In most cases, bankruptcy will remain on a credit report for 10 years following the discharge of the bankruptcy. Other entries remain for about 7 years from the date of the last activity. This means that, generally, the 7-year clock is reset whenever you generate any activity on a non-delinquent account, including making a payment. But once the account has gone and remained delinquent, the clock cannot be reset. Some unscrupulous creditors will try to reset the clock by reselling the account, but this is not correct. The FTC has made their position clear on this.
Current law generally prohibits consumer reporting agencies from including in a consumer report accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss which predate the report by more than 7 years. The law now specifies that the seven-year period with respect to information concerning a delinquent account charged to profit and loss may begin no more than 180 days after the commencement of the delinquency.
Congress intended to establish a single date -- the start of the delinquency -- to begin the obsolescence period (7 years plus 180 days). This avoids the "multiple date" problem that arguably existed prior to the 1996 amendments to the law. Thus, the date of the "commencement of the delinquency" that led to the creditor's chargeoff or collection action would be the earliest date from which the account was continuously delinquent, plus 180 days.
The start of the 7 year period is now described with some precision by the statute, and subsequent events, including sale of the charged off account by the creditor, or a payment, or a dispute about the account by the consumer, do not change the allowable reporting period.
There is an exception for chargeoffs or collections that were first reported before December 29, 1997. Adverse information such as collections or chargeoffs reported before December 29, 1997, are not subject to the new "commencement of the delinquency" provision, and can be reported for 7 years from the date the creditor actually charged it off.
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