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Removing a Charge Off from My Credit Report
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Stuart Hunter
Providing credit repair services since 1991, Lexington Law has helped over 500,000 clients legally take on their credit. Last year alone, Lexington Law helped clients remove over 600,000 negative items from their credit reports. 
By Stuart Hunter
Published on 12/3/2009
 
Charge offs can take a serious toll on your credit score, so much so that a single charge off could result in denial of credit. If you are looking to increase your credit score, it is worth looking into the steps you can take in an attempt to remove a charge off from your credit file.
Removing Charge Offs from My Credit Report
Creditors want to have confidence that you will repay your debts and a charge off on your credit reports is an indication that you cannot be counted on to do so. For this reason, a charge off will significantly lower your credit score and can be cause for you to be denied credit.

It is because of the severity of a charge off, almost everyone would want to have this damaging listing erased, but few realize there is anything they can do about it. What they are not aware of is that there are steps you can take in an effort to remove charge offs from your credit reports. In fact, Lexington Law, a consumer advocacy law firm with 18 years of experience helping over 1/2 million Americans work to improve their credit, reports that their clients had over 100,000 charge offs removed from their credit reports in 2008.

You have a number of options when it comes to fixing your credit. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you can request the credit bureaus verify any items in your credit reports you feel may be inaccurate, untimely, misleading, incomplete, ambiguous, unverifiable, biased or unclear (known as "questionable" items). Essentially, you have the right to question any items that you feel give lenders, insurance providers, and others an unfair impression of your credit worthiness; including charge offs.

If a credit bureau dispute is unsuccessful or if the reported charge off does not fit the definition of a questionable negative item, there are still options available to you. Your creditors and collections agencies have the ability to remove the items they have added to your credit reports. Sometimes, simply as a result of you asking nicely, they will agree to stop reporting a negative item. If this doesn't do the job, there are more confrontational tactics you can employ based on your rights under consumer protection acts such as the Fair Credit Billing Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

It may not be easy, but with time, effort, and proper knowledge, you may be able to remove a charge off from your credit reports. Of course, if you do not have the time or the desire to attempt repairing your own credit, there are a number of reputable credit repair services who will make use of their knowledge and experience to aid you in working towards your credit goals.