A charge off can be devastating to your credit history.
Just having one is enough to lower your credit scores by 100 or more points and cost you a lot of money when it comes to acquiring new credit such as car loans or mortgages.
If you have a charge off on your credit you should act as soon as possible to remove it.
If you wait for them to run their course you will be waiting for a long time as a charge off will stay on your credit reports for up to seven years from the last date of activity (usually the last time you made a payment).
To remove a charge off from your credit reports you will need to obtain copies of your three major credit reports: Equifax Experian TransUnion Once you have all three you will need to see if the charge off is reporting to all three of the credit reports.
Now, I am going to explain something.
If you still owe on the charge off, it is possible for you to get it removed, but here are a few things that you need to understand.
A charge off that is not paid is about two times harder to remove than a paid charge off.
Also, a non-paid charge off can and most likely will find its way back on your credit reports at a later date.
I suggest if your charge off is un-paid and you have the ability to make a settlement you should do so.
While you are at it you should ask in your settlement offer for the charge off to be removed from your credit records.
Depending on the age of the charge off you might be able to settle for as little as 30% of the original balance.
If it is fresh, you more than likely will have to pay it in full.
Ok, now we will talk about removing the charge off.
You should write a letter to all the credit bureaus that the charge off is reporting on disputing the accuracy of the charge off.
Be specific with your dispute such as "date reporting is wrong please remove" "balance is not correct, remove immediately".
Send the letters and wait for roughly 30 - 45 days and the credit bureaus should respond with letters telling you if your disputes worked or did not work.
If the charge off is still on, write another letter disputing something else specific about the charge off.