How Long Can a Creditor Report Bad Debt: The 7-Year Clock and Exceptions

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a creditor can report most bad debt for seven years. That ceiling covers the negative items people worry about most: late payments, charge-offs, collection accounts, repossessions, and foreclosures.¹ A few categories get more time, a few get less, and the exact starting date is more technical than it first appears.

The damage to your score usually fades well before the entry itself disappears. A collection from five years ago hurts far less than one from five months ago, because scoring models weigh recent behavior much more heavily. So even when you cannot get an item removed early, time is already working in your favor.

When the Seven-Year Clock Actually Starts

The countdown does not begin on the day your account was charged off or sold to a collector. For accounts that went to collections or were charged off, the FCRA starts the seven years 180 days after the date your delinquency began.¹ In practical terms, the total window from your first missed payment to the reporting deadline is roughly seven years and six months.

Say you miss a payment in January, never catch up, and the creditor charges the account off in July. The clock does not start in July. It starts 180 days after that January delinquency. The 180-day buffer gives the original creditor time to report the default and for the account to move through the collection process, but the charge-off itself does not reset anything.

What Does Not Restart the Clock

Making a payment on old debt does not restart the seven-year reporting period. Neither does acknowledging the balance. If your original creditor sells the account to a collection agency, the new collector inherits the original delinquency date; the sale does not give the debt a fresh timeline.

Any creditor or collector who reports a later start date to make an old debt appear newer is engaged in what’s called re-aging, and it is illegal. The FTC requires companies that furnish information to credit bureaus to have written policies preventing it.² This matters most after a debt is sold, since portfolio transfers are the moment when delinquency dates most often shift forward.

If you pull your report and a collection account shows a more recent delinquency date than you remember, compare it against your own records. The date of first delinquency should trace back to when you originally fell behind with the original creditor. A mismatch is worth disputing.

Debts That Run Longer or Follow Different Rules

Bankruptcy is the main exception on the long side. The FCRA allows a bankruptcy filing to remain on your report for up to 10 years from the filing date.¹ The statute does not distinguish between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, but the major bureaus typically remove Chapter 13 filings after seven years because those cases involve a repayment plan. Chapter 7 filings stay the full 10 years.

Civil judgments and tax liens are technically reportable under the FCRA, but Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion voluntarily stopped including them. Civil judgments came off in mid-2017, and by April 2018 the remaining tax liens were dropped. Bankruptcy is now the only public record that appears on a bureau credit report.³

Defaulted federal student loans follow the standard seven-year rule, measured from the original date of delinquency. Enrolling in a repayment program or consolidating the loan does not reset the timeline.⁴

The seven-year limit is lifted entirely for a narrow set of high-value transactions. Older negative items can be reported when you apply for:

Credit of $150,000 or more, such as a mortgage.
Life insurance with a face amount of $150,000 or more.
Employment at an annual salary of $75,000 or more.

These dollar thresholds are set by the statute and are not adjusted for inflation.⁵

Medical Debt

Medical debt follows its own rules, and they have shifted recently. In 2022 and 2023, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion voluntarily stopped reporting medical collections that have been paid in full, and they removed unpaid medical collections with balances under $500.⁶ Those changes removed roughly 70 percent of medical collection entries from consumer credit files.

The CFPB finalized a broader rule that would have banned medical debt from credit reports entirely, but a federal court vacated that rule in July 2025, holding that it exceeded the agency’s authority under the FCRA.⁷ The voluntary bureau changes remain in effect. If you have medical debt in collections, paying it off should cause it to drop from your report, and any unpaid balance under $500 should not appear at all.

Veterans get extra protection built into the FCRA itself. Medical debt from VA hospital care cannot be reported until at least one year after the care was provided, and fully paid or settled veteran medical debt cannot be reported at all.¹

Credit Reporting Is Not the Same as Being Sued

Two separate clocks run on any unpaid debt, and confusing them can be expensive. The credit reporting period governs how long the debt shows on your report. The statute of limitations governs how long a creditor can sue you to collect it. They are independent.

The reporting period is federal and runs seven years regardless of where you live. The statute of limitations is set by state law, with most states falling between three and six years for credit card and other consumer debts, and a few allowing as long as 10 or 15 years for certain written contracts.⁸

Here is the trap: the reporting clock cannot be restarted, but the statute of limitations often can. In many states, making a small partial payment on an old debt or acknowledging it in writing restarts the entire limitations period, giving the creditor a fresh window to sue.⁸ A collector who pressures you into paying $20 as a “gesture of good faith” may be trying to reset that lawsuit clock. If a debt is close to or past your state’s limit, think carefully before making any payment or written acknowledgment.

Getting Outdated Bad Debt Removed

If a negative item on your report is older than the FCRA allows, you have the right to have it removed, and you can do this yourself for free. File a dispute with each bureau that shows the outdated information. Disputes can be submitted online or by mail.⁹

Identify the specific account and explain that it has exceeded the maximum reporting period. Include copies of anything that supports the original delinquency date, such as old account statements or prior credit reports showing the account with an earlier date. Send copies and keep your originals.¹⁰

Once you submit, the bureau has 30 days to investigate, extending to 45 days if you send additional information after filing.¹¹ If the item is obsolete or cannot be verified, the bureau must remove it. If the bureau responds that the item is still within the reporting window, check the delinquency date it is using against your records. A mismatched date is exactly the kind of re-aging that warrants a follow-up complaint to the CFPB or FTC. You do not need to hire a credit repair company for any of this; the dispute process is built for consumers to use directly.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
2
Federal Trade Commission. Consumer Reports: What Information Furnishers Need to Know
3
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A New Retrospective on the Removal of Public Records
4
Federal Student Aid. A Fresh Start for Borrowers With Federal Student Loans in Default
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports – Section: Exempted Cases
6
TransUnion. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion Remove Medical Collections Debt Under $500 From US Credit Reports
7
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Finalizes Rule to Remove Medical Bills from Credit Reports
8
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can Debt Collectors Collect a Debt That’s Several Years Old?
9
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Do I Dispute an Error on My Credit Report?
10
Federal Trade Commission. Disputing Errors on Your Credit Reports
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy