Credit basics · 6 minute read
How long things stay on your report
The single most calming page in this entire subject. Every negative entry has an expiry date, the date is fixed, and it is not the date most people assume.
The date that matters
The date of first delinquency is the month the original account first went late and never came current again. It is the anchor for the entire seven-year clock, and it is printed on your report, often labelled "DOFD" or "date of first delinquency".
A debt sold to a collector in 2022 that first went delinquent in 2019 comes off in 2026, not 2029. The sale does not restart anything. Neither does a partial payment, nor a promise to pay, nor a new collector reporting it under a different name.
If a collection shows a first delinquency later than the real one, dispute it and say so plainly, with the original account’s statement or letter attached if you have one. Correcting a single re-aged date can take years off how long an entry lingers, and it is one of the most valuable disputes there is.
The table
Approximate, and reliable enough to plan by:
- Late payments, charge-offs and collections: seven years from the date of first delinquency.
- Chapter 7 bankruptcy: ten years from filing. Chapter 13: seven years from filing.
- Civil judgments and tax liens: generally not reported at all since 2017, when the bureaus stopped accepting most public-record data.
- Hard inquiries: two years on the report, roughly twelve months of score effect.
- Paid medical collections: not reported at all since July 2022.
- Unpaid medical collections under $500: not reported at all since April 2023.
- Unpaid medical collections of $500 or more: seven years, and not reported for the first twelve months.
- Closed accounts in good standing: up to ten years, and they help you while they last.
Two clocks, and they are not the same one
How long a debt can be reported is set by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. How long you can be sued for it is set by your state’s statute of limitations, which in Ohio is six years for most written contracts.
They start at different moments and they expire at different moments. A debt can be too old to sue on while still appearing on your report, and it can be reportable while no longer being enforceable in court. Confusing the two is how people talk themselves into paying something they did not need to, or into ignoring a lawsuit they should have answered.
When something does not fall off
It happens, and it is a straightforward dispute: the item has exceeded the permitted reporting period and must be deleted. Send the letter with the date of first delinquency stated plainly.
Note also that an item deleted in error can lawfully be reinserted if the furnisher later certifies it as accurate — but you must be notified in writing within five business days if that happens. If something reappears silently, that is a violation worth raising.
Nobody here is going to tell you off.
The first conversation is free, it takes about half an hour, and it ends with you knowing what is actually on your file and what can honestly be done about it. If the answer is "nothing we can charge for", we will tell you that, and you will still get the plan.
Not ready to talk to anyone? Take the guide and do it yourself. It is the same method, it costs nothing, and you never have to tell us you used it.