Collections on your credit report: how long they stay and what paying changes

A collection account is a debt the original creditor sent to a collector, or sold to one. It can appear on your credit reports as its own line, separate from the original account.

How long it can be reported

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, an account placed for collection or charged off may be reported for seven years. The seven years start 180 days after the delinquency that led to the collection began, so the practical limit is about seven and a half years from the first missed payment you never made up.

That date belongs to the original delinquency. Selling the debt to a new collector, a new collector listing it, or a payment on it does not restart the reporting clock. If a collection shows a first-delinquency date that looks too recent, dispute it.

Does paying it remove it?

Paying does not remove a collection by itself; the account is updated to show it was paid. How much a paid collection still weighs depends on the scoring model the lender uses, and some models treat paid collections differently from unpaid ones. Some collectors will agree to stop reporting an account in exchange for payment; nothing requires them to, so get any such agreement in writing before you pay.

Before you pay

• Make sure it is yours and the amount is right: a validation request makes the collector show its work.
• Check how old it is. A debt past your state's statute of limitations can still be reported for the seven-year period, but paying or acknowledging it may restart the time the collector has to sue in some states (see the statute of limitations).
• Pull your free reports at AnnualCreditReport.com and see whether the same debt is listed twice, once by the original creditor and once by the collector, with a balance on both.

When the entry is wrong

A collection that is not yours, lists the wrong amount, shows the wrong dates, or appears twice can be disputed with each bureau that reports it. See how to dispute a credit report error.