When you get a charge off on your credit report it will negatively impact your credit score. This comes about when an account becomes delinquent and no payment is made for 6 months.

To delete charge offs from your credit history you have to dispute the charge off. You can do this by sending a credit repair letter to the credit bureaus.

In your credit repair letter tell them why the listing should be removed from your credit report. Common reasons are the: the account has been paid, information is wrong, or it’s not your account.

Unfortunately when it comes to reporting on your credit report you are guilty until proven innocent. Meaning it is common for incorrect information to be on your credit report.

Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act in response to complaints of inaccurate information being reported by the credit bureaus. This legislation simply says that if a listing can not be verified then the credit bureau must remove it from your credit report.

It is not un-common for one charged off account to result in many negative listings and a ruined credit report. Let me show you the process of what happens to a charged off account.

The charged off debt will be sold to a collection agency by the lender. That collection agency will make efforts to recover payment. If they are unable to then the collection agency makes a new negative listing on your credit report.

The collection agency will then sell your account to another collection agency. The new agency will also try and collect and if unable they will report yet another new negative listing.

This process will continue dependent upon the size of the account. So one account can become many negative listings and ruin your credit score.

If you get multiple negative listings your credit will be in bad shape. It will become extremely difficult to get approval for any new lines of credit.

This is good to know before you pay an outstanding bill because payment does not mean that the listings will be removed. Instead I would recommend disputing the charge off before you take any step to repay the debt.