Ask around and you will hear the same answer: six years. It is close enough to be useful and wrong often enough to matter. How long does bad credit stay on your report actually depends on two things almost nobody mentions — which credit bureau is holding the file, and which province you live in.
For a missed payment, six years is right. For a bankruptcy in Ontario, it can be seven. For a court judgment in Prince Edward Island, ten. And a credit application you forgot about can sit on one bureau’s report for twice as long as the other’s.
Short answer: Most negative marks stay for six years at both Equifax and TransUnion, counted from when you first fell behind. Some last longer: a first bankruptcy can stay seven years at TransUnion in some provinces, and a second bankruptcy stays 14 years. Paying off a debt does not remove the entry, and disputing a genuine error is the only legitimate way to remove negative information early.Key points from this guide
How Long Does Bad Credit Stay on Each Kind of Record?
Here is what each bureau keeps, and for how long. Where the two differ, the difference is not a rounding error.
| What it is | Equifax | TransUnion |
|---|---|---|
| Late or missed payments | 6 years | 6 years |
| Accounts sent to collections | 6 years | 6 years |
| First bankruptcy | 6 years after discharge | 6 or 7 years, by province |
| Second or later bankruptcy | 14 years | 14 years |
| Consumer proposal | 3 years after payoff, or 6 from signing | Same |
| Court judgment | 6 years | 6, 7 or 10 years, by province |
| Hard credit check from applying | 3 years | 6 years |
| Closed account in good standing | Up to 10 years | Up to 20 years |
These figures come from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, the federal regulator, cross-checked against what Equifax and TransUnion publish themselves.
Why Equifax and TransUnion Give Different Answers
Canada has two national credit bureaus and they are separate companies keeping separate files. Lenders are not required to report to both, retention rules are set by each bureau within provincial law, and the result is that you effectively have two credit histories that do not always match.
So how long does bad credit stay on file? It partly depends on which company you ask. The clearest example is the hard credit check that happens when you apply for a card or loan. Equifax drops it after three years. TransUnion keeps it for six. If a lender pulls your TransUnion file, they can see applications that vanished from your Equifax report three years ago.
What this means for you: checking one report tells you half the story. If something is being held against you and you cannot find it, check the other bureau before assuming the lender made a mistake.
How Long Does Bad Credit Stay in Your Province?
Longer in some provinces than in others — and this is the part almost every article skips. Provincial consumer reporting laws set the maximum retention period, and four provinces allow longer than the rest.
A first bankruptcy comes off a TransUnion report after six years from discharge in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the territories. In Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, it is seven.
Judgments stretch further still. Six years in most of the country, seven in Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, and ten years in Prince Edward Island. An Ontario resident reading a national article that says “six years” is getting an answer that is a full year short.
When Does the Clock Actually Start?
Knowing how long does bad credit stay only helps if you know when the countdown began, and this is where people lose time without realising it. The start date is rarely the one they assume.
For a missed payment or a collection account, the clock generally runs from the date you first fell behind — not the date the debt was sold to a collection agency, and not the date you eventually cleared it. For a bankruptcy it runs from discharge, not from filing. For a consumer proposal it is whichever comes first: three years after you finish paying, or six years after you signed.
Quick tip: if a collection agency buys an old debt and reports it as a fresh account, that is worth disputing. The original delinquency date governs, and re-ageing a debt to restart the clock is not permitted.
How Long Does Bad Credit Stay If You Pay It Off?
Paying a collection or catching up on a late payment does not remove it, and it does not restart the six years. The record stays until its time is up either way.
That sounds discouraging, but the entry itself changes. A collection marked paid reads very differently to a lender than one still outstanding, and the damage a negative mark does to your score fades steadily as it ages. A missed payment from five years ago carries far less weight than one from five months ago, even though both sit on the same report.
What this means for you: pay it because it improves how the file reads and stops the account from doing further harm, not because it will make the entry disappear. Anyone promising to erase accurate negative information is selling something that is not possible.
Why Good Credit History Outlasts the Bad
The retention rules cut in your favour more than most people expect. A closed account in good standing stays on your Equifax report for up to 10 years and on TransUnion for up to 20 — far longer than any negative mark except a repeat bankruptcy.
That has a practical consequence worth acting on. Closing an old card you no longer use does not wipe its history, so the account keeps contributing its age to your file for years afterward. The more common mistake is the opposite one: closing a card to “tidy up” and losing the available credit limit, which pushes up the share of your limit you are using and can dent your score immediately. Our guide to how credit scores work in Canada covers what actually moves the number.
What You Can Do While You Wait
You cannot shorten the clock on accurate information, but three things are genuinely within your control.
Check both reports for errors. You are entitled to a free copy from each bureau, and an entry that is genuinely wrong — an account that is not yours, a payment marked late that was on time, a duplicate collection — can be disputed and removed. That is the one legitimate way negative information comes off early.
Build fresh history alongside the old. Your report is not only a record of mistakes; it is a record of everything. Consistent on-time payments over the following years gradually outweigh an old delinquency. If you are starting from very little, our guide on building credit from scratch in Canada walks through the usual route.
Stop adding to the pile. Paying statements in full avoids new late marks and the interest that makes catching up harder — we cover the mechanics in how to avoid paying credit card interest.
Key Takeaways
- Most negative information stays on a Canadian credit report for six years, but that is a default, not a rule that fits everyone.
- Equifax keeps hard credit checks for 3 years; TransUnion keeps them for 6. You effectively have two credit histories that do not match.
- In Ontario, Quebec, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador, TransUnion keeps a first bankruptcy for 7 years rather than 6. Judgments run to 10 years in PEI.
- The clock usually starts at the first missed payment or the discharge date — not when you pay the debt off.
- Paying a collection does not remove it or reset the clock, but it changes how the entry reads and the mark loses weight as it ages.
- Closed accounts in good standing stay 10 years with Equifax and 20 with TransUnion, so good history outlasts the bad.
- Disputing a genuine error is the only legitimate way to get negative information removed early.
This article is for general educational purposes and isn’t financial or legal advice. Credit reporting rules are set by the bureaus within provincial legislation and can change — confirm current retention periods with Equifax, TransUnion or the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, and speak to a Licensed Insolvency Trustee about bankruptcy or a consumer proposal. Figures were checked in September 2026.