Whether you want to buy a home, get the keys to that new car or put your kids through college, your credit history is an important factor. Good credit opens doors; negative credit closes them. That's why you should stay up-to-date on the contents of your credit report, even for accounts that have been closed for years.
Checking Your Credit
You can retrieve your credit report online, over the phone or through the mail. Your report is available immediately when you retrieve it through the internet, and takes up to 15 days when ordered through the mail or over the phone. You're allowed to pull your credit report for free once a year, says FreeCreditReport.com; otherwise, a fee is attached based on the type of service you order from one of the three credit bureaus.
Closed Accounts
You can check the status and standing of all your credit accounts on your credit report, including those that have been closed. Closing an account, whether you did it voluntarily or the account was closed due to a lack of payments, doesn't make the account disappear from your report. Its file, and all the information attached to it, remains available.
Deleted Accounts
If the account has been closed for over ten years, the information about it may have aged off your credit report. Closed accounts in good standing stay on your credit report for ten years, says Experian, which increases your credit rating. Poor closed accounts age off your credit within seven years of the time the account became, and remained, delinquent.
Removing a Negative Account
You can dispute a negative, closed account lingering on your credit report, says MyFICO. Simply file a dispute with the credit bureau you pulled the report from either in writing or directly online. The bureau then has 30 days to investigate the validity of the closed account. If an account is over seven years old and hasn't been removed, this is a great way to erase it and get your credit back on its feet.
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