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Negative Items on Your Credit Report
Negative items on your Credit Report – How they affect your credit
Negative items on your Credit Report can take many forms and include collections, charge-offs, late payments, foreclosures, repossessions, judgments, liens, and bankruptcies.
Negative items on your credit report is not a life sentence, as most negative information has to eventually be removed from the consumer's credit files under The Fair Credit Reporting Act. Paying a delinquent balance doesn't erase the negative entry on your credit report.
When reading your credit reports, pay attention to the "purge from" date or the "date of last activity" entry. Those are the dates that the credit bureaus use to determine when something has to be removed from the report. If you find an expired record that should have been removed from your credit report, you can file a dispute to have the matter corrected.
Late Payments
Making late payments on one of your credit accounts could lead to a drop in your credit score.
Charge Off
A Charged-off occurs when a creditor gives up on collecting the debt and sells it off to a collection agency. Charge off does not mean your debt is cancelled. You still owe the debt.
Collections
Collection accounts have a significant negative impact on your credit scores. What you can do when your account is sent to collections
Civil Judgements
With recent changes to credit reporting, civil judgment and tax lien information no longer shows as part of a consumer's credit history.
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Chapter 7 bankruptcy is known as straight bankruptcy and involves the liquidating of all assets to pay your debts.
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to get a fresh start by creating a repayment plan and allowing you to use your future income to pay off your debts during a three-to-five-year period.
How long does a Negative Item stay on your credit
The Fair Credit Reporting Act specifies how long information remains on a credit report. Here is a list of how long the most common items remain on a credit report:
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filing records – Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings may be removed from your credit report 10 years after the filing date.
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy filing records – Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings may be removed from your credit report after 7 years. Each account marked as "included in BK" remains on your report for 7 years from the filing.
Charge-off records – A charge off record which appears on your credit report when a creditor or lender charges-off your delinquent debt as a loss, will remain on your credit report for 7 years.
Collection records – Collection records stays on a credit report for 7 years. The seven years starts from the date the account was sent to collections, which is 180 days after the late payment that led to the account being sold to collections.
Closed accounts – Closed negative accounts (with late payment or other negative records) will expire from your credit report after 7 years. Closed positive accounts (with no late payments or other negative records) will remain on your credit report 10 years from closed date.
Foreclosure records – Property deed-in-lieu and foreclosure records - 7 years.
Inquiries – Inquires for new credit and loan applications (hard inquiry) will remain on your credit report for 2 years. However, pulling your own credit report and scores (soft inquiry) does not affect or lower your credit score.
Civil Judgments – With recent changes to credit reporting, effective July 1, 2017, court decisions such child support, civil, and small claims judgment information no longer shows as part of a consumer's credit history.
Late payments – All late payments that goes beyond 30 days and reported by your lender will remain on your credit report for 7 years from the date of the missed payment.
Repossession records – Vehicle and property repossession records - 7 years.
Tax liens – With recent changes to credit reporting, effective July 1, 2017, Tax lien records which includes city, country, state, and federal tax liens no longer shows as part of a consumer's credit history.
Positive credit information – Positive information on loans like mortgages, car loans and other types of loans with fixed terms on the number of years for repayment, remains on your report for an average of 10 years from the day its corresponding account is closed. For revolving accounts, such as credit cards, your positive history will stay on your report for as long as the account is active.
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How long negative information stays on your Credit Report
Did you know ....
As of April 2018, all tax liens or outstanding debt you owe to the IRS no longer appear on credit reports can no longer impact your credit scores.