The good thing about credit repair is that even if you do nothing, most negative information will fall off your credit report after a certain period of time. If that time period has passed and negative information stays on your credit report, you can use a credit report dispute to have the bureau remove it. Knowing exactly when certain information will fall off your credit report can help you decide if you need to take action on those accounts or let them age and disappear.
Late Payments and Other Delinquencies
Most negative information will only stay on your credit report for seven years. This includes late payments, collection accounts, charge-offs, foreclosure, lawsuit judgments, and repossession. Some credit reports will let you know when this information will fall off. For others, you’ll have to add seven years to the date of the delinquency and that’s how you know when the information is scheduled to fall off your credit report.
Bankruptcy
A Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays on your credit report for the longest period of all – 10 years from the filing date. That’s three years longer than all other negative information. Chapter 13 bankruptcy, on the other hand, will only stay on your credit report for seven years. Even though bankruptcy falls off your credit report after a certain number of years, it stays on public record with the bankruptcy court forever.
Closed Accounts
How long a closed account stays on your credit report depends on whether it was closed in good standing or bad. If an account was closed with delinquencies or charge-off, it will be removed from your credit report after seven years. But, if the account was closed and there were no delinquencies or other negative information attached, the account will remain on your credit report until the credit bureau deletes it. Credit bureaus have their own policies for deleting closed accounts.
Open Accounts
Accounts that are still open will remain on your credit report indefinitely. The creditor will keep reporting your payment status each month. If there’s any negative information associated with the account, it will fall off your credit report after seven years.
New York and California Special Rules
The states of New York and California have different credit reporting rules for certain types of negative information. In New York, paid judgments stay on your credit report for five years from the date the judgment was filed. Collection accounts remain for five years from the paid or date of last activity. In California, paid tax liens can stay on your credit report for 7 years from the date they were released or 10 years from the date filed. Tax liens that remain unpaid or unreleased stay on your credit report for 10 years from the date they were filed. Note that tax liens, paid or unpaid remain on record with the court indefinitely.
What Happens When Accounts Don’t Fall Off?
If an account still appears on your credit report even after the seven or ten years that it was supposed to have been deleted, you can use a credit report dispute to have that information removed.
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