A charge off occurs when an account becomes delinquent and no payment is made after 6 months. The creditor will report the account to the credit bureaus as a charge off. The debt will be sold to a collection agency and your credit score will go down.

Some times things happen in life and we just can't pay all our bills. However you don't have to suffer paying the high interest rates and high deposits that come with a low credit score. You can dispute the charge off and have it removed from your credit report.

This is what happens once an account is charged off. The creditor reports the account as a charge off to the credit bureaus.

The debt is sold to a collection agency and they contact you regarding payment. If this collection agency is unsuccessful then they will report the account negatively to the credit bureaus.

Then your account is sold again to another collection agency and this can go on and on. Thus one account can be reported as multiple negative listings and ruin your credit score.

How to Remove a Charge Off

You must dispute the charge off with the credit bureaus. This is done by sending a dispute letter to the credit bureaus challenging the accuracy or validity of the listing. If the listing is inaccurate or invalid then it must be removed.

However you must write a dispute letter to each credit bureau for each listing. As well the credit bureaus will not be responsive to your request to dispute the listings. This is because it costs the credit bureaus potential profits to investigate a listing.

This can also be to your benefit because it costs the creditors and collection agencies money to verify a listing. Thus, listings are often deleted regardless of their accuracy.