Erasing bad credit from your report

Erasing bad credit from your report takes work. Bankruptcies stay on your credit report for 10 years and most other credit problems for seven years. First, read up on your legal rights as a consumer if you are trying to make changes to your credit reports. By law, accurate information on your credit report must remain unchanged until the 7-10 year expiration date. Only inaccurate or fraudulent data can be removed from your credit report earlier. Smaller items, such as late payments, inquiries and high balances start to loose their negative impact much earlier than items such as collection records and bankruptcy filings.