How long does a collection stay on a persons credit report after they have pd it off?

The 7 years starts from the date of delinquency, not date of payment, fortunately.

Rather than type:

"Federal law requires that account information, including any subsequent collection accounts, be deleted seven years from the original delinquency date of the original account. Collection accounts are considered a continuation of the original debt, and therefore are deleted at the same time. Federal law also requires collection agencies to report the original delinquency date from the original account so that credit reporting companies can ensure the information is deleted at the correct time. "

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/defining-last-act...

Under this definition, the account should be deleted in August, 2012 (& 1/2 years is the actual time frame).

"The original delinquency date is used to determine when negative information, such as late payments, is deleted," says Griffin. "The original delinquency date is the date the account first became delinquent and after which was never again current. The last activity date has nothing to do with when information is deleted."

An item stays on your credit report for 7 years. But showing that you paid it off is better than it showing as an open item nit paid. Your credit score should not suffer too much if it's the only bad item.

Pull copies of your three credit report at : www.annualcreditreport.com

That depends.

If you paid it off in a lump sum, then it should fall off your credit reports on 2/22/2012.

If you resumed payments, then you may have restarted the reporting period. If that is the case, it will fall off on 7/13/2016.

The older a debt is, the less impact it has on your credit rating.

Yes

7.5 years unless you negotiated a pay for delete