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I only wish that I had a dime for every time someone has used the phrase: "The law says that all credit reports must stay in your personal file for seven years!" It is critical that you understand that anyone, whether they are from a credit agency or a creditor, who makes that statement is boldly lying to you or is just plain ignorant of the laws surrounding credit reporting.

There is no law now nor was there ever a law that said that anything had to remain on a credit report for seven years, minutes, days or months. There is no minimum time set by any law for credit reporting nor is there any law that says that our credit history has to be reported in any manner what-so-ever!

So why does the seven year myth exist and propitiate itself over and over? Because the longer that a negative credit report is on your file the lower your credit score and the higher the interest rates you will be charged for credit.  In other words it is in the best interests of companies that provide you with loans to keep your credit score low - they make more money!

Laws that have jurisdiction over credit reporting, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act, only provide maximum periods that a credit report can remain on your file - there are no minimum periods of time!

To sum up: There are no laws that specify any minimum length of time that a credit report must remain in your personal file nor are there any laws that state that a credit report has to be in your file at all. There are laws that govern the maximum period of time that a credit report can remain on your file.

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