Time Frame
If you complete bankruptcy it will remain on your credit report for 10 years after the date you filed. After that, the credit bureaus remove it from your report, but it will still be in the public record if anyone takes the trouble to look it up. If you're applying for a job, federal law says background-checking companies cannot usually include a bankruptcy in the credit or background check if it's more than 10 years old.
Credit Score
Payment history is 35 percent of your FICO credit score. A bankruptcy is one of the worst things that can happen to your payment history -- it can lower the score by 100 points or more -- because all your debts go unpaid, except those such as child support that survive bankruptcy. If bankruptcy comes after a long period of financial problems and delinquent payments, those black marks will already have hurt your credit score by the time you file.
Rebuilding Credit
The drop in your credit score may start to pick up a little as soon as you complete bankruptcy. Once the court discharges your debts, you're no longer behind on your payments and no longer have any maxed-out credit cards. With fewer bills to pay, you should have more money for your remaining expenses, which could make it easier to stay in the black. If you file Chapter 13, which requires a three- or five-year payment plan before you get a discharge, you'll be forced to pay your bills on time, which boosts your score.
Considerations
If you're already floundering, bankruptcy's effect on your credit may not be as bad in the long run as continuing to make late payments. If you have trouble making even minimum payments on your credit cards each month, wiping out your debts might be worth the damage to your score. However, if your debts result, even partly, from bad spending habits or money-management issues, bankruptcy can't fix the underlying problem. You are required to complete credit counseling and debt management courses to receive your bankruptcy discharge, so that may help.
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