After you file bankruptcy, you generally are not responsible for any of the debt you owed before you filed. As a result, your credit report will reflect your bankruptcy for a number of years, so that future creditors know that you failed to pay your previous creditors. The length of time that a negative item remains on your credit report is fixed, and it depends on the type of delinquency you committed.
Negative Accounts
If your financial condition was such that you had to file bankruptcy, you most likely missed one or more payments to your creditors before you actually filed bankruptcy. Each time you are 30 or more days late in making a payment, your creditor will report this delinquency to the credit reporting agencies. Delinquencies such as late payments remain on your credit report for seven years.
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Chapter 7 bankruptcy remains on your credit report for longer than a simple missed payment, due to the severity of your delinquency. In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you are not only relinquishing all of your debt, you are not even offering to make any payments. As a result, your creditors can report your Chapter 7 bankruptcy to the credit reporting agencies for 10 years. Credit reporting agency Experian states that while the negative effect of your Chapter 7 bankruptcy will diminish over time, the bankruptcy will continue to appear for the full 10 years.
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
Chapter 13 bankruptcy does not appear on credit reports for as long as Chapter 7 bankruptcies. This is because a Chapter 13 bankruptcy reflects a good faith effort on your part to pay your creditors at least some of what you owe. As a result, your Chapter 13 bankruptcy should drop off your credit report seven years after your file your original petition.
Accuracy of Your Credit Report
By law, you cannot remove negative information from your credit report if it is accurate. However, you do have the right to ask for an investigation of items on your credit report that you think are inaccurate. After receiving your written notification, a credit reporting agency has 30 days to perform an investigation and provide you with a written report of the results, including a free copy of your credit report. If you find inaccurate items on your report, you should be able to have them removed using this process.
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