What the law actually gives you

Written to be useful even if you never use this tool. The rights below are yours whether you send a letter from here, write your own, or hand the whole thing to someone else.

These summaries have not yet been through legal review. They are written carefully and cited so you can check them, but treat them as a starting point rather than advice.

Most negative information has to come off after seven years. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy gets ten. Hard inquiries get two.

The seven years runs from the date of first delinquency — the month you first fell behind and never caught up — not from when the debt was sold, charged off, or handed to a collector. For an account placed for collection, the clock is seven years plus 180 days from that same original delinquency.

This matters more than any other single fact on this page. Selling a debt does not restart the clock, and a collector who reports it as though the delinquency began when they bought it is doing something the statute specifically forbids. If the date of first delinquency is missing from a collection entirely, nobody — including the bureau investigating your dispute — can work out when it expires.

FCRA § 605(a)
— 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(a). Most negative information must drop off after seven years; a Chapter 7 bankruptcy after ten.
FCRA § 605(c)
— 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(c). For an account placed for collection, the seven-year clock runs from the date of first delinquency on the original account — plus 180 days — not from when the collector acquired it.

Things that are true whether or not you want them to be

Every one of these costs someone a dispute cycle when they find out the hard way.

  • Accurate negative information stays. If the late payment happened, no letter removes it, and the seven-year clock is the only thing that will.
  • Paying a collection does not delete it. It changes the balance to zero. The account remains until its reporting period ends.
  • Settling is still a negative mark. Better than unpaid, not the same as never.
  • A divorce decree does not bind your lender. It divides responsibility between you and your ex; the lender was not a party to it, so if you signed, it can still report and still collect.
  • Nobody can lawfully promise you a deletion or a score. Anyone who does is selling you something.

Where else to go

You do not need this tool, or any tool, to exercise any of the rights above.

  • annualcreditreport.com — the only federally authorised source for your free reports. Never pay for them.
  • CFPB complaints — free, and companies generally respond. Worth doing if a bureau or furnisher is not meeting its obligations.
  • Nonprofit credit counselling — if the problem is the debt itself rather than how it is being reported, this is a better use of your time than any dispute letter.
  • IdentityTheft.gov — start here if something on your report was opened by someone else. The report number it gives you is what makes that claim carry weight.
  • A consumer-rights attorney. Many take FCRA cases on contingency, and if a bureau has been ignoring a well-documented dispute you may have a claim worth more than a deletion.

Ready to look at your own report? Start with your details.