How long an item can stay on your report

“How long does this stay on my report?” is one of the most common questions about credit reporting, and one of the most commonly answered wrong on the internet. The statute is specific.

The list

15 U.S.C. § 1681c(a) excludes certain information from consumer reports. The categories and periods:

Bankruptcy — cases under title 11 or the Bankruptcy Act that,

from the date of entry of the order for relief or the date of adjudication, as the case may be, antedate the report by more than 10 years.

Civil suits, civil judgments, and records of arrest — that,

from date of entry, antedate the report by more than seven years or until the governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is the longer period.

Read that one twice. The period is seven years or the governing limitations period, whichever is longer. It is not a flat seven.

Paid tax liens — more than seven years “from date of payment.” The clock runs from payment, not from filing.

Accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss — more than seven years. When that seven years starts is the subject of the date that controls the clock, and it is not the date you think.

Any other adverse item of information — more than seven years, with an express carve-out: the paragraph reads “other than records of convictions of crimes.” Criminal convictions are not subject to the seven-year exclusion in this paragraph.

Section 1681c(a) also contains provisions on medical information and certain veterans’ medical debt. Those have conditions we are not summarising here, because they turn on details a general article cannot carry safely — read the subsection.

What the limits are not

They are not a deletion schedule you can invoke early. The statute excludes information older than the period. It does not shorten the period because the debt was paid, settled, or is embarrassing.

They do not apply to accurate, current information. An open account in good standing is not an “adverse item” and does not age off.

They are not the same as a statute of limitations on the debt. How long a creditor can sue you and how long an item can be reported are separate questions governed by different law. A debt can be past the limitations period for suit and still lawfully reported, and vice versa.

They do not make an inaccurate item lawful until it expires. An item that is wrong is disputable today. Accuracy and obsolescence are independent objections — you do not have to wait out the clock on something that was never true.

The exceptions people run into

Section 1681c(b) removes these limits for reports used in connection with certain transactions — credit or life insurance involving a large principal amount, and employment at a specified salary level, among others. If you are applying for a large loan or a senior position, the ordinary seven-year exclusion may not apply to your report for that use. Check the subsection rather than assuming.

What to actually do with this

Three practical points:

1. Check the dates on every adverse item, not just the ones you dispute for accuracy. An item past its period is objectionable on that ground alone, and it is a cleaner objection than most — it turns on arithmetic rather than on whose records are right.
2. Find the controlling date. For a collection, it is not the date the collector bought the debt or the date it first appeared on your report. See the date that controls the clock.
3. Do not wait for something wrong to age off. Seven years is a long time to carry an error you could have disputed.

Whether a particular item is inside or outside its period on your facts is arithmetic we cannot do for you — we do not have your reports and we do not calculate dates for readers. What the periods are is not fact-specific, and that is what this page is.