The limits the law sets
Regulation 17 of the National Credit Regulations sets the longest time a credit bureau may keep each kind of information. After that period the bureau must remove it, whether or not the debt was ever paid. Earlier removal is possible in some cases, which are covered below.
Enquiries — the record that a lender looked at your report — may be kept for one year. Your payment profile, the month-by-month history of each account, for five years. Adverse classifications, such as an account marked in default, handed over or written off, for one year.
Civil court judgments, including default judgments, may be kept for five years, or until the judgment is rescinded by a court or abandoned by the creditor if that comes first. A sequestration order may be kept for five years or until you are rehabilitated, and the rehabilitation order itself for five years. An administration order may be kept for five years or until a court rescinds it. A maintenance judgment stays until a court rescinds it.
Paid-up judgments come off sooner
Since 2014, credit bureaus must remove information about a judgment once it has been paid up. After a bureau receives proof that the judgment debt was paid, it has seven days to remove it, and it must tell the other bureaus, which then have three days to do the same. Ask the creditor or its attorney for a letter confirming payment in full and send it to each bureau that shows the judgment.
Debt review ends with a clearance certificate
A debt review flag stays for as long as the review runs. When you have paid every account under review, apart from a home loan that is up to date, your debt counsellor must issue a clearance certificate within seven days and file it with the credit bureaus, which must then remove the record of the review and of the defaults that led to it.
If your counsellor does not file the certificate, you can send a certified copy to the National Credit Regulator yourself. Our guide on debt review explains the process from start to finish.
What does not expire on this clock
The debt itself does not disappear when the listing does. A creditor can still ask you to pay, and an unpaid account may be reported again if it is sold or handed over. Removing the listing changes what lenders see, not what you owe.
Your positive history is kept too: five years of on-time payments are what a lender most wants to see after a bad patch, so keeping current accounts up to date matters as much as waiting for old entries to expire.
What this means if you need to borrow
If a listing is close to its expiry date, waiting a few weeks may change your options more than applying now. Check your report first so you know which entries are on it and when each one falls away.
If you cannot wait, some lenders still consider applicants with negative listings, usually for smaller amounts at a higher cost. Our page on loans with a poor credit record explains who they are and what to compare before you sign.