How long an unpaid bill stays on a credit file

The rule is a list of things a report may not contain

The statute does not say how long an item may stay. It says what a consumer report may not contain, which amounts to the same answer read backwards.

Subject to an exemption discussed below, no consumer reporting agency may make any consumer report containing certain items of information, and the items are defined by how far in the past they are.

Bankruptcy cases that, from the date of entry of the order for relief or the date of adjudication, antedate the report by more than ten years.

Civil suits, civil judgments and records of arrest that, from date of entry, antedate the report by more than seven years, or until the governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is the longer period.

Paid tax liens that, from date of payment, antedate the report by more than seven years. Accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss that antedate the report by more than seven years. And any other adverse item of information, other than records of convictions of crimes, that antedates the report by more than seven years.

The catch-all in that last item is why the seven-year figure is the one people remember. Most adverse items that are not separately listed fall into it.

The date the seven years runs from

For a collection account, the starting point is defined separately and it is not the date the account was sold, transferred or first reported.

The seven-year period for accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss begins, with respect to any delinquent account that is placed for collection, charged to profit and loss, or subjected to any similar action, on the expiration of the one-hundred-and-eighty-day period beginning on the date of the commencement of the delinquency which immediately preceded that collection activity, charge-off or similar action.

The parenthetical in the statute matters: placed for collection means internally or by referral to a third party, whichever is earlier.

So the clock is anchored to when the original delinquency began, plus a fixed period, rather than to any later event in the account's life.

That is the structural reason an account changing hands does not restart anything. A separate provision, covered in another article here, requires a furnisher to report the date of delinquency and describes how it is obtained when the account has moved.

The provision applies only to items added to a consumer's file on or after a date the statute fixes by reference to an earlier enactment.

Where the periods do not apply at all

The exclusions above are lifted in three named situations, and the lifting is complete rather than partial.

They do not apply in the case of a consumer credit report to be used in connection with a credit transaction involving, or which may reasonably be expected to involve, a principal amount at or above a stated threshold.

They do not apply for the underwriting of life insurance involving, or reasonably expected to involve, a face amount at or above a stated threshold.

And they do not apply for the employment of any individual at an annual salary that equals, or may reasonably be expected to equal, a stated threshold.

Those thresholds are printed in the statute rather than adjusted annually, and no figure is asserted here; anyone who needs them has the citation.

The practical reading is that the periods are not absolute. They describe the ordinary consumer report, and larger transactions and higher-salary employment checks sit outside them.

The provision about medical information furnishers

One item on the exclusion list is not about age at all, and it is the one most relevant to a health-related purchase.

A consumer report may not contain the name, address and telephone number of any medical information furnisher that has notified the agency of its status.

Two exceptions follow. The first is coding: the identifiers may appear if they are restricted or reported using codes that do not identify, or provide information sufficient to infer, the specific provider or the nature of the services, products or devices, to a person other than the consumer.

The second is narrow. The identifiers may appear where the report is being provided to an insurance company for a purpose relating to engaging in the business of insurance other than property and casualty insurance.

Two further items on the list deal specifically with a veteran's medical debt held by a nationwide agency: information related to such a debt where the care was rendered less than a year before the report, and information related to a fully paid or settled veteran's medical debt that had been characterised as delinquent, charged off or in collection, in each case where the agency has actual knowledge and meets a related obligation.

The effect of the coding provision is that an obligation can appear in a file while the identity of the furnisher behind it does not. The item is visible; the source is suppressed unless coded.

What a report has to state, and what the periods do not settle

The same section imposes a few positive duties, and they are worth knowing because they describe what a file should show alongside an item.

An agency furnishing a report containing information about a bankruptcy case has to identify the chapter under which the case arises, if the source of the information provided it, and has to include the fact that a case was withdrawn before final judgment on receipt of documentation certifying the withdrawal.

Where a report contains a credit score or another risk score or predictor, the agency has to include a clear and conspicuous statement that a key factor adversely affecting the score was the number of enquiries, where that was in fact a key factor. A limited carve-out applies to a check services company acting as such.

Where an agency is notified that a credit account was voluntarily closed by the consumer, it has to indicate that fact in any report including information related to the account. Where it is notified that furnished information is disputed by the consumer, it has to indicate that fact in each report including the disputed information.

What the periods in this section do not decide is whether a debt is owed, whether it may be collected, or whether it may be sued on. The rule against bringing or threatening a legal action on a time-barred debt lives in a different statute and runs on a period taken from other law entirely.

The two questions are answered independently, and a debt can sit inside one period and outside the other in either direction. Treating them as a single clock is the most common mistake made about both.

Sources

Each document below is named as it names itself, with the date printed on that document rather than the day it was read.

1. United States Code Title 15, Section 1681c, Requirements relating to information contained in consumer reports — read at subsection (a), the eight excluded items including the medical information furnisher rule at (a)(6) and the veteran medical debt items at (a)(7) and (a)(8); subsection (b), the three exempted cases; subsection (c), the running of the reporting period; subsection (d), information required to be disclosed; and subsections (e) and (f) on closure and dispute indications, 2024 Main Edition — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, January 2025