How long bad credit stays on your credit report in Canada depends entirely on what kind of negative mark you’re asking about. Most late payments and collections age off in 6 years, a first bankruptcy can take 6 or 7, and a second takes 14.
A handful of provinces also run longer clocks than the rest of the country on certain items. There’s no single number, which is why so many Canadians get a different answer every time they search for one.
This guide puts every item type in one place, sourced to Equifax Canada, TransUnion Canada, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), and the provincial law behind the longer timelines. Where a topic already has its own full breakdown on this site, consumer proposals, general score factors, we’ll point you there instead of repeating it.
The General Rule: Most Negative Information Ages Off in 6 Years
Equifax Canada states plainly that “most types of negative information generally remain on your Equifax credit report for 6 years.” The FCAC backs that up at the federal level, listing “information about late or unpaid credit cards and loans: up to 6 years” as the baseline for negative information across the industry.
Six years is the number to remember if you only remember one. But several categories run on their own clock, and a few provinces stretch specific items to 7 or even 10 years. The table below breaks out each one.
How Long Each Type of Bad Credit Stays on Your Report
| Item | Equifax Canada | TransUnion Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Late payment | 6 years from the date reported | 6 years from first delinquency |
| Collection or charged-off account | 6 years from date of first delinquency | 6 years from first delinquency |
| Judgment | 6 years | 6 years generally; longer in some provinces (see below) |
| Consumer proposal | 3 years after completion, or 6 years from filing, whichever is sooner | Same rule |
| Bankruptcy, first time | 6 years after discharge, or 7 years after filing with no discharge date | 6 years after discharge; 7 in some provinces (see below) |
| Bankruptcy, second or later | 14 years for both bankruptcies, from each discharge date | 14 years |
| Hard inquiry | 3 years | 6 years |
| Closed account, paid as agreed | Up to 6 years from the closed date | Up to 20 years |
| Debt management plan | Removed 2 years after you finish paying it off | Same rule |
A few of these are worth walking through, since the table alone hides some of the nuance.
Collections and charged-off debt
If a payment goes unpaid long enough that the lender writes it off and hands it to a collection agency, the clock doesn’t restart. Equifax counts the full 6 years “from the date of first delinquency on the account,” which it describes as typically the date the account went to collection. Paying off the balance early doesn’t remove the entry either, though a “paid” status can soften its effect on your score.
Judgments
A judgment (a court ruling that you owe someone money) generally sits on your report for 6 years, per the FCAC. TransUnion keeps judgments longer in four provinces: 7 years in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and Quebec, and 10 years in Prince Edward Island. Equifax’s own page carries no such carve-out; it states a flat 6-year figure nationwide.
Bankruptcy, first time versus second time
A first bankruptcy is the shorter of the two paths: 6 years after your discharge date at both bureaus, or 7 years from the filing date if you were never formally discharged, per Equifax. The FCAC confirms TransUnion extends that to 7 years after discharge specifically in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec. Our full walkthrough of what a consumer proposal looks like month by month covers the credit-report cleanup phase in more depth if a proposal, not bankruptcy, is what you’re weighing.
A second bankruptcy resets the clock in a harsher way. In Equifax’s own words: “If a second bankruptcy is filed, then the first re-appears on your Equifax credit report, and both bankruptcies remain for 14 years after the discharge dates.”
Closed accounts in good standing (a real discrepancy worth flagging)
This is the one place the two primary bureau sources disagree with each other. Equifax’s own consumer-education page states that a closed account “paid as agreed” stays on file “for up to 6 years from the date it was reported by the lender as closed.” The FCAC’s summary page, however, states that Equifax keeps closed accounts “for up to 10 years.”
We could not resolve which figure is current; if it matters for your timeline, ask Equifax directly rather than rely on either page alone. TransUnion‘s own figure is not in dispute: positive information, including closed accounts, “may remain on your credit report for up to twenty years.”
Why the Same Item Can Last Longer Depending on Your Province
The 6-year baseline isn’t a national law. It’s mostly bureau practice, and Ontario is the one province where the longer 7-year figure traces to an actual statute. Ontario’s Consumer Reporting Act sets a 7-year ceiling on judgments, unpaid debts sent to collections, and a first bankruptcy (unless the consumer has been bankrupt more than once), and TransUnion applies a 7-year window in Ontario to judgments and a first bankruptcy rather than the national 6.
The FCAC also lists Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and (for judgments only) Prince Edward Island as running the same longer TransUnion timelines. We checked Quebec’s dedicated credit-bureau law, the Credit Assessment Agents Act, and its broader private-sector privacy legislation, and found no equivalent numbered retention period in either one. The FCAC’s figure for Quebec is a government source and we’re reporting it as accurate, but we can’t point you to the specific Quebec statute behind it the way we can for Ontario.
A Retention Period Isn’t the Same as “The Debt Is Gone”
One thing gets lost in most searches for this topic: a debt aging off your credit report doesn’t mean the debt disappears. You can still legally owe money after it stops showing up on your file. Whether a creditor can still take you to court over it is a separate question, governed by your province’s limitation period, not by credit-bureau retention rules.
Ontario’s Limitations Act, 2002 sets a basic limitation period of two years “from the day on which the claim was discovered,” after which a lawsuit generally can’t be started. That two-year clock and the 6- or 7-year credit-report clock are unrelated timelines that happen to both apply to the same debt.
What This Means If You’re Rebuilding Right Now
None of this is a reason to wait out the clock passively. Building positive payment history sooner narrows the gap long before older negative items age off, since lenders weigh recent behaviour more heavily than a single old mark. For Canadians whose file still shows negative items but who need financing in the meantime, a bad credit loan paid on time is one practical way to add positive history on top of an aging negative one, depending on lender review.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most negative marks are gone from your report by then. Late payments and collections age off at 6 years, and a first bankruptcy clears at 6 or 7 depending on discharge and province. The debt itself does not disappear though; you can still legally owe it under a separate provincial limitation period.
Yes, but the timeline depends on the item. Most negative marks (late payments, collections) clear in 6 years. Bankruptcy clears in 6 to 7 years the first time and 14 years for a second filing. There’s no single “credit is clear” date that applies to every type of entry at once.
Most come off after 6 years. Both bureaus count from the date of first delinquency, which Equifax says is typically when the account went to collection. Ontario’s Consumer Reporting Act sets a 7-year ceiling on unpaid debts sent to collections, but that is a maximum, and TransUnion’s 7-year Ontario rule covers judgments and bankruptcy.
Fourteen years, at both Equifax and TransUnion, counted from each discharge date. That’s more than double a first bankruptcy’s 6- to 7-year window. Filing a second time also brings your original bankruptcy back onto your report for that same 14-year period, even if it had already aged off years earlier.
Equifax keeps hard inquiries on file for 3 years; TransUnion keeps them for 6, per the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. Soft inquiries, including checking your own score, aren’t affected by either timeline since they never appear to other lenders. Our breakdown of what actually affects your credit score covers the deeper impact.
If you’re ready to see what’s available to you now rather than waiting on an old mark to clear, get matched with a Canadian lender today to find out what you may qualify for based on your current picture, not just your history.
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