What happens after 7 years

First of all I want to tell you that statute of limitation and credit reporting time limit differ from one another. They may differ. It may happen that the later exceeds the former (ie. SOL). In such cases expiry of SOL doesn't give you the right to erase the debt from your credit report. In addition, expiry of SOL doesn't erase the debt automatically.

According to FCRA, negative information generally stays in your credit report for a time span of 7 years. After this period you can dispute it with the credit bureau and get it erased.

Hello. What should I do if I want to clean up my credit history for the future? I have several charge offs and collections.

First off you need to pull all 3 reports from www.annualcreditreport.com

Verify all personal info is correct on all 3 (Name, birthdate, current and previous addresses, etc) Dispute anything that is incorrect.

verify all tradeleines reported on all 3 reports. If you have the same account reporting to all 3, all the info should be the same (could be a little difference depending on when the OC updates theri tradeline with each individual CRA)

If you have derogatory info:
1. are you beyond your states SOL? Best to let sleeping dogs lie if still w/in SOL
2. are you beyond the 7.5 year repoting period? Dispute as obsolete.
3. is all the information correct and all info from all 3 match each other? If not, dispute as incomplete data. Specify exactly what is missing.
4. If you are beyond SOL, move to the 1-2 punch. DV CA CMRRR. When you recive the return receipt, dispute with the CRA's. Start with "Not Mine". Collection agency must validate the debt to you before verifying the dispute with the CRA's. If they do not respond to the CRA's w/in 30 days (purchased report) or 45 days for free report=automatic deletion.

Hope that will get you started

Okay, I think I messed up. I disputed as "not mine" with the CRA's just this week. I did not DV the CA's. Any advice?