are asking about. Under the FCRA, a consumer reporting agency cannot include the following adverse items on your report once seven years have passed:

Civil suits and civil judgments, measured from the date of entry, or until the statute of limitations expires, whichever is longer.
Paid tax liens, measured from the date of payment.
Collection accounts or charged-off accounts, measured from when the account was placed for collection or charged off.
Any other adverse item of information not covered by a different rule, measured from the date it occurred.

These limits apply to every screening provider operating in the United States, Accurate Background included.¹

Ten Years for Bankruptcies

Bankruptcy filings are the exception among civil records. The FCRA allows a consumer reporting agency to include a bankruptcy for up to ten years from the date the order for relief was entered. The statute does not distinguish between chapters, so a Chapter 7 and a Chapter 13 both carry the same ten-year window under federal law.¹

Some credit bureaus voluntarily drop completed Chapter 13 bankruptcies after seven years, but that is industry convention, not law. A screening provider is entitled to report a bankruptcy for the full decade.

Criminal Convictions Have No Federal Cutoff

Criminal convictions are the one category the FCRA explicitly leaves off the seven-year clock. The statute restricts “any other adverse item of information, other than records of convictions of crimes,” which means convictions themselves have no federal expiration date.¹

A felony conviction from twenty-five years ago can appear on an Accurate Background report if federal law is the only rule that applies. Congress removed convictions from the seven-year restriction in 1998, with the change reaching back to 1996.² State law can shorten that reach, and often does; that is covered further down.

Arrests and Dismissed Cases

Arrests that did not lead to a conviction are treated very differently from convictions. Non-conviction records are capped at seven years from the date of entry, and after that window closes, a screening provider cannot include them.¹

The CFPB’s 2024 advisory opinion clarified an important point. If charges are dismissed, dropped, or end in acquittal, that outcome does not restart the seven-year clock. The window still runs from when the original charge was filed. Because reporting the dismissal would necessarily reveal the underlying charge, agencies generally cannot report any part of a non-conviction case once seven years have run.²

Pending cases still awaiting disposition are handled differently. Screening agencies can report them, but they are required to have reasonable procedures for checking whether any disposition has been entered rather than reporting a bare arrest without an update.

Expunged and Sealed Records

Records that a court has sealed or expunged should not appear on your report at all, even inside the allowable reporting windows. The CFPB reads the FCRA’s accuracy standard to mean that reporting information the employer could not obtain directly from the government source is misleading. A screening agency that lacks procedures to catch and remove sealed or expunged records is not meeting the law’s reasonable-accuracy requirement.²

State expungement and sealing rules vary. Some states seal certain records automatically after a set number of years; others make you petition. If you have completed that process, an old record still surfacing on an Accurate Background report is a compliance failure you can dispute.

The $75,000 Salary Exception

The seven-year cap on non-criminal negatives falls away when the job pays $75,000 or more per year. Civil judgments, collection accounts, paid tax liens, and other adverse records that would normally age off remain reportable when the salary meets that threshold.³

The $75,000 figure is written into the statute and has not been adjusted for inflation. Two related exceptions cover credit transactions and life insurance policies of $150,000 or more, though those are less relevant to hiring. The salary exception does not change the rules for convictions, which already have no federal time limit, and it does not extend the seven-year cap on arrests.

States That Shorten the Windows

Federal law is a floor, not a ceiling. Roughly eight states cap how far back criminal convictions can be reported, even though federal law would allow indefinite reporting. Most use a seven-year cap. At least one state limits reporting of certain misdemeanor convictions to just three years. Where state law is stricter, the screening agency has to follow it.

Some of these state restrictions apply regardless of salary, so the federal $75,000 exception does not override the state-imposed cap. If you live or are applying for work in one of these states, an old conviction that would appear under federal rules alone may never show up on your Accurate Background report. The exact rules and any carve-outs vary, so checking your state’s consumer reporting or employment law is worth the time if an old record is on your mind.

Education, Employment, and Driving History

Not every part of a background check is an adverse item on a clock.

Educational credentials have no federal reporting expiration. A degree is a factual data point, not adverse information, so Accurate Background can verify it no matter when you earned it. The FCRA’s seven-year cap covers adverse items only.

Employment history verification usually reaches back five to seven years. That range is driven by employer preference and practical limits, not by law. Older employers may no longer exist or may not keep records that far back, so verification becomes unreliable.

Driving records depend on the state. Motor vehicle record lookback periods generally run three to seven years for violations, and serious offenses like DUI convictions can sit on the record longer. These records are still subject to the FCRA when a screening company pulls them for an employer.

If Something Old or Wrong Shows Up

Errors are common. Convictions that should have aged off, records belonging to someone with a similar name, and sealed records that were never scrubbed from a database all turn up on reports. You have the right to dispute any inaccuracy directly with the consumer reporting agency.

Once Accurate Background receives your dispute, it has 30 days to investigate. Adding supporting information during that period can extend the timeline by up to 15 days. If the agency cannot verify the disputed item, it must delete or correct it and notify whoever supplied the information originally.⁴

Deleted information cannot be reinserted unless the source certifies it is complete and accurate, and the agency has to maintain procedures to keep the same bad data from reappearing. Keep documentation of any successful dispute in case the record shows up again on a future check.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
2
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening
3
Federal Trade Commission. Fair Credit Reporting Act
4
Federal Trade Commission. Fair Credit Reporting Act Section 611 – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy