Most negative information stays on your credit report for seven years, bankruptcies for up to ten, and hard inquiries for two. Positive accounts can stay indefinitely while they’re open. That’s the short answer to how long information stays on your credit report, but the clock doesn’t always start when you’d expect, a few categories have their own rules, and certain high-dollar situations ignore the time limits entirely.
Seven Years for Most Negative Items
The Fair Credit Reporting Act bars credit reporting agencies from including most negative information that’s more than seven years old.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports That covers late payments, accounts sent to collections, charge-offs where a creditor writes the debt off as a loss, and other derogatory marks that aren’t bankruptcies or criminal convictions. Once the seven-year window closes, the bureaus have to stop sending that item to lenders, landlords, and anyone else pulling your file.
Paid tax liens follow the same seven-year rule, counted from the date of payment.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports In practice, all three major bureaus stopped reporting tax liens and civil judgments entirely in 2017 and 2018 after a settlement with state attorneys general raised concerns about the accuracy of public-record data.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A New Retrospective on the Removal of Public Records That’s a voluntary policy, not a legal requirement, so it could change.
Up to Ten Years for Bankruptcies
A bankruptcy filing can stay on your report for up to ten years from the date of entry of the order for relief or the date of adjudication.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports That ceiling applies to every chapter of the Bankruptcy Code, including Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, and Chapter 13.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does a Bankruptcy Appear on Credit Reports?
You’ll sometimes hear that a Chapter 13 drops off after seven years. The legal limit is ten for every chapter, but some bureaus have historically removed completed Chapter 13 cases early as a matter of internal policy. Don’t count on it. If you’re planning around credit recovery, assume the full ten years.
The clock runs from the date of entry of the order for relief or the date of adjudication, not the date you filed. For most Chapter 7 cases the order for relief is entered the same day or close to it, but a Chapter 13 repayment plan can run three to five years, so the distinction can matter.
Medical Debt Has Its Own Rules
Medical collections sit under the standard seven-year ceiling with extra layers added by bureau policy. In 2022, the three major bureaus voluntarily extended the waiting period before unpaid medical collections appear on reports from 180 days to one full year, and stopped reporting paid medical collections entirely. In April 2023, they removed all medical collections with initial balances under $500.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Prohibition on Creditors and Consumer Reporting Agencies Concerning Medical Information (Regulation V)
The CFPB tried to go further with a rule that would have banned medical bills from credit reports entirely, but a federal court in Texas vacated that rule in July 2025.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Finalizes Rule to Remove Medical Bills from Credit Reports The bureau policies remain in place for now, but they aren’t backed by law and could be reversed. If you have medical debt, check your reports regularly.
Two Years for Hard Inquiries
Hard inquiries happen when you apply for a loan, credit card, or other new credit. They stay on your report for two years, though they typically affect your score for only about one year.6Equifax. Understanding Hard Inquiries on Your Credit Report Multiple hard inquiries for the same type of loan within a short window, usually 14 to 45 days depending on the scoring model, are generally grouped and counted as one, so rate-shopping a mortgage or auto loan won’t sink your score.
Soft inquiries work differently. These happen when you check your own credit, when a company pre-screens you for an offer, or when an existing creditor reviews your account. Only you can see them, and they don’t affect your score. Promotional soft inquiries show on your personal report for about a year; account review inquiries can stick around for two.
Positive Accounts Can Stay Indefinitely
The FCRA’s time limits apply only to negative information. Accounts in good standing can remain on your report indefinitely while they’re open. Once you close an account that was never delinquent, it generally stays on your report for about ten years from the closure date. That long tail works in your favor, because the payment history and credit age from older accounts keep supporting your score even after you stop using them.
When the Seven-Year Clock Actually Starts
For collections and charge-offs, the seven-year clock doesn’t start the day the account went to collections or the day a creditor wrote it off. The FCRA ties the start date to 180 days after the first delinquency that led to the negative outcome.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports Industry professionals call this the Date of First Delinquency.
