Only businesses that are members of the bureaus can report or get your credit history, Bailey said. A majority of credit granters report both positive and negative information about your account. However, many of the smaller, local companies with which you may have credit tend to report only the bad news, he said. Negative information stays on your history for seven years before automatically purging. Positive information remains forever.
Many people ask if other information is stored in the credit history.
One exception is in Texas, where child support payments or non-payments appear. The Texas Legislature passed a bill recently to mandate that information. Each has a section of the country in which it specializes. Large corporations, like Sears, will report your payment record to all three, but local or regional businesses usually share the information only with the one covering that area of the country, he said. Grand juries can subpoena them with the approval of a federal judge.