I have another question. Here's an example of a situation I'm seeing -

If a debt was opened 1/1999.
Debt goes bad 4/2001.

I believe, I may be wrong, debt can stay on your credit until 4/2008.

what if say sometime in 2005 that debt is sold to a collection agency or similar. Does the original 4/2008 stay the time the item should be removed from your credit or does the 2005 marker mean that the debt stays on your bureau until 2012?

Does that make sense?

Just trying to figure out when an old account will drop off since it's been sold multiple times to multiple collection agencies.

thank you in advance.