7 min read · Last updated August 31, 2026
- The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) limits most negative items to 7 years and bankruptcies to 10, under 15 U.S.C. 1681c(a).
- That limit turns off entirely, for both the 7-year and the 10-year items, when a report is pulled for a job paying $75,000 or more, or a loan or life insurance policy of $150,000 or more, under 1681c(b).
- Criminal convictions have no time limit under the FCRA at any income or loan size, with or without the exception.
- Timing an application around a seven-year anniversary only works if the transaction stays under both dollar thresholds. Check the number attached to what you’re applying for before you count on the calendar.
In this article
- The schedule almost everyone learns
- The exception almost nobody mentions
- What actually resets, item by item
- What to do before you apply
Daniel had a $28,000 charge-off from 2019 that aged out of his credit report’s normal reporting window in 2026. He waited the full seven years before applying for a mortgage refinance, on the theory that the old debt would be invisible by the time an underwriter pulled his file. The loan he was applying for was $310,000. Under federal law, that single number, not the seven years he’d waited, decided whether his old charge-off could legally reappear on the report the lender pulled.
The schedule almost everyone learns
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the federal law governing what credit bureaus can report and for how long, sets out its core time limits in 15 U.S.C. 1681c(a). Bankruptcies fall off after 10 years from the filing date. Civil suits, civil judgments, and arrest records fall off after 7 years, or longer if your state’s statute of limitations runs longer. Paid tax liens fall off after 7 years from the payment date. Accounts placed for collection or charged off fall off after 7 years. Any other adverse item not otherwise covered also falls off after 7 years, with one standing exception: criminal convictions, which the statute says never expire, at any income or loan size, exception or no exception.
This is the schedule every credit-repair guide and dispute-letter template on the internet is built around, and it’s the same schedule behind our own guide to deciding whether to pay, settle, or let a charge-off age off before a loan. It’s accurate. It’s also incomplete, because the same statute contains a second provision almost none of them mention.
The exception almost nobody mentions
Immediately after that schedule, 1681c(b) says the limits in the paragraphs above “are not applicable” when a consumer report will be used in connection with three specific transaction types: a credit transaction of $150,000 or more, the underwriting of a life insurance policy with a face amount of $150,000 or more, or employment at an annual salary that equals or is reasonably expected to equal $75,000 or more.
Cross a dollar threshold on any of those three, and the reporting limits simply stop applying to that specific report. Not just the 7-year items either. Because the exception knocks out “paragraphs (1) through (5)” of the schedule entirely, it reaches the 10-year bankruptcy limit as well as every 7-year category. A bankruptcy filed 14 years ago, well past its normal 10-year expiration, can legally reappear on a report pulled for a $75,000 salary or a $150,000 loan.
What actually resets, item by item
| Item | Normal limit (1681c(a)) | Under the exception (1681c(b)) |
|---|---|---|
| Bankruptcy | 10 years from filing | No limit |
| Civil suits, judgments, arrests | 7 years, or longer if state law runs longer | No limit |
| Paid tax liens | 7 years from payment | No limit |
| Collections and charge-offs | 7 years | No limit |
| Other adverse items | 7 years | No limit |
| Criminal convictions | No limit, always | No limit, always (unchanged) |
| Applies when | Report used for a $150,000+ loan, a $150,000+ life insurance policy, or a $75,000+ salary job | |
The two thresholds are separate from each other. A $75,000 salary triggers the exception on its own, with no loan or insurance involved at all. A $150,000 loan or life insurance policy triggers it on its own, with no minimum income requirement attached. Applying for a $200,000 job but only a $90,000 personal loan still trips the exception, because the job alone clears $75,000.
What to do before you apply
Check the number attached to what you’re applying for before you assume an old item has aged off for good. If a job posting states or implies an annual salary of $75,000 or more, or you’re applying for a mortgage, auto loan, or personal loan of $150,000 or more, treat every item on your report as visible regardless of age, not just the ones inside the normal 7- or 10-year window.
If that changes your plan, act on it before the application, not after a denial. Pull your own report first (each of the three national bureaus offers a free copy through annualcreditreport.com) and check for inaccuracies you can dispute now, since a genuinely wrong entry is worth fixing whether or not the exception applies to you; our pay-for-delete and paid-versus-open collection letter sequence walks through exactly how. If the old items on your report are accurate, the exception doesn’t change what happened, only whether the report you’re relying on to look clean actually will.
A credit-monitoring service that flags exactly what’s still sitting on your report, and for how long, closes the gap between “I think this aged off” and “I checked, and it did.” Credit Karma’s free monitoring pulls your VantageScore and full report details so you can see precisely what a lender or employer would see before you submit an application that assumes otherwise.
See exactly what’s still on your report before a lender or employer does
Credit Karma’s free monitoring shows your current report details and VantageScore, so you know what a $75,000-salary or $150,000-loan pull would actually surface.
Check your free credit reportFrequently asked questions
Does the $75,000 salary exception apply to the job I currently have, or only new applications? It applies to any consumer report pulled in connection with an employment decision at that salary level, which in practice means new hiring, promotions with a credit check, and some licensing or bonding processes tied to a role at or above that threshold. Ongoing employment with no new report pull isn’t affected.
If I’m applying for a $140,000 loan, does the exception apply? No. The credit-transaction exception requires $150,000 or more. A $140,000 loan stays under the normal 7- and 10-year reporting limits, so items past those windows should not legally appear on a report pulled for that specific application.
Can a lender or employer choose not to use the exception even if they qualify for it? Yes. The exception describes what a consumer reporting agency is legally allowed to include, not what it must include. Some furnishers and bureaus apply more conservative internal policies. The exception is the ceiling on what could show up, not a guarantee that it will.
Does this exception affect my credit score, or only what appears on my report? Only what appears on the report. Score calculations already weight most negative items heavily in their early years and lightly as they age, whether or not this exception is in play. The exception controls visibility on the report itself, which is a separate question from how a score treats an item at any given age.
Is there any way to stop an old item from reappearing under this exception? Not if the item is accurate. The exception is a reporting rule, not a dispute right, so accuracy is the only lever that works here. If the underlying item is inaccurate, outdated in a way that doesn’t match your actual history, or being reported past what even the exception allows, that’s a standard FCRA dispute regardless of the transaction size.