Disputing a Charge Off on Your Credit Report: The Basics

 Disputing a charge-off on your credit report involves the following steps:

1. Review the Information

• Obtain a free copy of your credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com.

• Review the charge-off details, such as the creditor’s name, account number, balance, and dates.

2. Verify the Accuracy

• Confirm whether the charge-off information is accurate. Dispute it if:

  • The debt isn't yours.

  • The balance is incorrect.

  • The dates (like the date of delinquency) are wrong.

  • The account is being reported more than once.

3. Dispute the Charge-Off

• Online Dispute: Most credit bureaus allow disputes through their websites.

  • Equifax

  • Experian

  • TransUnion

• By Mail: Write a dispute letter to the credit bureau reporting the error. Include:

  • Your name and contact information.

  • A description of the disputed item.

  • Supporting documents (e.g., proof of payment, correspondence with the creditor).

  • Copies of your ID and a recent utility bill for identification.

• Send the letter via certified mail with a return receipt.

4. Contact the Original Creditor

• Reach out to the creditor to verify the charge-off details. Request proof of the debt or negotiate a settlement if the charge-off is valid.

5. Wait for Investigation Results

• Credit bureaus have 30–45 days to investigate your dispute. They will notify you of the outcome and provide an updated credit report if changes are made.

6. Follow Up

• If the charge-off is not corrected and you believe the error persists, you can:

  • File a dispute directly with the creditor.

  • Add a consumer statement to your credit report explaining your perspective.

  • File a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

7. Consider Professional Help

• If the dispute process feels overwhelming, consult a credit repair specialist or attorney.

Here is a FREE Sample Charge Off Dispute Letter 

[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State, ZIP Code]
[Your Email Address]
[Your Phone Number]

Date: [Insert Date]

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
1700 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20552

Subject: Complaint Regarding Inaccurate Charge-Off on Credit Report

Dear Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,

I am writing to formally lodge a complaint regarding inaccurate and unfair reporting of a charge-off account on my credit reports. I have tried to resolve this issue with both the original creditor and the credit reporting agencies but have been unable to obtain a satisfactory resolution.

The details of the account in question are as follows:

• Creditor Name: [Creditor's Name]

• Account Number: [Last four digits of the account number, if available]

• Date Reported: [Date of charge-off reporting]

• Credit Reporting Agencies Involved: [Experian, TransUnion, Equifax]

Issue Summary

The information being reported about this account is inaccurate because [describe the specific issue, e.g., "the balance is incorrect," "this is not my account," or "the account was settled but is still listed as charged-off"]. Despite providing evidence and disputing this information through the proper channels, the errors persist.

Steps Taken

1. On [Date], I submitted a formal dispute to [credit reporting agency name(s)] about this charge-off.

2. [Credit reporting agency] responded on [date] with [describe response, e.g., "a refusal to remove the inaccurate information without adequate justification"].

3. I also contacted [creditor name] on [date] to request validation of the debt and have yet to receive a response or adequate documentation.

Impact on Me

This inaccurate charge-off is negatively affecting my credit score and financial well-being. It has resulted in [describe any specific consequences, e.g., "denial of credit," "higher interest rates," "stress," etc.].

Requested Resolution

I am seeking the CFPB’s assistance to:

1. Investigate this issue thoroughly.

2. Require the creditor and/or credit bureaus to provide proper validation of the debt or remove the inaccurate charge-off from my credit report.

3. Ensure compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and any other applicable laws.

Attached to this letter are copies of my correspondence with the credit bureaus, the creditor, and any supporting documentation, including my identification and credit report excerpts highlighting the issue.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please feel free to contact me at [your phone number] or [your email address] if additional information is required. I trust the CFPB will address this matter promptly and fairly.

Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]

---

Attachments (include as applicable):

1. Copies of dispute letters sent to credit bureaus.

2. Credit bureau responses.

3. Proof of identity (e.g., driver’s license, utility bill).

4. Credit report excerpts highlighting the error.

GOOD LUCK !!! And if you need help feel free to reach out!

9 Steps to Removing Credit Report Errors

Checking your credit reports on an annual basis is a must in this day and age of rampant credit fraud and identity theft, specially since there is a fairly good chance that your credit reports will have one or more mistakes more than once in your lifetime. Think about that!

