You must dispute a charge off with each credit bureau to remove it from your credit history.

You do this by sending in a dispute letter. You must send in a dispute letter to each credit bureau that reflects the charge off in your credit report.

Sending a dispute letter is your method of challenging that a listing is accurate or valid. There are many reasons to dispute a listing including; I have never paid late, not my account and reporting the wrong account balance.

You need to realize that credit bureaus rarely conduct an investigation because of one dispute letter. Frequently they will respond requesting more information about the listing.

This is a result of it only costing credit bureaus money that would otherwise be profit when they conduct an investigation. This is why they are very resistant to the dispute process.

As a result it is common for people to hire a credit repair company. This is because these companies can often get the credit bureaus to follow through on the dispute process.

People have said that credit bureaus are more responsive to companies because they are scared that a company will file a complaint with the FTC regarding the bureaus violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This be true or not I suggest a company if you have many negative marks on your report.

What a Charge Off Is & What It Means

Charge offs happen when an account becomes delinquent and six months pass with out payment. This will allow a creditor to charge off the debt from their books.

It becomes a tax break for a creditor. The creditor then can turn around and sell off the delinquent debt to a collection agency and make a notation on your credit report that your account was charged off.

Then calls from the debt collectors will start. If the debt collector can not recover payment they will sell your account to another debt collector. How many hands this debt will travel through depends on the size of the debt.

Every bill collector that makes collection efforts will be able to report a negative listing on your credit. It is common for one charged off account to become multiple marks on your credit.

If your charged off account has traveled through a few different collection agencies then you should consider a credit repair firm. If you only have one charge off account then you can do it yourself, just be patient.