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Not just bankruptcy. Banks and businesses contract with check verification companies such as ChexSystems. I had a friend who bounced a check and it took him a few weeks to reimburse the bank. By then the bank closed his account and reported him to Chex, who put a 5 year hold on his ability to get another checking account through any bank that used Chex verification (> 90%), essentially blackballed.

Ten, I think. Ten years. Or should I dispute that with the credit-reporting agencies?

Negative credit information falls off after 7 years from date of first delinquency.

Always dispute negative credit items; more likely than not, it won't be verified and is usually removed. Otherwise, wait 7 years and then dispute again.

That may be so, but the GP was talking about the time it takes checks to clear. IIRC, uncashed checks aren't even valid after 180 days, let alone 7 years.