• A study done by the Federal Trade Commission found that 25% of all consumers have an error on their credit report that negatively impacts their credit score. 

The study also showed that 80% of people who challenge items on their credit report are able to get at least some of the negative information altered or removed. That’s great news! 

Follow this process to get these errors corrected: 

1.    Get copies of your credit report from the three major bureaus. You can get a free copy of each report each year from AnnualCreditReport.com. If you’ve recently been rejected for credit, you’re also entitled to a free copy of the report containing the derogatory information from the creditor that denied you credit.

2.     Get your official credit scores. It would be a shame to do all this work and not know how much of an effect your efforts had on the metric that matters the most. I personally have a subscription to MyFico.com simply because the ability to access both my credit reports and FICO Score all in one place and have live credit monitoring is of great value to me.  

3.     Find and highlight all the errors that are harming your credit score. Some people challenge all the negative information, whether it’s accurate or not with great results but beware of doing so online. You give up a lot of right and protections under the FCRA when you don't dispute errors in writing via certified mail, return receipt requested to document your records but more on that later.

4.  Write a dispute. Your dispute can be very simple. Provide enough information that the credit bureau can identify you and the item you’re disputing. In general, it’s most effective to declare that you were never late or that the account isn’t yours. MyCreditSystem gives you access to all the dispute letter templates you need once you become a member. 

5.  Mail your disputes via Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested. The credit bureaus are on the clock from the time they receive your credit dispute in writing. 

• If they can’t complete their investigation within 30 days, they basically have to make the changes you requested. Include only one dispute per letter. 

• The credit bureaus would love for you to file your dispute online. It saves them time and  money because it automates the process. What's more it usually doesn't resolve your issue favorably. Receiving your letter is much more cumbersome for them. So send your complaints via the postal service.

6.   WATCH THE CALENDAR 

• Their response must be postmarked within 30 days of receiving your letters.

7.   Evaluate the responses you receive back. It’s very likely that some of your disputes will be resolved in your favor. It’s also likely that some will not. 

• One credit bureau has been known to simply give you what you want without investigating at all!

8.  Continue disputing all the negative items. At the end of the day, the credit bureaus exist to make money. They make money by selling credit reports, not by dealing with consumers. Your disputes cost them money. With a little diligence, you’re likely to get your way, so be persistent. 

• Consumers have historically done well when suing the credit bureaus. It’s difficult for them to truly verify the information in your credit reports. If you’re not satisfied with the results, consider filing a claim in small claims court. Credit bureaus get fined $1,000 per infraction. You’ll likely settle out of court and get your credit report cleaned up.

9.  Stay organized. Maintain records of all your correspondence. Make copies and keep those copies filed in an organized manner. Be sure to keep track of dates. 

Fixing the errors on your credit reports is simple, but it does take time. It’s important to check your reports every year and whenever possible subscribe to a credit monitoring program. 

The cost of credit reporting errors can be staggering, as they can dramatically increase your interest rates on any loans you receive, credit cards and insurance rates. 

A BAD CREDIT REPORT CAN PREVENT YOU FROM GETTING HIRED OR EVEN RENTING AN APARTMENT.

Request your credit reports today and spend the time to examine them carefully. Consider making it a part of your annual financial housekeeping and if you want to make sure your credit is repaired correctly become a MyCreditSystem member and doing it yourself. 

You can do it and it will change your life. 

The Easiest Way to Remove Bad Items from Your Credit Report

Did you know that it's possible to remove bad items from your credit report? Any inaccurate item showing up on your credit report that's damaging your credit can be removed, otherwise you have the right to sue the credit agency. 

Here's how to remove bad items from your credit report. 

1. Get a Report from All Three Agencies 

The first step is to get a credit report from all three credit reporting agencies. You can get your report once a year for free from annualcreditreport.com

Look through each and every one of your accounts carefully. Is there anything you don't recognize? Anything that's overstated or understated? 

Highlight any suspicious accounts. Note the account numbers and descriptions. 

Some bad items will appear on just one agency's report, while other errors will appear on all your credit reports. 

