What Happens to Items on Your Credit Report After Seven Years?

Perhaps you have had some rotten luck, or simply rotten payment habits in the past, and your credit report and therefore your credit worthiness has suffered tremendously for it. You believe you have what it takes to make all your payments on time and get your credit reputation back up to where it was before you got into this mess. After all, it has been seven years since you made your last mistake, and as far as you know, all of the mistakes that have been infesting your credit report during that time should be dissolved completely by now.

So let’s say you go to check your credit report. Much to your surprise and dismay, those payment mishaps are STILL on your credit report! What went wrong? What happened to all those stories you heard about how your credit report is wiped clean of your mistakes after seven years?

It is true, the negative items on your credit report SHOULD be erased after a certain amount of time… in most cases, seven years. There are some things, however, that can hinder this removal. In order to know how to fix the problem, you have to know what the problem is first.

1. They Could Have Simply Forgotten

You may be paying close attention to your credit report, but the credit bureaus, or the people who come up with your credit report, may not be watching so closely. To them, yours is just one in thousands and thousands of credit reports waiting to be changed and updated every day. If, after seven years, your credit report is not cleansed of your misdeeds, you should call the major credit bureaus, (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and let them know.

2. Extended Punishment

Sometimes, believe it or not, creditors will try to extend the amount of time that the negative items are left on your credit report. How do they do this? Actually, they use YOU.

On your credit report there are dates next to the negative items. These dates represent the time when the seven year period of shame begins. If you are almost done with the seven years, look at your credit report and suddenly feel guilt for all those mishaps, call up the creditor and make the payment, you may have just extended that period of shame ANOTHER seven years.

Actually, this is sometimes done by faulty creditors. Many of them will often try to hurt your credit report more by extending the amount of time that the negative items appear on it. THIS IS ILLEGAL! When the seven years is extended, make sure you know WHY before you just give in.

Besides any of the possible interruptions previously mentioned, after seven years, the bad records on your credit report should be removed after seven years. There are a few exceptions, like bankruptcy, that can last for up to ten years. The good thing about it is that all of the bad reports will go away eventually, but all of the positive items can stay on your credit report for good.