Here’s how that plays out. Say you miss a credit card payment in March and never catch up. The creditor sends the account to collections in September. The seven-year reporting clock starts 180 days after March, so it begins around September of that same year. The transfer to collections doesn’t move the date. Neither does a later sale of the debt to a different collection agency.7Federal Trade Commission. Consumer Reports: What Information Furnishers Need to Know
You can usually find this date on your credit report, listed in the account details or payment history section. If you can’t locate it, request a full file disclosure from the bureau. Pinpointing the Date of First Delinquency is the only reliable way to calculate when a negative mark should legally drop off.
Re-Aging Is Illegal
Some collectors try to reset the clock by reporting a later date of first delinquency, often after buying the debt. That practice, commonly called re-aging, violates the FCRA. The statute fixes the start of the seven-year period to the original delinquency that preceded the collection activity.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports No transfer, sale, or settlement changes that date.
This is where consumers get nervous about paying old debts. Paying or settling an old collection account does not restart the seven-year reporting clock. The original delinquency date stays put. If you notice that a collection account’s reported date of first delinquency has suddenly moved forward after the debt was sold, that’s worth disputing.
Exceptions for High-Dollar Situations
The seven-year and ten-year limits have a carve-out worth knowing about. They don’t apply when your report is pulled in connection with a credit transaction involving $150,000 or more, a life insurance policy with a face value of $150,000 or more, or employment at an annual salary of $75,000 or more.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports A lender evaluating you for a jumbo mortgage, or a company running a background check for a high-salary position, could potentially see items older than seven years. Most people never hit this, but it’s worth knowing if you’re applying for a large loan or a senior role.
Credit Reporting Period Is Not the Statute of Limitations
These two clocks get mixed up often, and the confusion causes real mistakes. The FCRA’s seven-year reporting period controls how long a negative item can appear on your credit report. The statute of limitations controls how long a creditor can sue you to collect the debt. Different laws, different clocks.
The statute of limitations varies by state and by the type of debt, typically running three to six years for most consumer debts, though some states allow longer. When it expires, the creditor can no longer win a lawsuit against you for the balance. But an expired statute of limitations doesn’t remove the debt from your credit report, and a debt falling off your credit report doesn’t stop a creditor from trying to collect while the statute of limitations is still running.
Getting Items Removed Before They Expire
If a negative item is reported inaccurately, with a wrong Date of First Delinquency, an incorrect balance, or sitting past its legal reporting window, you can dispute it directly with the credit bureau. The bureau must conduct a free investigation and resolve the dispute within 30 days of receiving it, extendable by 15 days if you provide new information during the investigation.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy If the item can’t be verified, it has to be deleted or corrected. For willful noncompliance, FCRA damages run from $100 to $1,000 per violation, plus actual damages, possible punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance
You don’t always have to wait for the exact expiration date. Each of the three major bureaus reportedly maintains an informal window during which they’ll remove a negative item a few months before the seven-year period formally ends. Based on widespread consumer reports, TransUnion may remove items up to six months early, Experian up to three months early, and Equifax one to two months early. These aren’t published policies and results vary. To request early exclusion, you’ll need the specific account number, the confirmed Date of First Delinquency, and ideally the estimated date of removal shown on your report. Submit through the bureau’s online dispute portal or by phone, and ask for an “early exclusion” rather than filing it as a standard accuracy dispute.
Early exclusion only works when an item is close to expiring. If a legitimate negative mark still has years left, one option is a goodwill letter sent directly to the creditor, not the bureau. This is an informal request asking the creditor to remove an accurate negative mark as a courtesy. Goodwill letters work best when the missed payment came from unusual circumstances like a medical emergency, job loss, or natural disaster, and you’ve since brought the account current and kept it that way. They’re most effective for a single late payment or short stretch of delinquency on an otherwise clean account. Creditors have no obligation to grant them, and most won’t remove charge-offs, collections, or patterns of missed payments this way. If you try one, keep it short: acknowledge the missed payment, briefly explain the circumstances, note your positive history before and after, and ask plainly for removal.