When does a Trust Deed leave your credit file?
A protected Trust Deed is a Scottish debt solution, and the rule for when it leaves your credit file is set by maths rather than by anyone's decision. You can work out your date today from one piece of information: the date your Trust Deed was protected. There is also a second, separate clock for the public register, and the two are often confused, so this covers both.
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 a Trust Deed leave your credit file?
A protected Trust Deed is a Scottish debt solution, and the rule for when it leaves your credit file is set by maths rather than by anyone's decision. You can work out your date today from one piece of information: the date your Trust Deed was protected. There is also a second, separate clock for the public register, and the two are often confused, so this covers both.
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 Trust Deed leaves your credit file six years from the date it was protected, not from the date you were discharged. Because most Trust Deeds run around four years, the marker typically stays on your file for roughly two years after you finish. Removal is automatic. Separately, your entry on the Register of Insolvencies is removed sooner, so coming off the public register and leaving your credit file are two different things on two different timescales.
On this page
- The six-year rule, plainly
- Why your Trust Deed stays on your file after you are discharged
- The Register of Insolvencies is a separate clock
- The debts inside your Trust Deed 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
A Trust Deed is recorded on your credit file from the date it becomes protected, and it stays there for six years from that date. Not six years from your discharge, and not six years from your final payment: six years from the day it was protected. This is the same rule that applies to an IVA, a DRO or bankruptcy across the UK. If your Trust Deed was protected on 10 March 2021, it leaves your credit file on 10 March 2027, whatever happens in between.
Key point
The clock starts on the date your Trust Deed was protected, which is the date the Accountant in Bankruptcy recorded it in the Register of Insolvencies. You will find it on your Trust Deed paperwork or on your credit report, where the entry shows the start date.
Why your Trust Deed stays on your file after you are discharged
Most Trust Deeds run for around four years, and you are discharged at the end of the term once you have met your obligations, which is confirmed by your Certificate of Discharge. But the six year credit file clock keeps running from the date it was protected, so the marker typically stays on your file for roughly two more years after discharge. This is the most misunderstood part: being discharged does not clean your credit file, it changes the entry to discharged or settled while the six year term plays out. A Trust Deed that ran longer, usually after payment changes, still leaves the file six years from the protected date.
The Register of Insolvencies is a separate clock
Your protected Trust Deed appears on the Register of Insolvencies, the public register kept by the Accountant in Bankruptcy that anyone can search. This is not the same as your credit file, and it is removed on a different, shorter timescale, so your name can come off the public register while the marker is still on your credit file. The two are independent: coming off the Register of Insolvencies does not clear your credit file, and it is the credit file six year clock that governs what lenders see.
Key point
Two separate records, two separate clocks: the Register of Insolvencies is the public register, your credit file is what lenders check. The six year credit file date is the one that matters for borrowing.
The debts inside your Trust Deed have their own clocks
The Trust Deed marker is not the only entry involved. Each debt that went into your Trust Deed usually carries a default on your file, and every default is removed six years from the date it was recorded, independently of the Trust Deed itself. Because most defaults are recorded around the time the Trust Deed starts or shortly before, they typically fall off at or before the same time as the Trust Deed marker. Two things to check on each one once you are discharged: the balance should show as zero, satisfied or settled, and no default should be dated after your Trust Deed was protected. A default dated later than your protected date is a known problem worth disputing, because it would otherwise extend 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 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 Trust Deed. 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 protected date and your Certificate of Discharge. Agencies must investigate, and an expired Trust Deed entry is a clear-cut correction. This is why your Certificate of Discharge matters years after you stop thinking about your Trust Deed: 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 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 you are discharged 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 being discharged early remove my Trust Deed from my credit file sooner?
Is coming off the Register of Insolvencies the same as leaving my credit file?
Do I need to ask for the Trust Deed to be removed from my credit file?
My Trust Deed ran four years but is still on my file. Is that wrong?
Can I get credit while the Trust Deed 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 Trust Deed dates, then stages what you can do now, next, and on the day itself.