Chile Forum

>First of all, the storage of credit information has nothing to do with capabilities and everything to do with the law. 7 years or less for credit issues, but they can still collect, it just won't show up on your credit report. So no, after 7 years, no one will be reading it on your credit report.

If you really think credit record are going away in 7 years because of the law, your living in a digital fantasy land.

Perhaps, it is specifically because of the laws that companies now regularly keep records indefinitely. Here is a very short list of organizations and reasons that your credit records will stay in the data archives forever (it only takes one to keep it in circulation). Everyone of them must keep backups, and most keep them forever now in certain areas.

All of these are institutions that must make systems backups typically at least once a day, and sometime by hour or more for security. Each thus has copy of your records:

1. U.S. patriot act mandates that banks know their customers, and thus audit credit records of customers. They have to document to cover themselves, and thus keep copies forever

2. Credit companies are constantly running automated credit reports on all kinds of things. Thus, they too have fresh copies.

3. Marketing departments buy credit records to better target segments. They are not so much issuing credit, as mining for data.

4. Government organizations such as the project formally known as the Total Information Awareness System (who knows what it is called now) of the FBI and such will keep them forever. It recently caught something like 12 escaped convicts that had been missing for years by data mining credit records.

5. The problem of law suits has now made every company that can afford to do it archive their records for ever because of the fear they might need it someday. Every time you buy anything, directly or indirectly, a record is created not just at one company but sometimes across hundreds. Each needs to keep records. Just think of how many companies are involved when you buy a pack of gum at Wal Mart with your credit or ATM card. Everyone, outsources everything these days. Now think about all the databases involved when you buy a car or a house. Many of the companies involved in those little transactions are not in the United States, and operate under other laws (e.g. India, EU ).

I could go on for hours with this list. The point is every single company that has quality IT staff, will have quality backups, if for no other reason that sh%t happens to computers. Also, all that data is not going away any time soon because it is very valuable marketing tool at the least, and at the most it is to shield companies from law suits.

I am not in the credit industry, and I have client financial data archives from a business I sold more than 10 years ago that was gathered simply as part of my standard systems backups. It is likely not worth anything, but the point is that even the smallest business now can afford to keep data forever, and is sometimes required to by the LAW.