How To Get Charge Offs Removed From Your Credit Report?

Introduction

Any charge-offs recorded on your credit report can lead to a sharp drop in your credit rating. A charge-off is a scenario where a financial obligation is written off by the creditor after the debtor has been unresponsive to the obligation for 120-180 days or more, even though the debtor remains legally liable for the amount of money in question. The amount that has not been paid gets to the credit bureaus and is portrayed on the credit report hence decreasing the credit score. Nevertheless, there are instances whereby you can achieve the discharge of a charge from the credit report. Here are some of the highest-ranked strategies to achieve this.

Dispute Inaccurate Information

For example, if you see that the charge-off entry on your credit report is incorrect or contains a mistake, you can challenge this entry with credit bureaus. Some of the pitfalls include the balance due being stated wrong, or you being linked to a debt you did not incur. Prepare letters of dispute with the three major bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion pointing out the items in dispute and submitting the necessary evidence. This compels the credit bureaus to start an investigation of the matter. The charge-off is reported to the credit bureau by a creditor and if that creditor cannot verify the report within 30 days, the report is expunged by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Negotiate Pay-for-Deletion

You can go back to the creditor or the collection agency that made the unpaid charge report and bargain for payment for deletion. This is a process of contacting the creditor and proposing to settle the debt at a percentage below the balance owed so that the bad item can be deleted from the credit report. Most creditors are willing to agree to such deletion of goodwill if you can repay the balance at least 50-70%. It is wise to ensure that you write the agreement for deletion before proceeding with payments. Even when payment has been made based on their agreed terms, it is the responsibility of the consumer to make sure that they have met their end by demanding that the charge be deleted.

Submit a Goodwill Letter

If then, the creditor cannot allow the pay-for-deletion option, it is advisable to appeal to their goodwill by sending a goodwill letter. In this letter express your willingness to pay the unpaid amount and any scenario that made the amount to remain unpaid. It is necessary to explain what further effects the charge-off has on your financial situation, such as the limitation of credit or higher interest rates. Polite and politely explain that you wish them to remove the negative item on your credit report, as a token of their second chance, and what the second chance financially means to you. If they are understanding of your circumstances they will allow for the removal of the account entry from your credit reporting without erasing the fact that you still owe them money.

Wait Out the Clock

In case you do not get the actual removal of a charge off, the best thing, however, is that time is in your favor when it comes to credit report rehabilitation. Writing off items and late payments are also bad remarks that can only remain on a credit report for a maximum of seven years from the day they were reported first under the FCRA. For charged-off accounts, this is 180 days after the initial missed payment that resulted in the account being written off. The effect on the credit score decreases as that date nears though on the flip side, the credit limit becomes a thing of the past. If none of the other strategies work, then simply wait for the charge-off entry to age off your report, which will eventually cause it to disappear. Of course, you’ll have to wait until it goes away by itself, so this method takes time.

Conclusion

It is good to ensure that charge-offs are compiled out of your credit history report if at all one wants to improve his or her credit rating. It is difficult to delete charge-offs that contain actual information as these are proven and genuine, however, one can take specific strategic moves to get it done away or at least reduce the severity of the problem in the long run. These are some of the techniques that one can take to continuously negotiate for the removal of the charge-offs from the credit report to get credibility and access to cheap credit back. The freedom from credit score harm makes it worth the endeavor.

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