Credit agencies stores information from credit grantors and public records, including bankruptcies, judgments and liens. Missed payments and most public record items remain on the credit report for seven years, with the exception of Chapter 7, 11 and 12 bankruptcies, which remain for 10 years, and unpaid tax liens, which remain for up to 15 years.

Active positive information may remain on the report indefinitely.

Requests for your credit history remain on the credit report for up to two years.

But, they can still collect until the Statute Of Limitations expire.

If the debt is unpaid, it can stay on there forever. Every 7 years it can be sold to another collection agency and renewed.

NO… U have to pay off the debt first, then it comes off after 7 years

Some types of credit is 10 years but most are 7 years. If they are over 7 years since they originated they must be wiped off. look at your credit report each one will have a date on it as to when it will come off of your credit report. you can get a free copy of your credit report each year at annualcreditreport.com
some companies are now waiting until the 7 years is almost over and seeling the accounts to other companies and they relist these items as new credit if this has happened you need to dispute the charge, then the credit bureau asks the company to prove in writing when the debt originated and if they can’t in 30 days it is supposed to be removed. I was reading an article a few months back where some companies where going back 20 years and hurting peoples credit which was not legal.

That is true to some extent. They actually have “up to” 7 years to list debts on your report. If it was sent to a collection agency and another collection agency buys them out, the new agency could harrass you several years later for the same debt and again it would be on your credit report. But for the most part, it is erased if that doesn’t happen. Good luck!

I’m a CPA, and I’ve seen a couple things that bend the general rule.

Some places like the Federal Student Loan program, will re-classify an older school loan, ending in “A”, and call it “B”. Not only has the older debt been renewed another 7 years, it now includes interest and penalty.

I also had a client that had many smaller medical bills on her report. I urged her to pay them, some through a collection agency… Wouldn’t you know it - another collection agency smelled blood in the water, and tried to collect money owed on a furniture loan - that was older than 7 years and not even on the Equifax report!

Long story short, pay what you can, esp. if a small amount merits its own row or listing. The only sure way to make stuff go away is by paying, not waiting for creditors to give up!

Debt does not get erased. Any derogatory information will drop off of your credit report after 7 years. If you decide to stop paying for a bill, than they cannot put that on your report after 7 years after that last payment. If they threaten you and you send them $1 than the clock starts all over. They can also still try to sue you for the money after 7 years, but usually they will have sold it off to a collection agency by then.

Yes, but often you have to initiate the effort to clean up your credit report. No one else, unless you’re paying them, is going to do that out of the goodness of their heart.

No…it gets wiped off 7 years after it is paid off. So if you have a collection from a doctors office and you paid it off today it would be wiped off in June 2014. If you never paid the debt it wouldn’t be wiped off.

No; it can be 10 years and it usually goes from your report.