Most negative information stays on your credit report for seven years, but the exact answer to how long negative information stays on your credit report depends on what kind of mark it is. Bankruptcy can linger up to ten years. Hard inquiries fall off after two. A handful of items, including criminal convictions, have no expiration at all. The timelines below are set by federal law, with a few areas where the credit bureaus have adopted stricter voluntary policies.
The Seven-Year Rule
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, credit reporting agencies cannot include most types of adverse information on your report once it is more than seven years old.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports That single rule covers the items that do the most damage to a credit score:
- Late payments reported as 30, 60, 90, or 120-plus days past due
- Collection accounts
- Charge-offs, which typically happen after about 120 to 180 days of nonpayment
- Foreclosures
- Repossessions of a car or other collateral
The statute also includes a catch-all that applies the seven-year limit to any other adverse item not specifically listed, with the exception of criminal convictions.
When the Clock Starts
The seven years do not run from when the debt went to collections or when a charge-off was recorded. Federal law ties the starting point to the original missed payment: the clock begins 180 days after the delinquency that led to the collection, charge-off, or similar action first started. In practice, that puts the starting line roughly six months after you first fell behind, and the item drops off about seven and a half years after the original missed payment.
The Clock Cannot Be Restarted
A protection built into the same rule: the seven-year period does not reset. If a debt collector buys your old debt, the original delinquency date stays the same. If you make a partial payment on an account already in collections, the original delinquency date still stays the same. Settling a debt for less than the full amount does not restart the period either. A settled account remains on your report for seven years from the original delinquency, not from the settlement agreement. If you stopped paying a credit card in March and reached a settlement the following November, the clock runs from March.
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy follows a longer timeline that depends on which chapter you filed under. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy, where a court discharges most debts after liquidating eligible assets, can stay on your credit report for up to ten years from the date the court entered the order for relief. In a voluntary filing, that is effectively the date you filed the petition.
A Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which involves a court-approved repayment plan over three to five years, typically stays on your report for seven years from the filing date. The statute allows reporting of any bankruptcy for up to ten years, but the major credit bureaus have adopted a policy of removing completed Chapter 13 cases at the seven-year mark.2United States Bankruptcy Court. Credit Report – How Do I Get a Bankruptcy Removed From My Report A Chapter 13 that was dismissed rather than completed may stay on for the full ten.
Hard Inquiries
When a lender pulls your credit report because you applied for a loan, credit card, or other form of credit, that hard inquiry stays visible for two years. Hard inquiries do affect your score, but the impact is relatively small and fades well before the two-year mark.
Medical Debt
Medical debt is treated more favorably than other collections because of voluntary policies the three major bureaus adopted in 2023:
- Medical debt in collections does not appear on your credit report until at least one year after the date of service, giving time to resolve billing disputes or wait on insurance.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Have Medical Debt? Anything Already Paid or Under $500 Should No Longer Be on Your Credit Report
- Medical debts under $500 are not reported at all.
- Paid medical collections are removed from the report entirely rather than kept as paid collections for seven years.
The CFPB finalized a broader rule in January 2025 that would have banned all medical debt from credit reports, but a federal court in Texas vacated that rule in July 2025, and it never took effect.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Finalizes Rule to Remove Medical Bills from Credit Reports Unpaid medical debts of $500 or more can still appear after the one-year waiting period and remain for up to seven years.
Tax Liens and Civil Judgments
The statute allows paid tax liens to be reported for seven years from the date of payment, and civil judgments for seven years from the date the judgment was entered, or until the statute of limitations on the judgment runs out, whichever is longer.
In practice, these rarely show up on credit reports today. Starting in 2018, the major bureaus stopped including most tax liens and civil judgments because the underlying public records often lacked enough identifying information, such as a full Social Security number or date of birth, to match reliably to the right consumer. The legal reporting limits still exist, but bureau accuracy standards have effectively pulled these items out of most credit files. A tax lien remains a matter of public record even when it is not on your credit report, so a lender doing its own research could still find it.
Criminal Convictions
Criminal convictions have no time limit under federal law. A 1998 amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act removed all restrictions on how long credit reporting agencies can include conviction records.5Federal Trade Commission. Advisory Opinion to Nadell 12-10-98 A conviction from decades ago can legally appear on a consumer report indefinitely. Some states impose their own limits in certain contexts, particularly for employment background checks, but federal law sets no cap.
Federal Student Loan Defaults
Defaulted federal student loans follow the standard seven-year rule, measured from the original delinquency. Even though federal student loans generally cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, the credit-reporting timeline is the same as for any other collection account.
Rehabilitation offers one of the few ways to erase a negative mark before seven years is up. If you make nine on-time monthly payments within ten consecutive months under a rehabilitation agreement, the default status is removed from your credit report. The Department of Education’s Fresh Start program, which offered a streamlined path out of default and removed default records from credit reports, closed to new enrollment in October 2024.6Federal Student Aid. A Fresh Start for Federal Student Loan Borrowers in Default Borrowers who missed that window can still pursue rehabilitation or consolidation.
When Old Items Can Still Be Reported
The time limits above have exceptions for large transactions. Credit bureaus can include negative information past the normal deadlines when a report is being used for:
- A loan or credit line with a principal amount of $150,000 or more
- Underwriting a life insurance policy with a face value of $150,000 or more
- Hiring for a position with an expected annual salary of $75,000 or more
In those situations, the lender, insurer, or employer can see your full credit history, including items that would normally be too old to report. These thresholds are set by statute and have not been adjusted for inflation, so they now catch a broader range of transactions than they originally did.
What to Do If Something Should Have Fallen Off
If a negative item is still on your report past its legal expiration date, you can dispute it directly with the credit bureau reporting it. Disputes can go to Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion online, by phone, or by mail. The bureau generally has 30 days to investigate and correct or remove the item, extended to 45 days if you filed after pulling your free annual credit report.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does It Take to Repair an Error on a Credit Report
Include the specific item you are challenging, the date of the original delinquency, and a short explanation of why the item should be removed. Keep copies of everything you send. If a bureau refuses to remove information that has legally expired, you can sue in state or federal court under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.