When they do, they usually have to put up larger down payments and pay higher interest rates or fees. Secondly, the fact that you filed for bankruptcy can stay on your credit report for seven to 10 years, depending on what type of bankruptcy you filed. While it's not impossible to get credit after bankruptcy, it takes more work to rebuild your credit and prove to lenders that you have good control over your finances now. Negative information, like late payments, can generally be kept on your report for seven years from the date the payment should have been made. If you have a lot of accounts, a credit bureau may remove some of the older, positive information to make room for new information.
Every lender is different.
Some couldn't care less what happened five years ago, they just want to know if your credit is OK now. Others will look at your entire credit history and won't give you credit until all the negative information is gone. Even though I got behind a couple of months on one bill, as soon as I could I made a big payment to make up for it. That doesn't mean that bigger payment didn't help at all, though, because the sooner you pay down a bill, the less money you owe, and the fact that you have less debt can help you qualify for credit. Q - I had good credit for years before I ran into financial problems.