Major Credit Bureaus – Learn the Cold Hard Facts about Reporting

Many people want to know how long a negative notation will stay on their credit report. The answer to this is seven long years. If you have a bankruptcy or judgment the notation can stay on your report for up to ten years.

The majority of people fell like they have just been handed a long prison sentence. During this time they are afraid to move into a home or upgrade to a nicer car because they do not want to be charged outrageous interest rates.

Seven years – why?

Is a one time mistake with your credit really worthy of a seven year punishment? Why should you have to pay the outrageous cost of having a bad credit report, especially when it was just a brief time in your life? Do all the months of paying on time not count for anything?

Is there something about seven years that will make you credit worthy again? Have experts learned something about how after seven years have elapsed that makes me more deserving of credit?

Of course not, there is no good reason whatsoever for the seven year reporting law. It is a completely arbitrary time limit.

Did you know that before the Fair Credit Reporting Act the credit bureaus had no time limit to how long a negative mark could remain on your credit report? In reality a negative mark remained on your credit report forever.

Finally, Congress placed a time limit on the bureaus. Please do not be confused that seven years is how long an item must remain on your credit. Seven years is the reporting maximum.

Congress made it illegal for credit bureaus to report a bad credit mark for longer than seven years. Frequently people have successfully had a negative mark removed long before the seven year time limit.

Creditors and collection agencies are not required to report a listing. This is completely voluntary on behalf of the creditors and collection agencies. Furthermore creditors and collection agencies have often removed negative marks before the seven year limit.

Often creditors and collection agencies just need some encouragement from a good credit repair attorney or a compelling credit dispute letter. In addition, the credit bureaus themselves perform a form of credit repair at the seven year point.

In a perfect world there would be no arbitrary reporting limit. Instead, marks would remain as long as they bore the true characteristics of the applicant. Credit information would provide accurate indications of our credit worthiness and not just give the banker an excuse to jack up interest rates so they can earn a bigger profit.

The point is since we don’t live in that world, why should we wait to repair our credit? Why shouldn’t we take steps today to erase questionable and misleading information from our credit report? This way we don’t have to pay the high cost of bad credit longer than we have to?