Question

How Long Does Bankruptcy Stay on Your Credit Report?

Written by JaredLast reviewed 2026-08-25

How long does bankruptcy actually stay on a credit report?

Ten years, for every bankruptcy chapter, under federal law — not seven, and not only for the chapters people expect. The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(a)(1), authorizes a credit bureau to report a bankruptcy case for up to 10 years from the date of entry of the order for relief. The statute draws no distinction between Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, or Chapter 13. The "Chapter 13 falls off after 7 years" line repeated across nearly every site in this space describes something real, but it is not what the statute says, and treating it as law rather than practice is the single most common factual error in this vertical.

What does the actual statute say?

15 U.S.C. § 1681c(a)(1) permits a bureau to report: "Cases under title 11 or under the Bankruptcy Act that, from the date of entry of the order for relief or the date of adjudication, as the case may be, antedate the report by more than 10 years." That one sentence covers every modern bankruptcy chapter alike — it names no chapter number and sets no shorter period for any of them. "Order for relief" is a fixed legal moment, not a range of dates open to interpretation: in a voluntary case, 11 U.S.C. § 301(b) states that "the commencement of a voluntary case under a chapter of this title constitutes an order for relief under such chapter," so the 10-year clock starts on the petition date itself.

It's also worth noticing what the same subsection does with everything else. The FCRA gives most other adverse items 7 years: paid tax liens from date of payment under § 1681c(a)(3), accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss under § 1681c(a)(4), any other adverse item under § 1681c(a)(5), and civil suits and judgments under § 1681c(a)(2) — that last one running 7 years "or until the governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is the longer period." Bankruptcy is the one category the statute singles out for a longer period, and it does that uniformly, with no chapter-specific carve-out anywhere in the text.

One limit on all of this: subsection (a) begins "Except as authorized under subsection (b)," and § 1681c(b) switches off paragraphs (1) through (5) entirely for a report used in a credit transaction of $150,000 or more, life insurance underwriting of $150,000 or more, or employment at an annual salary of $75,000 or more. The 10 years is the rule for ordinary consumer credit reporting, not an unconditional erasure date — a point the CFPB makes too when it notes that in certain instances a bankruptcy can be reported beyond 10 years. A car loan will effectively never reach the $150,000 threshold, so for this audience the 10-year figure governs; it is still not accurate to call it absolute.

Where does the "7 years for Chapter 13" figure actually come from?

From the nationwide credit bureaus' own furnishing practice, not from Congress. Experian's consumer guidance says a Chapter 13 entry "remains on your credit report for seven years from the date of the initial bankruptcy filing," and is explicit that the clock is "dated from the month you first filed for protection with the court (not when the bankruptcy procedure ends)." TransUnion publishes the same structure — Chapters 7, 11 and 12 at 10 years from the filing date, Chapter 13 at 7. Both are shorter than the 10 years § 1681c(a)(1) would otherwise permit, and neither cites the FCRA as the source of the shorter number, because the FCRA isn't the source. It's a voluntary practice layered on top of a statute that would let any bureau report a Chapter 13 case for the full 10 years if it chose to.

One caveat about the word "completed." myFICO's consumer education material states the split as "7 years for completed Chapter 13 bankruptcies and 10 years for Chapter 7 bankruptcies." That qualifier is myFICO's, and most of the vertical repeats it as though the bureaus impose it. They don't say so: Experian and TransUnion both describe removal 7 years from the filing date without conditioning it on finishing the plan, and Equifax told ProPublica it "removes the flag for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy after seven years, regardless of outcome."

What does the statute allow versus what each bureau actually does?

The statute column never changes. The practice columns are where the real variation lives — and where it has already moved once.

Why does it matter that this is policy, not law?

Because a policy can change without an act of Congress, and one bureau's own history shows exactly that. ProPublica reported on 2017-09-29 that Equifax, for what appeared to be decades, had added three years to the reporting of Chapter 13 filers whose cases were dismissed rather than completed — a 10-year flag where Experian and TransUnion used 7. Asked about the discrepancy, an Equifax spokeswoman said the company had "recently modified" the practice and now "removes the flag for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy after seven years, regardless of outcome," but would not say when or why the change was made, and made a point of noting the earlier practice had been legal.

Nothing in the FCRA moved while that was happening — § 1681c(a)(1) still permitted any bureau to report any Title 11 bankruptcy for a full 10 years, and still does today. What changed was a business decision inside one company, disclosed only in response to a reporter's question, and a decision made without a statute behind it can be unmade the same way. Anyone relying on "Chapter 13 always falls off at 7 years" as a fixed rule is relying on three companies' current furnishing choices, not on a legal guarantee that binds them going forward.

Does a dismissed Chapter 13 case get the same early treatment?

Under all three bureaus' current stated practice, yes — and that is a change from how this used to work. Experian and TransUnion both describe removal 7 years from the filing date with no completion condition attached, and Equifax told ProPublica in 2017 that it removes the Chapter 13 flag after seven years "regardless of outcome." The dismissed-case penalty was Equifax's alone, and Equifax says it is gone.

Two cautions before treating that as settled. First, myFICO's education material still words the shorter period as applying to a completed Chapter 13 bankruptcy, so the sources genuinely disagree on the wording; a filer whose case was dismissed should check the actual report rather than assume. Second, the parity that exists now exists by choice — ProPublica noted that about half of Chapter 13 cases are dismissed, so this is not a small population, and no statute obliges any bureau to keep treating them the same as completed cases. The statutory period doesn't move either way: 10 years from the order for relief remains the outer limit for a completed case, a dismissed one, or one still in progress.

When does the reporting clock actually start?

At the order for relief, which in a voluntary bankruptcy case is the filing date itself — not the discharge date, and not the date a Chapter 13 plan is completed. 11 U.S.C. § 301(b) makes that automatic for a voluntary petition, so the moment a case is filed is the moment both clocks start: the FCRA's 10-year period and the bureaus' shortened 7-year Chapter 13 practice, which Experian states runs from the month of filing and not from when the case ends. A Chapter 13 plan can run 3 to 5 years under 11 U.S.C. § 1322(d), so a case that takes the full 5 years to reach discharge has already used half of the FCRA's period before the plan is even finished — and under the bureaus' 7-year practice, only about 2 of the 7 years remain at that point.

Does the reporting window affect getting approved for a car loan later?

Indirectly, through how long the bankruptcy flag itself is visible, not through what it does to underwriting. An auto lender pulling a credit report during the statutory or bureau-practice reporting window will see the bankruptcy notation for as long as it's reporting, but the flag's removal date is separate from how quickly a filer's other account history rebuilds alongside it. For how a loan taken out during an open Chapter 7 case is treated apart from the case itself, see a car bought during Chapter 7 is not discharged; for the fuller financing timeline before and after a Chapter 7 case closes, see car loan after Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

This page explains what federal law and published bureau practice currently say about credit reporting periods; it isn't legal advice about a specific credit report or bankruptcy case, and no bureau's practice is guaranteed to stay the same going forward. For more on how this site works, see how we make money and the editorial policy; for more on financing during and after bankruptcy, see the learn hub.