What is 7 Year Credit Reporting Period?

If you have bad credit, you already know that getting credit cards or qualifying for a car loan or a mortgage can be difficult.  You may wonder if you will ever be able to qualify for credit again. You may be especially discouraged by learning that many detrimental items require a 7 year reporting period on your credit report.  The good news is that while negative items remain on your report for years, many lenders are more interested in the way that you handle finances now. A loan from LoanNow may be able to help you in your quest to improve your credit. That’s a claim that no payday lender can make.

Missed Payments and Other Negative Items:

Your credit report and credit score contain several elements, but none is more important than your payment history. The way you handle your debts counts for 35 percent of your FICO score, according to MyFico.  Most negative payment items on your credit report have a 7 year reporting period.  Every missed payment; every late payment and every charge-off remains on your credit report for seven years.

The only way to remove negative items from your credit report is to prove that the negative items are inaccurate or demonstrate that the 7 year reporting period for those items has elapsed. Repaying debts associated with negative items in full or settling debts for less than the full amount improves your FICO score, but does not remove the negative items from your credit report. The good news is that the effect of those negative items fades with time – unless you replace them with more negative items.

Bankruptcy:

Bankruptcy is an especially serious negative mark on your credit report, because it is an exception to the standard 7 year reporting period. A discharged Chapter 7 bankruptcy remains on your credit report for up to 10 years after the discharge date. Chapter 13 bankruptcies also remain on your credit report for up to 10 years after the discharge date. Chapter 13 bankruptcies also involve repayment plans that last for 3 or 5 years, with discharges only occurring after the repayment plan has been completed. As a result, Chapter 13 bankruptcies may remain on your credit report for 15 years.

How LoanNow Can Help

At LoanNow, we understand that a major contributing factor to financial difficulties is a lack of basic credit education. We educate our customers how to establish credit, set savings goals, and adopt good personal financial management practices that can help boost their overall credit reports and FICO scores.   Let LoanNow help improve your finances AND your credit profile!