A Beginner-Friendly Guide to Understanding Credit Report Dates
When reviewing a U.S. credit report, many people focus only on balances and payment history. However, the most powerful — and often misunderstood — part of a credit report is dates. Dates control how long information stays on your report and how strongly it affects your credit score.
Dates on your credit report matter for two reasons:
Understanding these dates gives you a major advantage when reviewing or disputing credit report errors using Repair Credit Software (RCS).
The Date Opened is the day an account was first established with a lender. This date plays a major role in your length of credit history, which makes up about 15% of your credit score.
This date reflects the last time an account changed status — such as becoming late, charged off, or closed. It is extremely important for negative accounts like collections and charge-offs.
The Date Reported shows the last time a creditor sent updated information to a credit bureau. This date determines whether balances and limits are included in score calculations.
Old or outdated reported dates may cause accounts to be excluded from utilization calculations — or flagged as inaccurate.
The Date of Last Payment simply shows when you last paid the account. By itself, it has little to no impact on your credit score.
Inquiry dates show when your credit was accessed. Hard inquiries affect your score for 12 months and remain visible for 24 months. Soft inquiries do not affect your score.
Manually reviewing credit reports is slow and error-prone. Repair Credit Software (RCS) helps you:
If you understand credit report dates, you control how information affects your credit score. Learning how to read these dates is the foundation of effective credit repair.
For faster, smarter, and legally compliant credit repair, professionals rely on Repair Credit Software (RCS).
