“Dear Steve,
Four years ago, I had four charged off accounts which I later paid in full. They remain on my credit report, but now show as “charged off/paid”. I made agreements with the credit card companies and/or collection agencies before paying them off, not knowing I could request a pay for delete.
Can I contact the original creditor or the collections agency reporting the items and request that the items be removed or is it too late?
Do You Have a Question You'd Like Help With? Contact Debt Coach Damon Day. Click here to reach Damon.
Keisha”
Dear Keisha,
The problem here is that removing negative but factual information from a credit report violates the agreement between the creditor and the credit bureau. I doubt they would have ever done it.
A credit report is like a school report card. It is supposed to list the actual account history. Let’s say you got a D in a class at school, Graduating does not remove the D from your report card. Same thing is true here. Finally paying the debt does not change the history that at one time you were late and it charged off.
You can contact them and make your request, but don’t hold your breath it will actually happen.
The charge off will fall off your consumer credit report seven years after it was first reported. Current new and good credit will be the best way to bring your score up.
