When does an IVA leave your credit file?
This is the question with the most confusion and the most misinformation around it, so here is the answer with no hedging. Your IVA has one removal date, it is set by maths rather than by anyone's decision, and you can work it out today from a single piece of information: the date your IVA started.
Free to use, no obligation. A soft search won't affect your credit score.
Written by the AfterMy team · Reviewed by Ben Miller, Customer Success Manager
Last reviewed: July 2026
When does an IVA leave your credit file?
This is the question with the most confusion and the most misinformation around it, so here is the answer with no hedging. Your IVA has one removal date, it is set by maths rather than by anyone's decision, and you can work it out today from a single piece of information: the date your IVA started.
Free to use, no obligation. A soft search won't affect your credit score.
Written by the AfterMy team · Reviewed by Ben Miller, Customer Success Manager
Last reviewed: July 2026
Quick answer
Your IVA leaves your credit file six years from the date it started, or on your completion date if your IVA ran longer than six years. Completing your IVA does not remove it early: a five year IVA stays on your file for about a year after you finish, while an IVA that ran six years or more drops off at or around completion. Removal is automatic, and nothing you buy or apply for can bring the date forward.
On this page
- The six-year rule, plainly
- Why a five-year IVA outlives its completion, and a six-year IVA does not
- If your IVA ran longer than six years
- The debts inside your IVA have their own clocks
- What actually happens on the day it drops off
- How to check it has gone, and what to do if it has not
- You do not have to wait for the date to start rebuilding
- Frequently asked questions
The six-year rule, plainly
Every IVA is recorded on your credit file from the date it is approved, and it stays there for six years from that start date. Not six years from when you finish, and not six years from your final payment: six years from the day it began. If your IVA started on 10 March 2021, it leaves your file on 10 March 2027, whatever happens in between. The only exception is an IVA that takes longer than six years to complete, covered below.
Key point
The clock starts on your IVA's approval date. Find it on your original IVA proposal, your annual review letters, or your credit report itself, where the entry shows the start date.
Why a five-year IVA outlives its completion, and a six-year IVA does not
Most IVAs are set up to run five years. Complete one on schedule and the marker stays on your file for roughly one more year, because the six year clock keeps running from the start date. This is the single most misunderstood fact about IVAs: finishing does not clean your file, it changes the entry from active to completed while the six year term plays out. An IVA extended to six years, often the result of a payment break or remortgage clause, completes at or very near the same moment the marker expires, so for those IVAs completion and file clean happen close together.
If your IVA ran longer than six years
Some IVAs run past six years, usually after missed payments were added to the end of the term. In that case the marker stays until your completion date, because the rule is whichever is later: six years from the start, or the date you completed. An IVA that started in January 2019 and completed in June 2026 leaves your file in June 2026, not January 2025.
Key point
The rule in one line: your removal date is six years from the start date, or your completion date if that is later.
The debts inside your IVA have their own clocks
The IVA marker is not the only entry involved. Each debt that went into your IVA usually carries a default on your file, and every default is removed six years from the date it was recorded, independently of the IVA itself. Because most defaults are recorded around the time the IVA starts or shortly before, they typically fall off at or before the same time as the IVA marker. Two things to check on each one once you complete: the balance should show as zero or settled, and no default should be dated after your IVA started. A default dated later than your IVA start date is an error worth disputing, because it extends a clock that should already be running.
What actually happens on the day it drops off
Nothing you will notice, which is rather the point. Nothing arrives from the credit agencies to mark the day, which is why knowing it in advance matters. The entry simply stops appearing in your credit report, at each of the three credit reference agencies, and lenders searching your file from that day see no trace of the IVA. Scores typically improve over the following weeks as the file re-settles, and the range of credit realistically open to you widens sharply. This is the date we call your file-clean moment, and it is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering by accident.
How to check it has gone, and what to do if it has not
Shortly after your date, check your report with all three credit reference agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, using their free statutory reports. The entry should be gone from all three. If it is still showing, raise a dispute with the agency directly, referencing the start date and your completion certificate. Agencies must investigate, and an expired IVA entry is a clear-cut correction. This is also why your completion certificate matters years after you stop thinking about your IVA: it is the proof that settles any argument.
Key point
Check all three agencies, not one. They hold separate files, and it is common for an entry to linger on one agency after the others have removed it.
You do not have to wait for the date to start rebuilding
The removal date is when the mark disappears, not when your options begin. From the day your IVA completes you can be rebuilding: registering on the electoral roll, keeping every bill on time, keeping any credit you do have well inside its limit, and using the products designed for exactly this stage. Rebuilding through the final stretch means that when the marker drops, your file already shows a run of clean history behind it, and the improvement lands on a foundation rather than a blank page.
Frequently asked questions
Does completing my IVA early remove it from my credit file sooner?
Do I need to ask for the IVA to be removed?
Why does my IVA show different information at different agencies?
Is coming off the Insolvency Register the same as leaving my credit file?
Can I get credit while the IVA is still on my file?
Want your exact date, worked out for you?
Your Comeback Plan calculates the day your file clears from your own IVA dates, then stages what you can do now, next, and on the day itself.