How Long Does Your Credit History Last: The 7-Year Rule and Exceptions

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, most negative information stays on your credit report for seven years, while bankruptcies can remain for up to ten. That covers late payments, collections, charge-offs, repossessions, and foreclosures. A few categories follow different rules, and a few narrow exceptions let old entries surface even after the standard window closes.¹

The Seven-Year Rule

Seven years is the default reporting window for negative entries. Late payments, accounts sent to collections, charge-offs, repossessions, and foreclosures all fall under it. Once the window closes, credit bureaus must stop including the entry in reports they provide to lenders. A foreclosure, for example, comes off seven years from the date of the foreclosure itself.²

The clock does not reset when a debt changes hands. If a collection agency buys your account from the original creditor, the original delinquency date still anchors the seven years. Collectors cannot restart or extend the reporting period by transferring or reselling the account. When the same debt shows up under a new date, that is called re-aging, and it violates federal law. You can dispute it.

When the Clock Actually Starts

For collections and charge-offs, the seven years does not run from the date the account went to collections. It runs from 180 days after the original delinquency — the missed payment that set everything in motion.¹ So the clock effectively begins about six months after your first missed payment, regardless of how long the creditor waited before sending the account out.

This matters when there is a gap between your first missed payment and later collection activity. Because the law ties the reporting period to the original delinquency, the negative entry cannot linger on your report just because a creditor took months or years to hand it off.

Bankruptcy: Seven Years or Ten

The statute sets a single ten-year maximum for any bankruptcy filing, measured from the filing date, regardless of chapter.¹

In practice, the three major credit bureaus generally remove a completed Chapter 13 bankruptcy after seven years rather than ten, because Chapter 13 involves partial repayment of debts through a court-supervised plan. Chapter 7 bankruptcies, where most unsecured debts are discharged without a repayment plan, typically stay the full ten years. The shorter Chapter 13 timeline is bureau policy, not a legal requirement, so the timing can vary.

Medical Debt

Medical collections have been shifting fast. The three major bureaus voluntarily stopped reporting medical collections under $500 and removed paid medical collections starting in 2023. In January 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule that would have barred medical debt from credit reports entirely.³

That rule never took effect. A federal court in Texas vacated it in July 2025, finding the CFPB had exceeded its statutory authority. Credit bureaus and lenders are once again free to include unpaid medical bills on credit reports and to factor them into lending decisions. The bureaus’ earlier voluntary limits remain in place for now, but they could be reversed. For unpaid medical collections that do get reported, the standard seven-year window applies.

Tax Liens and Civil Judgments

The FCRA allows paid tax liens to be reported for seven years from the date of payment, and technically allows unpaid tax liens to remain indefinitely.¹ What the law permits and what actually appears on modern credit reports are two different things.

Beginning in 2017, the three major bureaus adopted new data standards under a settlement with state attorneys general called the National Consumer Assistance Plan. Public records had to include the consumer’s name, address, and either a Social Security number or date of birth, with the data refreshed at least every 90 days.⁴ Most public records sources could not meet those requirements. All civil judgments came off credit reports in mid-2017, and nearly all tax liens were removed by April 2018. Today, tax liens and civil judgments generally do not appear on reports from Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, even though the FCRA still technically permits them. If you find one on your report, you may have grounds to dispute it against the bureaus’ own data accuracy standards.

Exceptions That Let Old Information Resurface

The seven-year limit does not apply in every situation. Federal law lets certain requesters see negative information older than seven years:¹

A lender reviewing an application for credit with a principal amount of $150,000 or more.
An insurer underwriting a life insurance policy with a face value of $150,000 or more.
An employer considering you for a job that pays $75,000 or more per year.

These dollar thresholds are set by statute and have not been adjusted for inflation. For a large mortgage or a high-salary hiring decision, your full credit history can be visible even after the standard reporting period has passed.

Positive History Stays Longer

Positive account information behaves differently. An open account in good standing can stay on your report indefinitely, building credit age and payment history the whole time. When you close a paid-as-agreed account, the bureaus typically keep it on your report for up to ten years from the closure or last reporting date.⁵

If you had a single late payment on an otherwise clean account, the late payment falls off after seven years, while the rest of the positive history can remain for the full ten years after closing.

How Long Inquiries Stay

Hard inquiries — the ones triggered when you formally apply for credit — remain on your report for two years. Their effect on your score is minor and fades much faster; most scoring models only weigh hard inquiries from the past 12 months.⁶ Soft inquiries, such as checking your own credit or receiving a pre-approval offer, are visible only to you and do not affect your score.

Identity Theft Follows Different Rules

Fraudulent entries do not have to sit on your report for seven years. Once you report identity theft to a credit bureau and provide the required documentation — proof of your identity, a copy of an identity theft report, and a statement identifying the fraudulent information — the bureau must block that information within four business days.⁷ Blocking is separate from the ordinary dispute process and applies specifically to information resulting from identity theft. If a bureau fails to block the information or lets it reappear, you may have grounds for a legal claim.

What to Do If a Negative Entry Overstays Its Window

If a negative item is still on your report past its allowed reporting period, you can dispute it directly with the credit bureau online, by phone, or by mail. The bureau generally has 30 days to investigate and respond.⁸ That window can extend to 45 days if you submit additional supporting information during the investigation, or if the dispute followed a request for your free annual credit report.⁹ If the bureau simply deletes the disputed item, it can do so within three business days without a full investigation.

When a bureau refuses to correct or remove information that should no longer be reported, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or take legal action. Under the FCRA, willful violations can produce statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation, along with actual damages and, in some cases, punitive damages. The law also lets you recover attorney’s fees if you win.¹

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
2
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If I Lose My Home to Foreclosure, Can I Ever Buy a Home Again?
3
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Prohibition on Creditors and Consumer Reporting Agencies Concerning Medical Information – Regulation V
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Removal of Public Records Has Little Effect on Consumers Credit Scores
5
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does Information Stay on My Credit Report?
6
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Happens When a Mortgage Lender Checks My Credit
7
Federal Trade Commission. FCRA 605B – 15 USC 1681c-2
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
9
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does It Take to Repair an Error on a Credit Report