To be upfront, the question “Do tradelines stay on your credit forever?” can be directed at two different things:
- Tradeline in general (accounts in your credit report, already)
- Authorized user tradelines (adding accounts to boost credit score).
We’re not really answering number 1.
There’s a bunch of stock answers for that, such as “accounts can stay on credit reports for up to seven years.” Experian had a great, quick answer to that question:
Instead, we’re answering number 2.
When you are added as an authorized user to a credit card, it can take up to 30 days for them to start reporting to your credit reports. Once reported, the tradelines can remain as long as someone keeps you as an authorized user. However, when the primary account holder removes you as an authorized user, the tradeline data will still report to your credit report. Once you are removed as an authorized user, the account is no longer reporting actively. even though the information remains in your credit reports. This means, the impact of the tradeline will go away over time. Eventually, the tradeline will fall off.
Tradelines do not stay on your credit forever. In our 13 years of experience, we’ve seen them stay as short as 90 days or as long as 8 years.
