The FCRA's Reporting Time Limits
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the federal law that governs consumer credit reporting. Among its provisions, the FCRA establishes maximum time periods during which consumer reporting agencies (the credit bureaus) may include specific types of negative information in a consumer's credit report. After these periods expire, the information must be removed from the report.
These limits apply to the three major consumer reporting agencies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — as well as to specialty reporting agencies. Creditors and data furnishers are also prohibited under the FCRA from reporting information they know to be obsolete under these time limits.
A reporting period is the maximum time a negative item may legally remain on a credit report under the FCRA. A derogatory mark is any negative entry that reflects adversely on creditworthiness — late payments, charge-offs, collections, bankruptcy, and similar events. The reporting period determines when a derogatory mark must be removed from the report; it does not determine how much the item affects the credit score during that period. Older negative items generally carry less scoring weight than recent ones.
When the Clock Starts
The starting point for a reporting period varies depending on the type of negative item. Getting this wrong is one of the most common sources of confusion about credit report timelines.
For most negative items, the FCRA measures the reporting period from the date of first delinquency — specifically, the date of the commencement of the delinquency on the account that directly preceded the adverse event. This is the date the account first became past due, leading without interruption to the negative status being reported.
This starting point is fixed at the date of first delinquency. Subsequent events — the account being sold to a collection agency, a new creditor attempting to re-age the account by reporting a newer date of first delinquency, a payment on a time-barred debt — do not legally reset the reporting clock under the FCRA, though re-aging does occur and is a violation that can be disputed.
Re-aging occurs when a debt collector or creditor reports a date of first delinquency that is more recent than the actual date, extending how long the negative item appears on the report. The FCRA prohibits re-aging. If a collection account appears on a credit report with a date of first delinquency that is later than when the original account actually became delinquent, that may constitute a reportable FCRA violation. The CFPB's consumer complaint database at consumerfinance.gov is one avenue for filing complaints about inaccurate credit reporting.
Late Payments
A late payment is reported when a payment is 30 or more days past the due date. The standard FCRA reporting period for late payments is seven years from the date of the delinquency. This means a single late payment from 2019 would remain on the report until 2026, regardless of whether the account was subsequently brought current or paid in full.
The severity of the late payment notation on the report depends on how late the payment was. Credit bureaus distinguish between 30-day, 60-day, 90-day, 120-day, and 150-plus-day late payments. Each successive level of delinquency is reported as a separate notation and has a more significant impact on credit scores, though all are subject to the same seven-year removal timeline starting from the original delinquency date.
Bringing an account current after a late payment does not remove the late payment notation from the credit report. The notation remains for the full seven-year period. What changes is that subsequent on-time payments are also reported, which over time dilutes the scoring impact of the earlier delinquency.
Collections and Charge-Offs
When an account is charged off by the original creditor or transferred to a collection agency, these events generate their own entries on the credit report in addition to the late payment history from the original account.
The reporting period for both charge-offs and collection accounts is seven years from the date of first delinquency on the original account. This is an important distinction: the clock does not restart when the debt is sold to a new collection agency. A debt first delinquent in 2018 that was sold to a collector in 2020 must be removed from the report in 2025 regardless of when the collection account was opened.
| Item Type | Reporting Period | Clock Starts |
|---|---|---|
| Late payment (30, 60, 90+ days) | 7 years | Date of the delinquency |
| Charge-off | 7 years | Date of first delinquency on original account |
| Collection account | 7 years | Date of first delinquency on original account |
| Chapter 7 bankruptcy | 10 years | Date of filing |
| Chapter 13 bankruptcy | 7 years | Date of filing |
| Hard inquiry | 2 years | Date of inquiry |
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy carries the longest standard reporting period for most filers. Chapter 7 bankruptcy — a liquidation bankruptcy resulting in discharge of most unsecured debt — may be reported for ten years from the date of filing. Chapter 13 bankruptcy — a reorganization bankruptcy involving a three-to-five-year repayment plan — may be reported for seven years from the date of filing.
Individual accounts that were discharged in bankruptcy carry their own notations indicating the discharge status. These accounts are subject to the standard seven-year reporting period for the underlying account's first delinquency, not the ten-year period applicable to the bankruptcy itself. The bankruptcy public record entry and the individual account entries are separate items on the report, each with their own removal timelines.
Judgments, Tax Liens, and Inquiries
Civil judgments — court orders requiring payment of a debt — were historically reportable for seven years or the duration of the applicable state statute of limitations, whichever was longer. However, in 2017, all three major credit bureaus removed civil judgment records from consumer credit reports as part of a settlement with state attorneys general over reporting accuracy. As of that change, civil judgments no longer appear in standard consumer credit reports from Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, though they continue to appear in public records accessible through courthouse searches.
Federal tax liens were similarly removed from credit bureau reports in 2017 as part of the same settlement. Paid and unpaid federal tax liens no longer appear in standard consumer credit reports from the three major bureaus.
Hard inquiries — credit report pulls associated with applications for new credit — are reportable for two years from the date of the inquiry. Unlike most other negative items, hard inquiries have a relatively modest and time-limited effect on credit scores, and their impact diminishes significantly after the first year.
Reporting Period vs. Statute of Limitations
The FCRA's reporting period and the statute of limitations on debt are two entirely separate legal concepts that often get confused. The reporting period determines how long negative information may appear on a credit report. The statute of limitations determines how long a creditor has to sue to collect a debt.
These two periods operate independently and have different durations that vary by state and debt type. A debt can be time-barred for collection litigation purposes (past the statute of limitations for lawsuits) while still legally appearing on a credit report. Conversely, a debt may have been removed from a credit report while still being legally collectible through a lawsuit in some states.
The two periods also have different starting clocks. The reporting period is measured from the date of first delinquency. The statute of limitations on collection lawsuits is typically measured from the date of last activity, which may differ from the date of first delinquency.
For any negative item on a credit report, the removal date can be calculated by identifying the date of first delinquency on the original account and adding the applicable reporting period under the FCRA. Credit bureau reports typically display an estimated removal date for each negative account entry. Verifying that the displayed removal date matches the FCRA calculation based on the date of first delinquency is one of the first steps in reviewing a credit report for accuracy.
What Happens When an Item Reaches the Limit
When a negative item reaches the end of its FCRA reporting period, the credit bureau is required to remove it from the consumer's report. This removal is supposed to occur automatically without any action required from the consumer. In practice, items sometimes remain past their expiration date due to bureau errors or data furnisher reporting issues.
A consumer who identifies a negative item that has exceeded its FCRA reporting period has the right to dispute it with the credit bureau as obsolete. The bureau must investigate the dispute within 30 days and remove any item that cannot be verified as within the reporting period. The CFPB's credit reporting resources page covers the dispute process and consumer rights under the FCRA.
Removal of a negative item from the credit report does not erase the underlying debt. A debt that is no longer appearing on a credit report due to the FCRA's reporting period expiration may still legally exist as an obligation depending on the applicable state statute of limitations. The two legal frameworks operate independently.
The FCRA limits how long negative items may appear on a credit report: seven years for most negative items (late payments, charge-offs, collections, Chapter 13 bankruptcy), ten years for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and two years for hard inquiries. The clock starts at the date of first delinquency for most account-related items, not at the date of charge-off, collection, or debt sale. The full text of the Fair Credit Reporting Act's reporting period provisions is available through the FTC's legal library.