Negative Items on a Credit Report: What They Are and How Long They Stay
A negative item on a credit report is an entry showing an account that was not handled as agreed — a late payment, collection account, charge-off, repossession, foreclosure, or bankruptcy. Federal law sets how long each type stays in your file, from two years for hard inquiries to ten years for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
This guide is general educational information for U.S. readers. It is not financial advice and does not describe your individual credit file. Figures such as score ranges and timeline estimates are typical examples, not promises.
Key takeaways
- A negative item on a credit report is an entry recording that an account was not handled as agreed — a late payment, collection, charge-off, repossession, foreclosure, or bankruptcy.
- Under the FCRA, most negative information, including late payments, stays on a credit report for seven years.
- A Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays on a credit report for ten years, while a Chapter 13 bankruptcy stays for seven years.
- Hard inquiries typically remain on a credit report for two years and are handled differently from delinquencies.
- Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850, and payment history carries an approximate FICO weight of 35%.
- The FCRA gives consumers the right to a free credit report from each nationwide agency every 12 months, and the three agencies currently provide free reports weekly through AnnualCreditReport.com.
A negative item on a credit report is any entry that records an account not being handled as agreed: a payment reported late, a balance placed with a collection agency, a charge-off, a repossession, a foreclosure, or a bankruptcy filing. Credit reporting agencies keep these entries in your file for a fixed number of years, and they are visible to creditors, landlords, insurers, and employers that pull your report for a permissible purpose. Understanding what qualifies as a negative item — and how long negative items stay on a credit report — is what makes your own file readable.
What is a negative item on a credit report?
The three nationwide credit reporting agencies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — assemble files from information furnished by creditors, debt collectors, and public records. An entry is treated as negative when the furnisher reports that the account did not perform as agreed. The label describes the data, not the person: the same file also holds neutral entries and positive ones, such as an account paid on time for years.
Typical negative accounts on a credit report fall into a small number of categories:
- Late payments. A payment reported 30, 60, 90, or 120 or more days past due is recorded as a delinquency. Most negative information, including late payments, stays on a credit report for seven years.
- Charge-offs. When a creditor writes off an account as unlikely to be collected, the account is reported as a charge-off. The underlying debt is commonly sold or assigned to a collector.
- Collection accounts. A debt placed with, or purchased by, a collection agency is reported as a separate account, often in addition to the original creditor's entry.
- Repossessions and foreclosures. Secured loans that ended with the collateral being taken back, or the property being lost, are reported by the lender.
- Bankruptcies. A bankruptcy filing is reported as a public record. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays on a credit report for ten years; a Chapter 13 bankruptcy stays for seven years.
- Settled accounts. An account closed for less than the full balance is reported as settled rather than paid in full.
- Hard inquiries. Recorded when a lender pulls your report in connection with an application. Hard inquiries typically remain on a credit report for two years and are the mildest category on this list.
How negative entries get into a file
Creditors and other furnishers report account activity to the nationwide agencies, generally once a month, using a standardized data format. A furnisher that supplies information takes on accuracy and dispute duties under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA, 15 U.S.C. section 1681), the law enacted in 1970 and amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act in 2003. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 and operating since 2011, describes how consumers can dispute information in a report they believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
Errors occur for ordinary reasons: a payment credited to the wrong account, a balance that does not match the creditor's records, a collection account belonging to someone with a similar name, or a debt that was paid but reported as unpaid. A file can therefore contain a negative item that does not reflect the account's actual history.
How long do negative items stay on a credit report?
Federal law sets the retention periods rather than the credit reporting agencies. The table below summarizes the limits stated in the FCRA.
| Item | Typical time on a credit report |
|---|---|
| Late payments | 7 years |
| Most other negative information, including collections and charge-offs | 7 years |
| Chapter 13 bankruptcy | 7 years |
| Chapter 7 bankruptcy | 10 years |
| Hard inquiries | 2 years |
Two points are worth separating. First, inquiries are handled under different rules from delinquencies, which is why a hard inquiry from two years ago may be gone while a 30-day late payment from the same year is still listed. Second, the retention period is tied to the item type, so a collection account and a bankruptcy from the same period do not necessarily leave the file at the same time.
How negative items relate to credit scores
Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850. FICO publishes approximate weights for the factors in its models: payment history 35%, amounts owed 30%, length of credit history 15%, new credit 10%, and credit mix 10%. VantageScore uses its own factor weighting and does not publish fixed percentages.
