Is there such a thing as paying off a charged off debt and it disappearing from your credit report?

Question

I have many charged off debts from my early college years. I am now 22 and would like to have these things taken care of. I never knew then what I know now, I guess you could say. My main reasons for doing this is that it has affected my chances of obtaining: employment, credit cards, car loans... and in the future it will affect by chances of buying a home.

Answer 1

If it is over 10 years old you can ask the credit bureau to take it off. I have not tried that, but I understand that it is possible.

Don't do what the guy above me said. The more companies that check your credit the lower your score. It looks like you are shopping for credit. And people who are shopping for credit are usually in some financial problem. There are 3 credit reporting bureaus in the U.S. You are entitled to a free report once a year from each. Get them. Look at them and then write to each bureau and ask that the old debts that are paid be taken off. You don't have to pay anyone else to do this for you. Also I would not sign up for anything that you see on the Internet. Anyone can collect your information on the Internet, don't give it.

Also if the debts are not paid, I think that they can still be taken off. I would not pay them if they already wrote you off. You can have a bankruptcy and after 10 years take that off, so I would think that you can erase the rest of them.

As for a mortage. The main thing they look at is your payment for rent, utilities, cars and credit cards in the past 2 years. And you debt to income ratio. If your bad debits are a long time ago and you have re-established your credit you will be OK. The problem comes when you don't have any current credit history, such as credit cards, or a car. If you don't have any credit history now, take out a credit card that is for high risk people and pay it every month. Pay it OFF each month, so you don't pay interest. Don't use it for fun, just to re-build your credit.

Answer 2

Yes you can pay off your debts. First get a copy of all your credit reports from the three companys by either paying for them or getting them free which you can do every year. Then get a hold of the companies you owe on your credit reports most will work with you on paying it all off or settle for half of the amount. Second is to remove any inaccurate info on your credit reports. once you have taken care of them most will dissapear with 7 to 10 years unfortunately. Most place for loans will then see your taken care of them which would increase your chance of taken out loans. Either way you do things to fix your debts will take time.

Answer 3

Contact the companies and ask to speak with the accounts manager. They may be willing to work out a deal to take them off your report. If not, try filing a dispute with the credit bureaus (you may just want to do this first). It is pretty simple and you don't need a credit repair company to dispute for you. The company will then have a limited amount of time to respond (I think it is between 10-30 days). Most companies don't bother to respond when it regards charge offs. If they don't respond it will be automatically removed from your credit report.