How do you really improve your credit from the past? It is said after 7 years bad records are supposed to come off but they don't. Also, why do credit inquiries affect your credit score?

Amy Miller

There are set time frames for how long negative information remains on a credit report. In general, negative information more than seven years old from the date of last activity (ten years for bankruptcies) must be removed from your file.

Good information, like your on-time payment of credit card bills or your mortgage, can stay on your credit history forever. Having more good information helps strengthen your credit history and increase your credit score.

As for credit inquiries, not all credit inquiries affect your credit score. For example if you pull your credit report, it won’t affect your credit score. But if a creditor pulls your credit report (so called hard inquiry) that might affect your score. The more hard inquiries you have, the more your credit score can be affected. As a rule, you can see all hard inquiries in your credit reports.