Credit Card Charge Off - How to Remove from Your Credit
You can remove a charge off by disputing it. This has to 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. Create a dispute letter
This is done yourself. In this letter you simply identify the charged off mark and provide a reason for its inaccuracy. Reasons can include; not my account, account paid in full, item is out of date.
Once your dispute letter is deemed valid the bureaus will conduct an investigation. They will contact the creator of the charge off (often a credit card company) and verify the amounts and that the account does exist.
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.
Many of these companies have credit lawyers on their payroll. This can be very beneficial to have on your side.
These attorneys have an expert understanding of the ever evolving credit laws. They will often be able to use case precedents to help remove a negative listing.
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.
Charge offs will remain on your credit report for 7 years unless you take action to remove it. Typically they will occur with an unsecured credit card that becomes delinquent for 6 months.
The creditor will charge off your account at the end of 6 months. This enables them to write off your debt for tax purposes. They will sell your account to another collection agency. This agency will be able to create a negative mark on your report if they are unable to recover payment.
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.
In sum you should take immediate action when you get a charge off. Otherwise one account can become multiple negative marks on your credit report. You can remove this item from your credit report, without waiting seven years.