Which Accts Stayed on YOUR report 10 years+ ?

[stellar]

Which accounts specifically stayed on your credit report more than 10 years after it was closed/paid?  How long did it stay?

I believe I had an old GE (now Sync) card for Express that I closed myself, which stayed probably 12 years.  

Also had an old student loan paid from Dept of Edu that stayed about 12-13 years.

[DaveInAZ]

I think it depends on the lender/CC issuer. I have a Synchrony electronics store card that was closed in 2004 still reporting (14 years), but not Visa/MC cards that were closed around then.

[stellar]

Right, that's what I was trying to see...which lenders/ccs/accounts stay the longest generally.  

[RobertEG]

The removal of closed accounts at approx. 10 years from date closed is purely a CRA housekeeping function.

It is not required under or regulated by any provision of statute or regulation.

In many instances, the consumer cannot tell whether a closed account was removed by the CRA under their internal policy, or whether the creditor chose to voluntarily report deletion of their account, which is totally separate from internal removal by the CRA.

I have, over the years, seen anecdotal posts stating that they had accounts deleted as soon as 8-9 years after closure, and I personally had an old, closed account removed by the CRA at 15 years after closure.

It varies widely, and in many instances, it is not possible for the consumer to know whether it was removed by the CRA or deleted by explicit deletion of the creditor without contacting either the CRA or the creditor.

[Anonymous]

The odd thing is that there should be cases of accounts that have been closed for significantly longer than 10 years staying on.

It would not be strange, of course, if one or more of the CRAs did not have a policy of deleting closed accounts at ten years.  But it's clear that all three do have that policy.  It's not legally binding on them to do it, but it is clear that each CRA has some kind of database program that combs through its records and deletes old closed accounts, since there is a pattern of this happening in vast numbers of cases.  Any given closed account, if it hasn't been deleted by the creditor by year 9, stands an extremely high chance (I'd say 99% or better) of being deleted at year 10 (give or take a month).

The +/- a month isn't strange, because one can imagine a CRA's housekeeping program only being run once a month, or perhaps even being delayed an extra month if they are doing other kinds of database maintenance.

But given that they clearly do have such a DB program in place that prunes old accounts, it's really strange that it "misses" some old accounts -- accounts that do indeed have a clear Date Closed listed on the report (and not in the comments section) from much older than 10.5 years ago.

[DaveInAZ]

Well, you got me to look into the detail of that Sync electronics store card. My bad, it was opened in 9/2004, it was my first HDTV. Last activity is 3/2006, I guess when I paid it off, and closed by credit grantor 9/2008 - it was an electronics store in Las Vegas and I moved to southern AZ in 2005, so I never went back. As it was closed in 9/2008 it's likely to be removed soon.

Out of curiosity I googled it, the store was Ultimate Electronics, according to Wikipedia they filed BK and ceased operations in 2011. it looks like they did have stores in AZ, but that HDTV was a Sony and it still worked great when I gave it away in 2014, it was a 55" rear projection HDTV that was the size & weight of a chest freezer. Now I have a 65" Sony 4k TV that weighs less than 50 pounds.

[RobertEG]

It is also possible that the CRA algorithm used to identify accounts considered eligible for deletion based on obsolescence of the information uses more than simply just the period since closure.

The CRAs dont consider removal of closed accounts until well after 7 years from closure under the assumption that the normal credit report exclusion provisions of most reporting under an account have been reached shortly after 7 years.

Thus, closed accounts with roughly 8+ years from closure normally begin to or already have much of the account history excluded from their credit reports, making the account of less interest to their customers.

However, there are various types of account histories that may still have substantive derogs still showing well beyond 8 years, and even beyond 10 years.  Examples that come to mind are revolving accounts, where closure does not prevent the continued reporting of new derogs, bankruptcies, and other public record information.

Perphaps their removal at 10 years is only general, with some removed a bit earlier, and some a bit later, depending upon specifics of the account history other than simply time since closure.

[jamie123]

I had a bank line of credit account that stayed on my EX report for almost 30 years after closing. This is when banks first started offering checking account "insurance" to cover insuffiecient funds so you wouldn't bounce checks back in the 1980s. My bank made you apply for a small line of credit ($250) and it would be tied to your checking account for that purpose. I closed that bank account in 1985 and it didn't fall off my EX report until 2015. Lost about 35 points on my EX score when I lost that account.

My wife just had a JC Penny account that was closed in the early 1990s fall off her report a few months ago.

[Anonymous]

Credit card. Opened 2005. Closed 2005. Last reported 2012. Still reporting on EQ but tu or ex.

[stellar]

Wow accounts staying up to 30 years after closing.  Amazing.