In this article:
- What Are Collections on Your Credit Report?
- What Happens When an Account Goes Into Collections?
- What Debt Can Be Sent to Collections?
- How Long Do Collections Stay on Your Credit Report?
- How Collections Impact Your Credit
- How to Dispute a Collection on Your Credit Report
When a collection department or agency takes over your unpaid debt, it can report the collection account to the credit bureaus. The account can then appear in your credit reports, and it can stay there for up to seven years—starting from the date of the late payment that led to the collection account.
Although collections can hurt your credit scores, the impact could depend on the type of collections, the amount you owe, whether you've paid off the collection account and the type of credit score used.
What Are Collections on Your Credit Report?
Collection accounts on your credit reports are records of past-due debts. Generally, your account won't get sent to collections immediately when you miss a payment. However, if you miss several payments in a row, the company might send your account to its in-house collection department, assign it to a third-party collection agency or sell it to a debt buyer.
The collection department, agency or buyer may then report the collection account to the credit bureaus—Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. It can then appear in your credit report and affect your credit scores.
Learn more >> How to Find Out What Debts You Have in Collections
What Happens When an Account Goes Into Collections?
Creditors generally send an account to collections after someone misses several payments in a row. They might attempt to collect on the past-due amount during that time, but the transfer to collections can lead to additional changes and consequences:
- The collector sends you a debt validation letter. The collector generally has five days to send you a debt validation letter. The letter may arrive in the mail or by email and have information about the account, collector, original creditor and amount owed. You have 30 days to dispute the debt if you believe something is incorrect.
- The collection account may appear in your credit reports. The collector may report the collection account to the credit bureaus. When this happens, the original account will be marked as closed or transferred, and the collection account will appear in a separate part of your credit report.
- Collection attempts continue. The collector may contact you through various channels—including phone, email, text message and social media—to remind you about the debt. You could try negotiating with the collector to get on a payment plan or settle the debt for less than you currently owe. However, it's against the law for collectors to harass you, and you have the right to ask collectors to stop contacting you.
- The collector might sue you for past-due debt. Creditors and collectors may also sue you to try to collect unpaid debts. If they win, they may be able to garnish your wages or bank account.
Learn more >> How to Deal With Debt Collectors
What Debt Can Be Sent to Collections?
Most types of debts can be sent to collections, including past-due bills for:
- Credit cards
- Personal loans
- Student loans
- Utility services
- Medical services
- Past-due fees and fines
- Government-imposed fines or fees
Past-due secured loans, such as an auto loan, generally won't be sent to collections immediately. Instead, the creditor might repossess the vehicle, sell it and use the funds to pay off the past-due balance. However, if the sale doesn't cover everything, the remaining deficiency balance could be sent to collections.
Some of these accounts commonly appear on credit reports when you're paying them on time, including credit cards and loans. If you have credit monitoring—such as free credit monitoring from Experian—you might receive an alert when there's a missed payment and be able to bring the account current before it's sent to collections.
Other accounts don't commonly get reported to the credit bureaus. For instance, bank account balances aren't reported to the credit bureaus. But if you have unpaid overdraft or other bank fees and the bank sends or sells the debt to a collector, the collector could still report the collection account to the bureaus and it may appear in your credit files.
There are also some special cases. For example, federal tax debt and payments don't affect your credit scores, and tax liens haven't been included in credit reports since 2017. The IRS can assign your past-due balance to a private collection agency. However, the private collection agency can't report your tax collection account to the credit bureaus.
How Long Do Collections Stay on Your Credit Report?
A collection account can stay on your credit report for up to seven years from the debt's original delinquency date. This is the first late payment in the series of late payments that led to the collection account.
Say you miss a loan payment in June, bring the account current in July and then stop paying your bills in December and the account goes to collections. The original delinquency date will be December, since that's the late payment that eventually led to the collection account.
Collection accounts can stay on your credit report even if you pay off the debt. However, the timeline doesn't get reset if you make a payment or the collector sells the debt.
How Collections Impact Your Credit
Late payments and collection accounts could hurt your credit scores as long as they're in your credit report. But the exact impact could depend on what else is in your credit report, the type of credit score and details about the collection account.
- Recent VantageScore® and FICO® Score☉ models ignore paid collection accounts, but paying off collection accounts might not help your credit scores from older models.
- Recent FICO® Score models ignore unpaid "nuisance" collections for under $100, and VantageScore ignores unpaid collections for under $250.
- Medical collections that are under $500, under a year old or paid aren't included in your credit reports and don't affect your credit scores. In June 2024 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) also proposed a rule change that would remove all medical bills from credit reports.
Learn more >> How to Improve Your Credit Score
How to Dispute a Collection on Your Credit Report
- Contact the original creditor or debt collector. If you believe that the collection account was reported in error or that the collector is reporting erroneous information, you could contact the original creditor or debt collector.
- Request written verification of the debt. If you send a written debt verification request to the collector within 30 days of receiving the initial debt validation letter, the collector must verify the debt and pause collection attempts until they respond. This could give you time to prove the debt is not yours, and stops the collection agency from calling you while you do this.
- Contact the credit reporting bureaus. Additionally, you have the right to dispute the collection accounts on your credit reports. You will need to file disputes with each credit bureaus separately. The easiest way to do this with Experian is using the online Dispute Center.
Learn more >> How to Dispute Credit Report Information
Monitor Your Credit Reports
Ideally, creditors can contact you about past-due bills and you can work out an arrangement before your account gets sent to collections. But regularly reviewing your credit reports can also be important for spotting unexpected late payments, collection accounts or errors.
You can get your FICO® Score and credit report for free from Experian. Your account includes complimentary FICO® Score and credit report tracking, and real-time alerts for important changes in your credit report.
Learn More About Collections
- What Is a Collection Agency?
Debt collection agencies work with lenders and creditors to collect outstanding debt. Working with them proactively makes the process easier. - How to Pay Off Debt Collections
Facing up to debt that has gone into collections and taking concrete action to eliminate it can put the debt—and debt collectors—in the past. - How Long Do Collection Agencies Have to Collect a Debt?
In some states, collection agencies may have no limit to how long they can pursue a debt. Here’s what you need to know. - What Should I Do When My Account Goes to Collections?
Learning that your account has gone to collections can strike fear in anyone. Learn about the collections process and how to get help.
