Many people want to know if it is possible to remove a charge-off from their credit report. The answer is, it may be difficult, but it can be done.

A typical charge-off scenario is where a borrower will miss several months of payments. These can be payments missed altogether or late payments. At this point, the creditor will try to reach you through phone calls or letters trying to get you to bring your account current. Once the creditor is convinced that it will not be able to collect from you, the creditor will often write-off the debt.

It is best at this point to attempt to negotiate a payment plan with the creditor to avoid the account going to collections. Do not ignore attempts by the creditor to contact you. Normally, creditors are willing to work with you if they see that you are trying to make an attempt at paying the debt.

The debt you owe, and which your creditor now perceives as uncollectible, may be sold to a collection agency. You may have heard of collection agencies and the way they do business. Their tactics often include harassing phone calls and threats to file a law suit.

Once reported to the credit reporting agencies, your charge-off can remain on your credit report for up to seven years. As you can imagine, your credit score will decrease substantially with a charge-off entry and your ability to obtain credit from any lender will be difficult to say the least. For this reason, you should try to remove charge-offs from your credit report.

It will be necessary to obtain a copy of your credit report to start the charge-off removal process. Review your credit report for any inaccurate or false information once you receive it. Inaccurate or false entries can be removed from your credit report by writing the credit reporting bureau and explaining your claim. Be sure to provide the credit reporting agency with copies of any documentation which confirms your claim. The credit reporting agency must verify your claim within 30 days or else it must remove the credit item in its entirety.

Additionally, another option you have is to contact the collection agency and explain that you would like to arrange payment. Debt is normally purchased by collection agencies for cents on the dollar. Because of this, you might want to try to arrange a lump sum payment if you can come up with the money. By doing this, you may be able to negotiate a lower total amount owed. Alternately, you can attempt to arrange a payment plan. Whichever path you decide to take to pay back the debt, be sure to obtain an agreement in writing which states that the charge-off credit entry will be removed in its entirety from your credit report or that the offending entry will be revised to “paid” status.

To bring this information together, talk to your creditor and attempt to arrange a payment plan. If your debt does wind up with a collection agency, negotiate a removal of the charge-off credit entry once the account is paid in full .

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