Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Missouri

The intersection of credit reports and bankruptcy is not a neat and tidy one.

Apples--It's my understanding that after a certain period of time--10 years, I think--the credit report people "remove" items from your credit report. This serves two obvious purposes. For one thing, it prevents credit reports from becoming multi-volume paper behemoths (think of all the transactions that might appear from age 18 to death at age 80 or so!) and it ensures that only relatively fresh information appears. After all, how relevant is your payment record from move than 10 years to the credit risk you present now?

Oranges--a person used to be able to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy every 6 years, but many attorneys told their clients to allow 7, just to give extra time for processing. The 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (2005 Act) changed the time interval from 6 years to 8 years.

Intersection of these--your bankruptcy filing and discharge should APPEAR on your credit report, not be taken off. The fact that you filed bankruptcy lets potential lenders know that the debts prior to the filing no longer affect your ability to repay future debts. It also lets them know that for the 8 year period after the filing, you are not eligible to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Hence, you may be considered a safer risk than someone who is eligible to file.

As far as I know, the bankuptcy code has never mandated removal of the record of a bankruptcy filing from a credit report.