A collection account stays on your credit report for seven years. The clock runs from the date of the original delinquency on the account — the first missed payment that was never brought current before the account was placed for collection or charged off — not from the date the collector took over or the date you eventually pay.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. § 1681c – Section: Information excluded from consumer reports After that window, the credit reporting agency is not allowed to include the entry on your report, and removal is supposed to happen automatically.
How the Seven-Year Clock Is Measured
For collection accounts and charge-offs specifically, the seven-year reporting period begins 180 days after the original delinquency.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. § 1681c – Section: Running of reporting period Miss a payment in January and never catch up, and the seven years technically start in July of that same year. The date you finally pay the debt, settle it, or the date the account is sold to a new collector does not restart the clock.
Once the seven years are up, the entry should drop off on its own. Pull your reports and check. If it’s still showing, you have the right to dispute it, and both the reporting agency and the company that furnished the information have a duty to investigate and correct or update inaccurate entries.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. § 1681e – Section: Compliance procedures4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2 – Section: Duty to correct and update information
When Older Collections Can Still Show Up
The seven-year limit has narrow exceptions. A reporting agency may include older negative information when the report is requested in connection with:5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(b) – Section: Exceptions in case of certain applications
- A credit transaction of $150,000 or more
- A life insurance policy of $150,000 or more
- An employment application for a job paying $75,000 or more per year
Outside those situations, an aged-off collection should not appear.
How Much a Collection Hurts Your Score While It’s There
A collection lands in the payment history category, which the FICO model describes as 35% of your score.6Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. How Is Your Credit Score Determined? – Section: Payment History: 35% The size of the drop depends on the scoring model and what else is in your file. Consumers with higher scores generally see a larger decrease than those whose scores already reflect elevated risk. The federal reporting duration doesn’t depend on the dollar amount of the debt, but scoring models can weigh the amount and the type of account.
The effect also fades as the entry ages. Newer scoring models handle collections more leniently than older ones. Some versions of FICO penalize you for any collection account on file, even a paid one; FICO Score 9 and newer VantageScore versions may ignore paid collections when calculating your score. Because lenders choose which model and which version to pull, two scores drawn on the same file the same day can look meaningfully different.
Paid vs. Unpaid: What Changes on the Report
Paying a collection does not erase it from your report during the seven-year window, but the collector is required to update the account so the file is accurate.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2 – Section: Duty to correct and update information The status changes from unpaid to paid, or to settled if you paid less than the full balance. Your score may not jump immediately, but a zero balance can matter for things like employment background checks, and newer scoring models treat a paid collection more favorably than an unpaid one.
Medical Collections Follow Different Rules
The three nationwide credit reporting companies have changed how they handle medical debt. Paid medical collections no longer appear on credit reports. Medical debts less than a year old are not reported, and medical collections under $500 are not reported at all.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Medical debt: Anything already paid or under $500 should no longer be on your credit report If an old paid medical collection or a small medical bill is still on your file, that’s a dispute worth filing.
If a Collection Is Still on Your Report After Seven Years
Reporting agencies must follow reasonable procedures to keep files accurate.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. § 1681e – Section: Compliance procedures File a dispute in writing with the bureau showing the entry, and the furnisher of the information must investigate and correct or update anything incomplete or inaccurate.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2 – Section: Duty to correct and update information Watch for two common problems: entries that should have aged off, and entries where the original delinquency date has been reset by a later transfer between collectors, which is not allowed.