By making payments on time, not defaulting on any loans and adhering to all rules and regulations of all of your financial relationships, you can ensure a good credit score. Unfortunately, sometimes may go wrong affecting your good credit standing. If you have fallen behind in a mortgage payment or filed for bankruptcy, these things will stay on your credit report for certain periods of time.
Most Blemishes on Your Credit Report are Removed After 7 Years
If you have defaulted on a loan, failed to pay insurance premiums or neglected to pay your credit card bill on time, these things will appear on your credit report. There is nothing you can do about removing accurate information from your credit report. These types of negative items will be removed 7 years from the time they are initially reported.
Also, if you have filed for chapter 13 bankruptcy, this takes 7 years to be removed as well. If you feel as though there has been some sort of an error on your credit report, you should consult all three big credit bureaus to help sort out this problem.
Other Time Limits of Removal of Negative Items from Your Credit Report
There are other instances where it may take longer than 7 years for a negative item to be removed from your credit report. If you have filed for a chapter 7 bankruptcy, it can take up to 10 years for it to be removed from your credit report. It is important to consult with a credit bureau and look over your credit report thoroughly so that you know what is on it and what it will take to improve it.
There is no real way to have negative items removed from your credit report before the time frames mentioned above. Some people choose to consult “credit doctors” or other companies that offer a quick fix. These are rarely successful and can only lead to more trouble down the road.
The best thing to do is to check your credit report regularly and make sure to be vigilant about paying your debtors.