My fiance and I got in a little disagreement a little while ago about how long collections stay on a credit report.

He says that after 7 years they will be removed from a persons credit report – whether they are paid or not.

I disagree with that. Why would collection agencies just "give up" trying to collect money from a person and take it off a persons credit report. It doesn’t make sense to me. If collection agencies just stopped trying to collect from a person after 7 years wouldn’t a lot of people not pay their bills because it will just go away after 7 years?

Can someone clarify this for me? Thanks!