How long do negative items stay on a credit report?

While checking the copy of your credit report, you may come across negative entries that might have been entered by mistake or are there due to your bad credit history. Most of the negative entries on a credit report remain there for seven years and can hamper your chances of getting a loan approved at low interest rates. However, there are some exceptions to the seven-year rule, which you need to be aware of in order to maintain a clear credit report.

Negative items that are there due to human errors can be disputed and removed within 30 to 60 days. You just need to inform credit reporting agencies about the erroneous entries and ask them to rectify those. Credit reporting agencies will investigate the entries and if your claims are true, the entries will be altered or deleted altogether. You can also contact the creditors directly and ask them to provide the correct information to credit reporting agencies.

If you have faced bankruptcy related problems in the past, the related information can remain on your credit report for up to 10 years. On a credit report, bankruptcy related information is displayed in the third part known as the Public Inquiries or Public Records section. Any information displayed in this section means that your credit report would surely contain a ‘red flag’. This will make it very difficult for you to get loans at low interest rates.

If you have applied for loans or life insurance worth more than $50, 000, the related information will remain there on the copy of your credit report for more than seven years. If it is a loan, the information will be displayed all throughout the repayment period and if it is life insurance, the information will be displayed as long as you are paying the premiums. If you are regular in paying your installments and premiums, the entries will be positive whereas if you default on your payments, the entries will be negative and will affect your credit score.

If you have faced credit related lawsuits in the past and court judgments have gone against you, the related information will be reported for 7 years or continue until the statute of limitations runs out. The Statute of Limitations (SOL) is based on court orders and is considered as negative by credit reporting agencies. However, the SOL does not have any direct bearing on how long a negative entry will remain on the copy of your credit report.

In the seven-year rule, the time period starts from the date when you defaulted on your payments or when your creditor received the late payment. While calculating the time period, credit reporting agencies do not take into account the date of your last payment. Make sure to consult credit reporting agencies if you have doubts regarding how long a negative item will be reported on the copy of your credit report.