How to Remove a Charge Off

A charge off can be removed by disputing the mark. This must be done directly with the credit bureaus.

When a dispute is filled it is your way of saying this mark is not accurate. There are two ways to dispute a charge off.

1. Write a dispute letter

You can do this yourself. In the letter you must give a reason as to why the charge off is inaccurate such as; not my account, item is out of date, account is closed.

When the bureaus receive this letter and deem it valid they will investigate the charge off. They will contact the creditor and verify the amounts, dates, and that the account does exist and is in fact your account.

2. Hire a professional credit repair company

This method you simply identify what marks you want to dispute and then the company will do the rest. I suggest this method if you have multiple negative marks on your credit report.

Most firms have credit attorneys on their payroll. This can make all the difference when it comes to a negative mark being removed from your credit.

Credit lawyers will have an expert understanding of credit laws. They can often use these laws and other case precedents to help remove a negative listing from your credit.

In addition credit repair firms are able to use advanced dispute techniques to remove stubborn negative marks. These techniques include; debt validation, escalated dispute information requests and creditor direct intervention.

A charge off is when an unsecured debt most commonly a unsecured credit card becomes delinquent for 6 months. The creditor will charge off your account, this is done for tax purposes.

This mark will stay on your credit report for 7 years. It will damage your credit score and make it difficult to be approved for new lines of credit.

When your account is charged off it is sold to a collection agency. This agency will try to recover payment from you.

If the agency is unable to collect they will make a negative mark on your credit report and then sell your debt to another collection agency. The process will then repeat, as you can see one delinquent account can become multiple negative marks on your credit. The number of times your debt is sold depends upon the size of the debt.

By paying one collection agency it will not remove the charge off from an earlier agency or the original lender.

I suggest instead you dispute the charge off with the lender and any other collection agency that has created a negative mark as a result of the charge off account.