text: Ignore the goofball who told you the 7 years starts when you payoff the account, that is wrong.  In fact it is 7 years from when the negative event took place whether it is a late pay or a write off.\n\nA complete credit report from the credit bureau will show the date of any negative items.  If the date is incorrect you can dispute it.\n\nNever ask a collector anything, they have no interest in helping you and often try to get you to send them even a partial payment which will allow them to re-age your account so it shows up for ANOTHER 7 years on your credit report.  \n\nOften collectors will try to collect on debt that is so old that it is beyond the statute of limitations for your state and is legally unenforceble debt.