How Long Does Derogatory Information Stay on Your Credit Report?

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, most negative items stay on your credit report for seven years, which is the short answer to how long derogatory information stays on your credit report. Bankruptcies can remain for up to ten years, and a few categories follow their own rules. Once the window closes, the credit bureaus have to drop the entry.¹

The Seven-Year Rule

The FCRA bars credit bureaus from reporting most derogatory account information older than seven years.² The seven-year window covers the entries that damage most credit files:

Late payments, whether 30, 60, 90, or 120 or more days past due.
Charge-offs, when a creditor writes off the debt as a loss.
Collection accounts, whether handled internally or sold to a third-party collector.
Foreclosures and repossessions, dated from the first missed payment that led to the default.

Paying a collection account does not erase it. The status updates to show a zero balance or “paid,” but the historical record of the delinquency stays visible for the full seven years.² Paying may change how a future lender interprets the entry, but it doesn’t shorten the reporting period.

When the Clock Actually Starts

The seven-year countdown doesn’t start on the date you missed a payment. It starts 180 days after the first delinquency that led to the charge-off or collection, a date the FCRA calls the “date of first delinquency.”² From a consumer’s point of view, that means a derogatory item usually falls off roughly seven years and six months after you first fell behind.

That start date is locked in. Making a partial payment, settling for less than the full balance, or acknowledging the debt to a collector does not restart the FCRA clock.² Those same actions can, however, restart your state’s statute of limitations for a debt collection lawsuit. The two timelines are independent: the statute of limitations governs how long a creditor can sue you; the FCRA reporting period governs how long the item shows up on your credit report.

Creditors have to report the accurate date of first delinquency. If a creditor or collector reports a later date to make the debt look newer, that’s called re-aging, and it violates the FCRA.³

Bankruptcy: Up to Ten Years

The FCRA lets credit bureaus report a bankruptcy filing for up to ten years from the date the court enters the order for relief, which in a voluntary case is typically the petition date.² The ten-year cap applies regardless of chapter. In practice, the three major bureaus voluntarily remove completed Chapter 13 filings after seven years. Chapter 7 typically stays the full ten.

A dismissed bankruptcy still appears. The filing is a matter of public record, and the ten-year clock runs from the original filing date even if you never received a discharge. The dismissal notation shows up alongside the filing.

Individual accounts included in a bankruptcy follow their own seven-year timelines based on when each account first went delinquent.² Because those accounts usually went bad well before the bankruptcy was filed, many of them drop off years before the bankruptcy record itself.

Medical Debt Rules

Medical debt has more protective rules than the standard seven-year timeline. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have voluntarily adopted three changes that limit when and whether medical debt appears on your report:

Unpaid medical debt cannot appear on your report until at least one year after the date of service, giving you time to work through insurance claims and billing disputes.⁴
Since July 2022, paid medical collection accounts are removed from credit reports entirely.⁴
Medical debts under $500 that go to collections are not reported at all.

These are voluntary bureau policies, not federal regulations. The CFPB finalized a rule in 2024 that would have kept medical debt off credit reports entirely, but a federal court vacated that rule in July 2025.⁵ The voluntary protections remain in place, but because they’re not backed by a binding regulation, they could be reversed.

Other Categories With Their Own Timelines

Defaulted Federal Student Loans

A federal student loan enters default after 270 days of missed payments, and the default follows the same seven-year rule as other delinquent accounts, running from the date of first delinquency.⁶

Hard Inquiries

When you apply for credit and a lender pulls your report, the resulting hard inquiry stays on your file for two years. The score impact is usually under five points and typically fades within a few months; FICO stops counting inquiries entirely after twelve months. Soft inquiries, such as checking your own credit or receiving a pre-approval offer, are visible only to you and don’t affect your score.

Tax Liens and Civil Judgments

Tax liens and civil court judgments used to appear as public record items and could stay for seven years, or longer for unpaid tax liens. That changed in 2017, when the three major bureaus adopted new data standards requiring minimum identifying information and regular updates. Civil judgments and most tax liens failed to meet the standards and were removed. By April 2018, all tax liens had been dropped. These items no longer appear on reports from Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, though the IRS can still enforce a federal tax lien against your property.

When Older Information Can Still Be Reported

The FCRA’s seven-year and ten-year limits don’t apply in every situation. Federal law allows older negative information to appear in three cases:

Criminal convictions are also exempt from the seven-year rule. Arrests that didn’t lead to a conviction must come off after seven years, but a conviction can be reported on a consumer report indefinitely.⁷

If Something Stays Past Its Expiration Date

If a derogatory item is still on your report after its legal window has closed, you can dispute it with the credit bureau. You can also dispute anything that is inaccurate or incomplete at any time, regardless of age.⁸ Each of the three major bureaus takes disputes online, by mail, or by phone.

After you file, the bureau has 30 days to investigate. If you provide additional information during that window, the bureau can extend the investigation by up to 15 days. Within five business days of receiving your dispute, the bureau also has to notify the furnisher of the disputed information.⁹ If the investigation finds the information is inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable, the bureau has to correct or delete it promptly.

When you’re disputing an item that should have aged off, include the date of first delinquency in your letter. If the creditor reported a later date, point out the discrepancy. The bureau can’t simply verify that the debt is real; it also has to confirm the item is still within its allowable reporting period.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681 – Congressional Findings and Statement of Purpose
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
3
Federal Trade Commission. Consumer Reports – What Information Furnishers Need to Know
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Medical Debt Reporting Rules Changes
5
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Finalizes Rule to Remove Medical Bills from Credit Reports
6
Federal Student Aid. Credit Reporting
7
Federal Register. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening
8
Federal Trade Commission. A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy