What does ">Charged Off as Bad Debt< " mean on your credit report?

Question

I am cleaning up my credit report. Should I start with these they are prettyold. Did the company just write thm off?

Answer 1

It means they gave up on collecting the money. Businesses have &quot;allowance for bad debts&quot;, a certain amount they put aside because they know not everyone will pay.

It&#039;s not a good thing.

Answer 2

The company wrote them off because they can claim these &quot;bad debts&quot; as losses on their taxes. If I were you I would work on the debts that are still open and pay those. By doing this you will raise you credit score and anyway even if you pay the &quot;bad debt&quot; they will still show up on your reports so I would pay the others and call it a day.

Answer 3

Yes the credit card company has written this bad debt off or charged it off, but it can still be collected and reported by a collection agency.  So, you need to check on that.  It would be a good idea to check your credit report first, make a copy  go through the whole report with a fine tooth comb.  If you can pay off bad debt that is pretty recent, then by all means do so.  You can also ask them if you pay the debt, if they would report it as paid as agreed.  They may not do it, but it doesn&#039;t hurt to ask.  Next, start working on the other negative items that are older, you can send dispute letters to the credit bureau for various reason, whichever might work in your situation, to see if they will delete this information from your credit bureau report.  Lastly, negative information can legally be removed from your credit bureau report, after 7 years from the date of last activity (meaning the date that you last made a payment on this account).  Lastly if you don&#039;t have a good credit card, you will have get a positive credit on your credit history, so I suggest you open a secured credit card, to build credit.

Answer 4

It means uncollectible at the store or bank level.  If you own any property, the may take you to court and if they win the judgment, they can go after anything you own. Or they may turn it over to a collection agency that will call you every day. Oh, it also is reported to the credit bureaus and will stay on file for 7 years.

Answer 5

Charge-off is an accounting term -that&#039;s all. They move the debt from the performing (paying and current) ledger to the non-performing side (uncollectable) and they get a tax break for wrting off the bad debt. That does NOT mean they can&#039;t keep trying to collect on it. Typically they&#039;ll sell if off to a collection agency.

Derogatory marks stay on your credit report for 7 years +180 days from the date of delinquency that preceeds the charge-off.

Answer 6

Another answer correctly explained about the credit company moving your debt to charged off status for their records purposes.

It DOES NOT mean they sold it to someone else, but it is very likely that they will and you&#039;ll have even more problems.

The statute of limitations for your state is the amount of time available for a collection agency to move on it. How long it takes to  disappear from your credit report is usually about 7-10 years, but don&#039;t quote me on that.

So basically it depends on how old the debt is and how much it was for.

Best thing to do if you want to fix your credit is to contact the original company that lists you as charged off and cut a deal with them to get it &quot;legally paid in full for less than balance.&quot; Then make sure it gets corrected on your credit report.

Don&#039;t wait until a junk debt collector buys the debt and comes after you. They are often run by attorneys and will cause you untold grief and may actually get the whole debt you owed.

Try to find your individual state laws on credit and do some research. There&#039;s lots of good websites out there that offer information on credit restoration, like this one:

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php...

Good luck. Hope you don&#039;t have to learn the hard way like I did, lol!

Answer 7

Hi,

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http://redirx.com/?0g4c

Answer 8

If you have to ask if they&#039;ve charged off the account, then you really have some fences to mend with your creditors.

Answer 9

This is a signal to other companies that you do not pay your debts. BAD news for you. Now you will have to pay higher interest rates - how about you buying a car &amp; paying 25% interest?

Answer 10

It means you never repaid the debt, and the bank/store/finance company finally wrote the debt off because it was uncollectable.  Some financing companies have to write off debt after 90-120 depending on their policy but credit cards usually hound you forever until they write off the debt.

Answer 11

After 7 years, the old ones will drop off, so start with the most current stuff.  Charged off basically means the credit company gave up on you and wrote your debt off.  Legal action will not be taken to collect it, but it will remain on your credit report for 7-10 years.

Answer 12

it means your original creditor sold your account to an attorney or another debt collector.