How Long Can Something Remain on My Credit Report?

Lenders and creditors report your accounts, such as credit cards and loans, to the three major credit bureaus. The credit bureaus then organize the information into a credit report. Your credit report provides future lenders and creditors with a record of your recent financial behavior. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) dictates the length of time that a given entry can remain as part of your credit history.

Open Accounts

As long as you keep a credit card account open and continue to use it regularly, it provides valuable information about your spending and payment habits. Thus, your credit card provider will continue to update your information with the credit bureaus for each month that you make payments on the account. The same is true for loan information. As long as the account remains open, it appears within your credit file. Once you close a credit card or loan account, however, the account information will disappear from your file after seven years.

Derogatory Entries

Most derogatory entries on your credit report --- such as credit card charge-offs, unpaid medical bills, collection accounts, foreclosures, late payments and repossessions ---will also disappear after seven years. However, some forms of negative information can remain for much longer. Bankruptcies, for example, can linger on your credit file for up to ten years, and defaulted federal student loans will appear on your credit report indefinitely. An unpaid tax lien can remain for up to 15 years. However, if you pay the tax lien, the credit bureaus will remove the record after seven years.

Disputes

The FCRA gives all consumers the right to dispute information in their credit reports that is either inaccurate or appears for longer than the federal reporting period allows for that item. You can file a dispute by mail, by telephone or online. If your dispute is successful, the credit bureaus will remove the item from your credit file, often before the reporting period expires.

Re-Aging

Some collection agencies deliberately report incorrect dates to the credit bureaus when inserting derogatory information on consumer credit reports. Doing so causes the account to remain a part of the individual's credit history for longer than federal law allows. This process is known as "re-aging," and it is illegal. In 2004, the Federal Trade Commission fined NCO Group, a national collection agency, $1.5 million for re-aging consumer accounts.

Considerations

Careful and regular monitoring of your credit report helps ensure that the information contained in your credit history is accurate and properly removed according to the FCRA's credit reporting laws. You can access one copy of your credit report from each credit bureau, free of charge, every 12 months. AnnualCreditReport.com is the only website approved by the federal government to provide consumers with annual free credit reports.