Section 1681c of Title 15 of the U.S. Code is the part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act that tells credit bureaus what negative information they can put on your credit report and how long it can stay there. Most bad marks have to come off after seven years, bankruptcies after ten, and the statute layers in special rules for medical debts, veterans, and arrest records. It also opens a door most consumers don’t know about: for certain high-dollar transactions, those time limits disappear.
The Time Limits at the Heart of the Statute
15 U.S.C. 1681c(a) sets ceilings on how old negative information can be before a credit bureau has to stop reporting it. The seven-year limit is the workhorse rule and covers most of what shows up on a typical report:
- Collection accounts and charge-offs
- Civil suits and civil judgments, measured from the date the judgment was entered or the date the statute of limitations on it expires, whichever is longer
- Paid tax liens, measured from the date of payment
- Records of arrest
- Any other adverse item not specifically addressed elsewhere in the statute
Late payments, defaults, and repossessions all fall inside that last catch-all category.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
Bankruptcy gets its own longer window. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)(1), any case filed under Title 11 can be reported for ten years from the date the court entered the order for relief. The statute doesn’t distinguish between chapters.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does a Bankruptcy Appear on Credit Reports All three major bureaus have voluntarily agreed to remove completed Chapter 13 bankruptcies after seven years because Chapter 13 involves a repayment plan, but that shorter window is industry practice, not law.
Criminal convictions are the outlier. 15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)(5) leaves convictions off the list of items subject to time limits, so they can legally remain on a credit report indefinitely.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports In practice the major bureaus rarely include criminal records on standard consumer reports because matching court records to the right person across thousands of jurisdictions is difficult. They show up more often on employment background checks run by specialty consumer reporting agencies, which are governed by their own FCRA obligations.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening
When the Seven-Year Clock Actually Starts
This is the piece most people get wrong. For a collection account or charge-off, the clock does not start when the debt is sold, when the creditor writes it off, or when a new collector picks it up. 15 U.S.C. 1681c(c)(1) sets the start date at 180 days after the original delinquency that led to the collection or charge-off.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
Practically, that means a collection account stays visible for roughly seven and a half years from the date you first fell behind. And nothing resets it. A debt buyer purchasing the account, a collector updating the balance, a new account number, none of that restarts the period. The original delinquency date is the anchor.
For civil judgments, the clock runs from the date the court entered the judgment. For paid tax liens, from the date of payment. For arrest records, from the date of entry.
Medical Debts and Medical Provider Privacy
15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)(6) forbids a credit report from identifying your medical provider by name, address, or phone number unless the information is coded so it doesn’t reveal the specific provider or the type of service. The only exception is for insurance underwriting other than property and casualty. A lender can see that you owe a medical collection, but the report shouldn’t reveal whether the care came from a cardiologist, a psychiatrist, or a dentist.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
Veterans get extra protection. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)(7), medical debt tied to VA hospital care, medical services, or extended care cannot be reported during the first year after the care was provided. Subsection (a)(8) goes further: any veteran’s medical debt that has been fully paid or settled cannot be reported at all, no matter how old the delinquency.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
For non-veteran consumers, the three major bureaus announced voluntary changes in March 2022. They stopped reporting medical collections less than one year old, removed all paid medical debt from credit reports, and starting in April 2023 stopped reporting any medical collection under $500.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Have Medical Debt? Anything Already Paid or Under $500 Should No Longer Be on Your Credit Report These are bureau policies, not statutory requirements.
A CFPB rule that would have banned medical debt from credit reports entirely was vacated on July 11, 2025, by a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, which held that the FCRA permits reporting medical debt as long as the specific provider and nature of services aren’t disclosed.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Finalizes Rule to Remove Medical Bills from Credit Reports Unpaid medical collections over $500 and more than a year old can still appear on your report for the standard seven-year period.
