Can You Get a Repo Taken Off of Your Credit Before Seven Years?

Lenders in the United States use information provided by credit agencies to make decisions about extending credit to consumers across the United States. The national credit agencies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- keep track of your credit accounts and your payment history. Information about negative credit events, such as automobile repossessions, remains on your credit report for up to seven years. You cannot have debts erased from your credit report unless you can prove that those debts have been incorrectly recorded.

Credit Reporting

Credit reporting agencies must abide by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. The act protects consumer privacy by ensuring that agencies can only share your account information with companies that have a legitimate business reason for needing to view your information. Credit bureaus can keep track of your regular debt payments and the number of times that you miss a debt payment by 30, 60, 90 or 120 days. Most negative credit events remain on file for seven years but bankruptcies remain on file for 10 years. If you had the ability to have negative credit events removed from your credit report, then credit agencies would end up providing lenders with misleading information and credit reports would, therefore, become unreliable and pointless.

Errors

Under the FCRA, you have the right to obtain a free annual copy of your credit report from each of the national credit reporting agencies. Occasionally, errors appear on credit reports due to lenders reporting inaccurate information, or due to credit agencies making mistakes. Furthermore, you may find a car repossession or an open credit account on your report that a fraudster opened under your name. If inaccurate information appears on your report, you must contact the credit bureaus to dispute the information. Credit agencies must correct errors; although, in instances where you already paid off a seemingly open account, you usually have to provide documentary evidence to support your case, such as a payoff receipt.

Statue of Limitations

Every state has a statute of limitations on bad debts. Your lender cannot successfully pursue you in court for repayment of a bad or unpaid debt after the statute expires. The statute of limitations on old debts varies but in Florida it extends to five years on most types of delinquent debts while in other states the statute extends to 10 or 15 years. However, just because a creditor can no longer sue you, it does not mean that the credit reporting agencies can no longer keep records pertaining to your repossession. Likewise, after your repossession disappears from your credit report, depending on your state's laws, your creditors may still have the ability to pursue you for the unpaid debt.

Score

A repossession has a major impact on your credit score. You can improve your credit score by paying your other debts on a timely basis and by paying off the balance of your repossessed vehicle loan. It often takes several years for positive payment activity to undo the damage of a repossession. However, your recent credit history has more of an impact on your credit report than your past credit history. Therefore, if you manage your credit well, you may find yourself able to obtain new credit even while your repossession continues to appear on your credit report.