How Long Will Entries Stay on My Credit Report?

Normally bankruptcies will remain on a credit report for 10 years following the discharge of the bankruptcy.

Other items will remain for about seven years from the date of the last activity. The seven year period starts all over again whenever you generate any activity on a non-delinquent account, including making a payment. But once the account has gone and remained delinquent, the time cannot be regenerated as new. Some creditors will try make old debt new again by reselling the account to an outside collections agency.

The FTC seriously frowns upon this practice, and if this happens to you, you do have recourse. You would need to report the agency to the FTC and tell the collector that you are doing it.

This actually happened to me with regard to a debt that I had acquired at the age of 18, imagine my shock when a agency tried to collect from me at age 40!

Many times collection agencies count on and take advantage of consumers not knowing or fully understanding their rights and the laws that protect them.

The law generally prohibits credit reporting agencies from including on a credit report accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss which predate the report by more than seven years.

The law is that the seven year period concerning a delinquent account charged to profit and loss starts no more than 180 days after the commencement of the delinquency.

Now read about Cleaning Up Your Credit Report.