“How can I get a charge-off deleted from my credit report?” is one of the most frequently asked questions at the credit repair forum – and for good reason. Credit report charge offs can linger on your report and damage your credit scores for 7 years. It seems like an awfully long time to pay for a single slip up, but having just one charge off on your credit report can prevent you from getting a mortgage in some cases. If you are fortunate enough to be approved for a home loan, high interest rates could end up costing you $100,000 or more over your life time, depending on the house you choose.
What most people don’t understand is that credit reporting is voluntary. Your creditors don’t have to report your accounts to the credit bureaus. In fact, they can even pick and choose which ones they report to! Your creditors can also delete a charge off that they have reported if they wanted to. In fact, before you ever agree to pay a charge off, you should ask for the creditor to delete the reported charge off in exchange for your payment. Always get it in writing.
The problem with the “pay for delete” theory is that most creditors and collection agencies will blatantly lie to you and say that once it’s been reported they can’t remove it. This is obviously a lie because thousands of charge offs get removed on a daily basis.
If you have already paid the charge off, perhaps you could send the creditor a good will letter or make a call and simply ask them to delete it for you. Chances are they won’t (because the employees are told they can’t) but, it’s worth a try.
Another way, and perhaps the most effective way, is to dispute the charge off with the credit bureaus. There are right ways to do it and wrong ways to do it. In fact, some of the wrong ways can basically ensure that it stays on for 7 years. That is why I recommend letting a credit repair service do it for you; because they know what they’re doing! However, for the do-it-yourselfer’s, I do teach people how to write credit repair letters at the forum. The biggest mistake you can make is just jumping into it. Do your homework, put in your time and repair your credit.