How long can a negative item stay on my credit report?

How Long Could a Negative Item Stay on My Credit Report?

Your Credit Minute Show Notes:

  • 00:01                                 What’s going on everybody? Nik Tsoukalis here with Key Credit Repair, with your credit question of the day. This one is a loaded one. It might take a little bit more than a minute. If you have a pen and a piece of paper, write this down, okay, ’cause we’re gonna go into some pretty cool detail. And this is some pretty serious credit ammunition that most people don’t even realize.
  • 00:20                                 The, the credit question of the day is coming out of Atlanta, Georgia. How long does negative information stay on my credit report? Um, you’ve probably heard the rule of thumb of seven years for most things, but I’m gonna break it down in detail. So, grab your pen and piece of paper and we are going to jump into it. All right, guys.
  • 00:40                                 So the first thing actually, uh, I’m gonna divert a little bit, is positive information. Just so you guys know that even the good stuff does expire. So if you close out an account, expect it to drop off your credit report in about a decade, ten years, from the date of last activity, and that account is gone. So, check, let’s scratch that one. Okay.
  • 01:01                                 Now let’s jump into the negative stuff. First thing is gonna be late payments. So late payments are gonna be seven years from the date of delinquency. Okay? So you had that 30 day late, it hit the credit report, that timer starts at seven years. You have charge offs. Seven years from when it was charged off. Okay? Then you have foreclosures. This is a big one. Seven years from the date the foreclosure was filed. Now keep in mind, if you start making payments on that foreclosure, try to recover it or try to pay on the deficiency balance, you are re-starting the clock with the date of last activity.
  • 01:35                                 Um, hard inquiries. This is a big one. It’s not seven years for hard inquiries, it’s two years for hard inquiries. And really, the impact of hard inquiries is pretty much non-existent, as long as the inquiry was for rate shopping purposes. So that one, I wouldn’t really worry about too much. Okay? Um, collections, probably the most popular of all, uh, negative data that we see on a credit report, is gonna be seven years. Okay? You have seven years from the date of last delinquency. Okay? Plus 180 days, six months. So essentially, what you have is seven and a half months from the date of uh, uh, last delinquency. Um, or the date of last activity. So if you’ve been making payments on that collection, that date of last activity is consistently being brought current.
  • 02:20                                 So even if you’re just being told, “Send in five bucks. Send in ten bucks Nik. Send in ten bucks Nik. I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna make sure we don’t take you to court.” That’s what the debt collector says, right? Well guess what? You’ve sent in that ten bucks, it’s restarted that statutes of limitations. So if you have a six and a half year old debt, or you’re bordering that seven years plus 180 days, and you send in five bucks, you are restarting that clock my friend. You’re opening yourself up to pretty much a lawsuit the next day. Okay? Um, let’s keep going.
  • 02:51                                 We have Chapter Seven bankruptcies. Ten years from the filing date. Bankruptcy is not, I would say the worst thing that could happen to your credit. It’s a necessity, it’s bankruptcy protection, but it is the longest standing record that could appear on the credit report. So you, you’re debt will get cleared up, but that record under the Public Records section of your credit report will typically stick around for a decade. Okay? Um, Chapter 13 bankruptcies. Seven years. A lot of people don’t realize that. There is a distinction between a Chapter Seven and a 13. And the 13 is a repayment plan. So you’re given a little bit more credit for going through a repayment plan and that’s why the statutes of limitations is three years less than Chapter Seven. Okay?
  • 03:33                                 Um, paid tax liens, seven years. So you just paid off the tax lien, you’re typically gonna follow that record for an additional seven years after that date of last activity. Unpaid tax liens, okay? Unpaid tax liens. We’ve seen these things on the credit report for 20 years. We’ve seen 30 year old unpaid tax liens reported, okay? But we have a 15 year cut off for the, for when we can really start fighting it using the statutes of limitations. Okay? A paid judgment. For all of you that don’t know, that is is a judgment? Okay? Um, you’ve been sued in court, uh, in some sort of civil matter. You owed a debt, you owed your next door neighbor some money, whatever the case is, small claims, and you haven’t paid. Okay?
  • 04:14                                 The judge has ordered a uh, or, or, or, stamped a judgment, okay? Uh, that says that you in fact owe this money to this party, okay? When you get that judgment, that item is typically reported, usually within 90 days from the courthouse or their third-party data furnisher to the three credit agencies. That’s a, the, that’s a pretty severe mark, okay? And it can carry uh, quite a bit of weight, and, and follow you for quite a while. And once you’ve paid it, you still got seven years on that. Keep in mind, some states like New York actually allow you to fight that, um, at the five year mark. Okay? So definitely check the guidelines, check the rules, okay?
  • 04:54                                 Um, last but not least, you have an unpaid judgment. The statute of limitations is 10 years on that for the reporting of the credit report. Guys, this is is Nik Tsoukalis. This is Your Credit Minute. Um, check out our blog at keycreditrepair.com/blog. Um, we’re gonna have this video posted there as well. Um, as well as having a checklist of the statutes of limitations, um, in each of these categories. If you have any additional questions, or you have a credit question that you’d like for me to answer in one of our videos, post it in the comments below or send us an email at ntouskalis, or actually I’ll give you the shorter version, nik@keycreditrepair.com Thanks guys. Have a great day.