How Long Does Something Stay on Your Credit Report?

How long something stays on your credit report depends on what it is: most negative information comes off after seven years, bankruptcy can stay up to ten, hard inquiries fall off after two, and positive accounts can remain indefinitely. The Fair Credit Reporting Act sets these federal ceilings so old financial problems don’t follow you forever.¹

Reporting Time Limits by Item Type

Here is how the standard rules break down.

Late payments, collections, and charge-offs: seven years from the original delinquency date.¹
Chapter 7 bankruptcy: up to ten years from the filing date.
Chapter 13 bankruptcy: the statute allows ten years, but the three major bureaus typically remove a completed Chapter 13 after seven years as a voluntary practice.
Hard inquiries: two years on the report, though FICO only factors them in for 12 months and VantageScore uses the full 24.²
Positive accounts in good standing: no federal time limit; open accounts can stay indefinitely as long as the creditor keeps reporting them.³
Closed accounts in good standing: can remain up to about ten years after closure.⁴
Criminal convictions: no federal time limit. Arrests that did not lead to conviction follow the standard seven-year rule.¹
Tax liens and civil judgments: no longer reported at all. The three major bureaus stopped including them in 2017 and 2018. The debts still exist legally and can affect property sales and collection actions.⁵⁶
Medical debt: the standard seven-year rule can still apply. The bureaus voluntarily stopped reporting paid medical collections in 2022 and added a waiting period before unpaid medical debt appears. A 2025 CFPB rule that would have banned medical debt from reports entirely was vacated by a federal court in July 2025.⁷

When the Seven-Year Clock Actually Starts

For collections and charge-offs, the countdown does not start on the day you missed a payment or the day the debt was sold. It starts 180 days after the first missed payment that eventually led to the account going to collections or being charged off.¹ That date is the original delinquency date, and it is locked in.

If the debt is later sold to another collection agency, the new collector cannot report a fresh start date to reset the clock. Both the original creditor’s tradeline and the collection tradeline drop off seven years after that same original delinquency.⁸

Does Paying a Collection Change the Timeline?

No. Paying or settling a collection account does not restart the seven-year clock and does not remove the account early. The reporting period stays tied to the original delinquency date whether or not you ever pay.¹

What paying does change is the status. After payment, the account updates to show it has been paid or settled, which future lenders may view more favorably. Expect one to two months for that status update to appear on your reports.⁸

How Bankruptcy Works on the Report

The ten-year clock for a bankruptcy runs from the date the court enters the order for relief, which in a voluntary filing is the same day you file the petition.¹ Chapter 7, which discharges most unsecured debts without a repayment plan, stays for the full ten years. Chapter 13 involves a three- to five-year court-approved repayment plan, and the bureaus generally remove a completed Chapter 13 after seven years by internal policy rather than federal requirement.

Individual accounts included in the bankruptcy should show a zero balance or be marked as discharged after the case concludes. They cannot continue to appear as past due or as carrying an active balance. Once the reporting window closes, the bureaus must remove the bankruptcy record regardless of how much of the underlying debt was repaid.

Hard Inquiries and Score Impact

A hard inquiry, meaning a credit check triggered by a credit application, stays on your report for two years, but its effect on your score fades much sooner. A single hard inquiry typically drops a FICO score by fewer than five points and a VantageScore by five to ten points, and the impact usually disappears within a few months.²

When you shop for a mortgage, auto loan, or student loan, multiple inquiries from the same type of lender within a short window are usually grouped and counted as one for scoring purposes. Completing rate comparisons within about two weeks gives you the best chance of that treatment.

Soft inquiries, such as checking your own credit or receiving a pre-approved offer, don’t show up on the version of your report that lenders see and don’t affect your score.

Positive History Sticks Around

The federal time limits only cap negative information. There is no ceiling on how long positive data can remain.³ Open accounts in good standing can appear indefinitely, and their history contributes to the average age of your credit.

If a specific late payment was later brought current, that late payment still falls off after seven years, but the rest of the account’s positive history can remain for the full ten years after the account is closed.⁴

Exceptions to the Standard Limits

The seven- and ten-year caps don’t apply in a few high-stakes situations. If you’re being considered for a credit transaction of $150,000 or more, a life insurance policy of $150,000 or more, or a job paying $75,000 or more per year, a credit reporting agency is allowed to include negative information that would otherwise be too old to report.¹ For everyday credit decisions, the standard limits apply.

What to Do if Something Stays Too Long

If a negative item has passed its reporting window and hasn’t been removed, or if any information on your report is inaccurate, you can dispute it directly with the credit bureau. Federal law requires the bureau to investigate within 30 days of receiving the dispute. That window can be extended by up to 15 days if you provide additional information during the investigation, but not once the item has already been found inaccurate or unverifiable.⁹

If the bureau cannot verify the disputed information, it must delete or correct it and notify the company that furnished the data.⁹ If that furnisher then confirms the information is inaccurate, it must notify all three national bureaus so the correction propagates.¹⁰ You can file disputes online, by phone, or by mail with each bureau, and attaching supporting documents such as payment receipts or creditor correspondence strengthens the case.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
2
Experian. How Long Do Hard Inquiries Stay on Your Credit Report
3
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does Information Stay on My Credit Report
4
Experian. How Long Do Closed Accounts Stay on Your Credit Report
5
Experian. Tax Liens Are No Longer a Part of Credit Reports
6
Experian. Judgments No Longer Appear on a Credit Report
7
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Finalizes Rule to Remove Medical Bills from Credit Reports
8
Experian. How Long Before My Collection Account Is Updated
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
10
Federal Trade Commission. Disputing Errors on Your Credit Reports