The High-Value Transaction Exception
The time limits in 1681c have a large hole in them. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681c(b), the seven-year and ten-year ceilings do not apply when a credit report is requested for:
- A loan or credit transaction with a principal amount of $150,000 or more
- A life insurance policy with a face amount of $150,000 or more
- Employment at an annual salary of $75,000 or more
For any of these purposes, a credit bureau can legally report bankruptcies, judgments, collections, and other adverse items that would otherwise be too old to include.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports Apply for a mortgage on a house over that threshold, or a job paying more than $75,000, and a twelve-year-old bankruptcy could resurface. These dollar figures have not been adjusted for inflation since enactment, so they now capture far more transactions than they once did.
What 1681c Does Not Cover
A quick boundary, because it comes up often. Hard credit inquiries stay on your report for two years, but that limit is not in 15 U.S.C. 1681c. The current text of the statute contains no provision on inquiry timeframes. The two-year standard is bureau practice across Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Public records other than bankruptcy, meaning civil judgments and tax liens, are still permitted by the statute within the seven-year window, but the three bureaus have imposed strict identification standards since 2017 that most court records don’t meet. As a result, civil judgments and tax liens rarely appear on credit reports now, though nothing in 1681c requires that.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A New Retrospective on the Removal of Public Records
Related Sections: Fraud Alerts, Freezes, and Identity Theft Blocks
Two sections that sit right next to 1681c give consumers direct tools against fraud and identity theft, and searches for 1681c often really mean one of these.
15 U.S.C. 1681c-1 covers fraud alerts. An initial fraud alert lasts one year and can be placed if you suspect identity theft. An extended alert, available if you’ve filed an identity theft report, lasts seven years and also removes you from pre-approved credit offer lists for five years. Active duty military members can place a separate active duty alert. When any of these alerts is on your file, anyone pulling your credit sees a warning to take extra verification steps.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681c-1 – Identity Theft Prevention; Fraud Alerts and Active Duty Alerts
The same section covers security freezes. Bureaus must place and lift them for free. An online or phone request has to be activated within one business day, and a lift request has to be honored within one hour.8GovInfo. 15 USC 1681c-1
15 U.S.C. 1681c-2 addresses identity theft blocking. Once you give the bureau proof of your identity, an identity theft report, and a statement identifying the fraudulent information, the bureau must block the disputed data within four business days and notify the company that furnished it. The bureau can decline or reverse the block if it determines you requested it in error, made a material misrepresentation, or benefited from the transaction.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681c-2 – Block of Information Resulting From Identity Theft
What to Do When a Bureau Reports Something It Shouldn’t
If an item is past its time limit, belongs to someone else, or is just wrong, 15 U.S.C. 1681i gives you the right to dispute it. Once the bureau receives your dispute, it has 30 days to investigate and either verify, correct, or delete the item. Submitting additional documentation during the investigation extends that window by up to 15 days. If the bureau can’t verify the information within the deadline, it has to come off.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
The bureau also has to notify the company that furnished the disputed data within five business days so that company can check its own records, and again if the dispute results in a correction or deletion.
You can add a brief statement to your file if the investigation doesn’t go your way. It won’t move your score, but it travels with the report and can matter to a human reviewer.
When a bureau or a furnisher actually breaks the rules, the FCRA backs up the dispute process with money damages. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681n, a willful violation entitles you to your actual damages or statutory damages between $100 and $1,000, whichever is greater, plus possible punitive damages and your attorney’s fees.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance A bureau that kept reporting a debt years past its expiration and refused to fix it is the kind of case those damages exist for. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681o, a negligent violation entitles you to actual damages plus fees and costs, but no statutory minimum and no punitive damages, so you’ll need to show real financial harm like a denied loan or a higher rate.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681o
You can also file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before or instead of suing. Companies generally respond within 15 days, and you get 60 days to give feedback on the response.13Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint The complaint won’t get you damages, but it creates a documented record that strengthens a later claim if the bureau still won’t fix the file.