How long does a repossession stay on your credit report?

Answer 1

Repo on Your CreditIt stays on your credit report for 7 years to the day the loan became delinquent. Say you made your last complete up to date car payment August 15, 2001 and you fell behind about a month after that staying one month behind until December when you missed another payment becoming 2 months behind. The repossession then occurred in January 2003.

This will stay on the credit report until September of 2008 for that 7 year period, regardless of when the loan winds up getting paid off.

It can stay on the report a bit longer if it goes to court and the bank gets a judgment against the borrower. Say this happens in 2004, then that stays on the credit report another 7 years until 2011.

Bankruptcies stay on 10 years while delinquencies and defaults stay on for 7 years.

More Information:

• Seven years, unless you're applying for a high-paying job or a very large loan or life insurance policy, in which case the repossession will always be reported.

• Repossessions and all other notations remain on credit reports for seven years from the date of last payment IF there is no judgment on the account. In the event of judgment it remains for ten years after the date of last payment or the date of judgment (whichever is later), and can be extended for ten additional years in some circumstances.

• Occasionally, errors are made by the credit reporting agencies, and notations on reports may remain longer than they should. In the event of an unfair or erroneous reporting, contact the credit reporting agencies involved by registered letter. Corrections must be made within thirty days of contact. Be prepared to provide support for your request to make corrections to your credit reports. Generally though, no information older than seven to ten years should ever appear on a credit report unless ordered there by the courts.

• For reference, please consult the Federal Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.

• For debts that have gone to a collection agency, be aware that any contact, letters, phone calls etc to that agency, can set a new date on your credit file.

Answer 2

An auto repossession remains on a credit report for seven years from the date a person missed the first car payment leading up to the status of repossession.

Answer 3

In the case of a repossession, the account was never brought current, so the entire account will be removed seven years from the original delinquency date. The original delinquency date is the date of the first missed payment that led up to the repossession status.

There are other dates in the credit report, as well. Some you might see are the open date of the account, the date the account was closed, the date of the last payment or activity on the account, or the date the account was last updated by the lender. None of these dates have any bearing on when negative information will be removed from the credit report.

Whenever possible, Experian provides the date the account will be removed as part of the account information on a credit report. You may see a notation next to your account that reads "this account is scheduled to continue on record until MM-CCYY." The date listed there is the date the account will be removed from your credit report.

Once the seven-year period is reached, Experian will delete the account from your credit report automatically. You don't need to request that it be removed.