The length of time that information stays on your credit report depends on the type of information. Here's a brief list of items and how long they will stay on a credit report.
- Inquiries remain two years from the date of the inquiry. However, the impact of inquiries on credit scores diminishes rapidly. The impact to scores starts to fade after a few months. While the inquiries will still show in the report, FICO® excludes inquiries from the score calculation after 12 months.
- Late payments remain seven years from the original delinquency date of the debt.
- Collection accounts remain for seven years from the original delinquency date of the original account. They are treated as a continuation of the original debt.
- Bankruptcy can remain on your credit report for up to 10 years, depending on the chapter filed.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act specifies how long information can remain on a credit report. You can find a more comprehensive list of timeframes and explanations of them by learning more about when negative information is removed from a credit report. You can also learn about how long some of the most common types of information remain on your credit report.