By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-04-26 01:09:43 | Word Count: 664
If you are like most people, you understand how important your credit is. Your credit score can either help you or hurt you when you decide to finance or borrow money. If you have a charge off on your credit report, this could be very detrimental to your financial well being.
A charge off is one of the major types of negative issues that can appear on a credit report. A charge off can be placed on a credit report when your creditor has not received the minimal payment for more than 180 days. It is called a charge off because the creditor has declared the money you owe as a loss on their records. Even after the creditor has declared your debt as a loss they will still attempt to recover the debt from you. Even if you pay what you owe, after the charge off, it can still affect your credit for up to seven years.
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There are benefits to paying off the debt you owe after a charge off. When you owe your creditor money, this puts you in a better bargaining position. Regardless of whether your debt was written off as a loss, the creditor will still want to recover whatever assets they can from you. The more you are willing to pay them in small amount of time, the more they may be inclined to work with you to remove the negative remark on your credit report. By calling the company you owe, you can attempt to come to an agreement on the terms of your repayment and how this will affect your credit rating. Although this doesn’t often work, you should give this method a shot.
If you are polite, professional and eager to come to an agreement, this may work in your favor. If not, the charge off will remain on your credit report even if you pay it off. Once you pay off what you owe, the charge off remark will now note that it has been paid or settled. A settled charge off can still remain on your credit report for the seven years.
To get a charge off removed, this takes a bit of technique. When you contact your creditor, make sure that you ask for a high level employee that can actually assist you in this manner. Sometimes when you speak to the first person that answers the phone this can get you nowhere. This person may not have the authority to get this done for you. When you do manage to speak to someone that can help you, try to be as professional as possible.
Sometimes a creditor may not want to budge so you have to be direct and persistent. If you do come to a resolution with your creditor, make sure to ask for everything you agree upon in writing. A charge off doesn’t have to be as devastating if you can get it removed. But in the event that you do not, try to either bring the debt down gradually or pay it off completely.
