The Fair Credit Reporting Act sets how long negative information may remain on a credit report. The rules are specific, and the most useful detail is when the clock starts.
The reporting periods
| Item | Reporting period | Clock starts |
|---|---|---|
| Late payments | Up to 7 years | The date of the missed payment |
| Charge-offs | Up to 7 years | The original delinquency that led to it |
| Collection accounts | Up to 7 years | The original delinquency on the underlying debt |
| Chapter 7 bankruptcy | Up to 10 years | The filing date |
| Chapter 13 bankruptcy | Up to 7 years from discharge | Varies by bureau practice |
| Hard inquiries | 2 years | The inquiry date |
| Closed accounts in good standing | Around 10 years | The closure date |
The key point is in the third column. The clock runs from the original delinquency — the date the account first went bad and never recovered — not from when the debt was sold, assigned to a collector, or eventually paid.
Why paying does not reset it
This surprises people, and it is worth being clear about: paying a collection or bringing a charged-off account current does not restart the seven-year period, and it does not remove the entry.
What changes is the status. The account updates to show it was paid or settled, which lenders reading the report do treat differently from an unresolved delinquency. Some newer scoring models also disregard paid collections entirely.
The impact fades earlier than the entry
Scoring models weight recent behavior far more heavily than old behavior. A late payment from six years ago is still on the report but contributes very little to the score. One from three months ago contributes a great deal.
In practice, most of the score damage from a delinquency has dissipated within two to four years, well before the item disappears. Manual underwriters, however, do read the report directly, so an old entry can still come up in conversation on a mortgage application.
What is not removed by time
Two things behave differently:
- Positive information. Accounts in good standing can remain indefinitely while open, and closed ones generally stay for around ten years — which is why closing an old card is a slow-acting loss.
- Your own debt. The reporting period is not a statute of limitations on the obligation, and the two are different lengths in most states. A debt can be legally collectible after it has dropped off your report, or uncollectible while still on it.
If something is past its period
Dispute it. Information beyond its reporting period should have been removed automatically, and when it has not been, the dispute process generally resolves it within 30 days.
Check the date of first delinquency on any negative entry against your own records. If it looks later than it should, that is exactly what to raise in the dispute.
