My experience was that an account that I had overdrawn 10 years ago (!) showed up on my Chex report over 2 years ago. I had paid everything that was owed & thankfully kept the OLD receipt (since the bank had been bought by someone else in the meantime & 'lost' all of the records). The woman at the bank I opened a new account cleared up my record for me based on my receipt.

Also, we had opened another account beforehand at a different bank with the negative mark on Chex -- as newlyweds with a couple of grand to deposit in accounts, the bank officer has a little lee-way to overlook blemishes if s/he sees fit...

Hope this helps,
Chris