Payment history is the largest single factor, so a reported delinquency is weighed in the calculation more heavily than a single hard inquiry. Amounts owed comes next; revolving balances relative to credit limits are described in credit utilization explained. How long accounts have been open is a smaller factor, covered in length of credit history explained. No single entry determines a score — the model reads the report as a whole, and the report changes as entries age off and new activity is reported. For a fuller breakdown of the weighting, see how credit scores are calculated.
Entries that are not negative items
Not everything that appears in a file is adverse, and a few entries are often mistaken for derogatory marks.
- Soft inquiries. Checking your own report, or a lender's preapproval screen, produces an inquiry that is not shown to other lenders.
- Fraud alerts and security freezes. These are protective flags, not delinquencies. An initial fraud alert lasts one year and an extended fraud alert lasts seven years, and a security freeze is free to place, temporarily lift, or remove under federal law. See credit freeze for how the flag works.
- Closed accounts in good standing. A closed account with a clean payment record remains in the file and still contributes to length of history and credit mix.
- An account you never opened. This belongs in a different category: it may indicate identity theft rather than a lapse in payment.
Your right to see the file and dispute entries
The FCRA gives consumers the right to a free credit report from each nationwide agency every 12 months, and the three agencies currently provide free reports weekly through AnnualCreditReport.com. Because the three agencies keep separate files, the same account can appear differently across them. Our credit reports guide covers how each section of a report is organized.
If an entry is inaccurate, the FCRA sets a dispute process. A credit reporting agency generally must investigate a dispute within 30 days; that period can extend to 45 days if the consumer provides additional information during the initial 30-day window. The text of those obligations is in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. section 1681.
Identity theft and fraudulent accounts
When an account is opened in your name by someone else, the resulting delinquency is both a negative item and a record of a crime. FCRA section 605A (15 U.S.C. section 1681c-1) governs fraud alerts, and section 605B (15 U.S.C. section 1681c-2) governs blocking information that resulted from identity theft once an identity theft report is submitted. Incidents can be reported at IdentityTheft.gov and to the IRS using Form 14039. More detail is in identity theft, and the credit score overview explains how report data feeds scoring models.
Reading the file as a whole
A credit report is a record of reported events, and a negative item is one entry within that record. The same data drives scoring, lending decisions, and monitoring alerts, which is why the report — not a single number — is the underlying document. For how the different models weigh it, see FICO vs VantageScore and credit score ranges explained. For ongoing review of what appears in a file, see credit monitoring.
This page is published for education only and is not financial advice.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a negative item on a credit report?
A negative item is an entry reporting that an account was not handled as agreed. Common examples are late payments, collection accounts, charge-offs, repossessions, foreclosures, settled-for-less accounts, and bankruptcy filings. The entry is supplied by a creditor, collector, or public record and remains in the file for a period set by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
How long do negative items stay on a credit report?
Most negative information, including late payments, stays on a credit report for seven years. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays for ten years and a Chapter 13 bankruptcy stays for seven years. Hard inquiries typically remain for two years, and they follow different rules from delinquencies.
Do hard inquiries count as negative items on a credit report?
Hard inquiries are recorded when a lender pulls your report for an application, and they typically remain for two years. They are the mildest of the items listed here and are counted under the new credit factor in scoring models rather than as a delinquency.
Are fraud alerts and security freezes negative items?
No. They are protective flags added to a file, not records of missed payments. An initial fraud alert lasts one year and an extended fraud alert lasts seven years, and a security freeze is free to place, temporarily lift, or remove under federal law.
What can be done about an inaccurate negative item?
The FCRA gives consumers a dispute process. A credit reporting agency generally must investigate a dispute within 30 days, and that period can extend to 45 days if additional information is supplied during the initial 30-day window. If the information is found to be inaccurate, the agency must correct or delete it.
Which agencies keep the files that contain negative items?
The three nationwide credit reporting agencies are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Each keeps a separate file, so the same account or collection can appear on one report and not another, or with different details.
Related guides
- How Credit Scores Are Calculated
- Credit Utilization Explained
- Length Of Credit History Explained
- Fico Vs Vantagescore
- Credit Score Ranges Explained
Related terms
- Credit Report
- Charge Off
- Collection Account
- Late Payment
- Hard Inquiry
- Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
- Fraud Alert
- Credit Freeze