2, Beginning the Dispute Process 

Look for the dispute address of the credit agency you want to contact. It's usually on their website. Also look at their expected response times and policies for removing items. 

The FCRA states that they must respond within 30 days. If you don't get a response within 30 days, you may be eligible for a lawsuit and the item has to be removed from your credit file. 

Your dispute letter must illustrate exactly why you believe the account is erroneous and it also needs to list the exact account number(s) as it/they appear(s) on the credit report including the account description listed on the report.

MyCreditSystem gives you full access to a DYI Credit Repair / Credit Literacy Program including precise credit dispute letters and instructions for each case scenario to dispute credit report errors and/or remove collections, charge offs, medical collections, bankruptcy, repos, foreclosure, evictions and even student loans,

Be sure to be very clear about what you want them to do. For example, if the account exists but isn't actually delinquent, let them know that you want them to update the status to "Never Delinquent" rather than to remove the item because your credit history can be adversely affected by removing long standing accounts you have paid but have been late on.

3. The Next Steps  

One of three things will happen once you've sent in your dispute letter: 

• They respond and remove the item. In this case, no further action needs to be taken. 

• They respond and say that the item is not an error. They need to also provide documentation stating why this is the case, including the actual credit filing by the creditor.  

Look over the filing. Was this account opened by you? If not, you may have an identity theft and credit fraud issue on your hands. If it was, but is being incorrectly reported, you need to contact the creditor directly to work out the issue. 

• If they don't respond. In this case, you have certain rights, including at times the right to have the items removed or the right to a lawsuit. Consult a lawyer for specific rights in this case or use MyCreditSystem to save thousands of dollars and repair your own credit legally.

The whole process of disputing a report item should take no more than three hours each. Those three hours could result in your ability to open credit cards, your ability to buy a home or your ability to buy a car at much better rates. The choice is yours. Can you rely on someone else to do this for you immediately or are you going to take control of your credit repair timeline. 

Top 10 Ways to Get Your Student Loans Forgiven

With the climbing cost of education, student loan debt is becoming a bigger burden with each graduating class. Luckily, however, there are a few ways to reduce, or even eliminate, your student loan debt. 

Consider these career strategies to shrink your student loan debt: 

1.     Join the military. Serve Uncle Sam and you can eliminate up to 100% of your student loans. The amount of forgiveness depends on the type of student loan and where you’re stationed. If you’re considering joining the military, speak to a recruiter and ask for more information.

2.     Become a nurse. Due to the demand for more nurses, nurses are eligible to receive 100% forgiveness for Federal Perkins Loans. Nurses also enjoy high salaries, especially considering that it only requires two years to learn become a registered nurse.

3.     Work with the disabled. Many organizations offer this student loan forgiveness program. If you provide early intervention services to the disabled, you may qualify for up to 100% forgiveness of your Federal Perkins Loans. 

4.     Become a faculty member at a Tribal university. The government has labeled a few colleges and universities as tribal schools. These primarily serve Native Americans or Alaskan Natives. If you teach at one of these schools, you can have up to 100% of your Perkins Loan forgiven.

5.     Join the Peace Corp as a volunteer. You can have a great experience in a new country, help others, and reduce your student loan debt at the same time. You can earn up to 70% forgiveness of your Federal Perkins Loans.

6.     Join AmeriCorps VISTA. This is similar to the Peace Corp, but serves challenged areas of the U.S. Again, loan forgiveness can be up to 70%. Perhaps not exotic as the Peace Corp, but you can potentially stay close to home.

7.     Become a teacher. There are many places in the U.S. in desperate need of teachers. Most of these areas serve lower-income neighborhoods. Teach for five years and you can eliminate up to $17,500 worth of Federal Stafford loans. However, Plus Loans are not eligible.

8.     Become an educator. This program is much broader than the program aimed solely at teachers, and will forgive up to 100% of Federal Perkins Loans. You can be a speech pathologist, school librarian, staff member at a pre-kindergarten program, or even a teacher. Other professions can also qualify.  

·       Depending on the position, you may have to work for a certain number of years or have an advanced degree.

9.     Become a firefighter. If you’ve considered becoming a firefighter, there’s good news. You can receive up to 100% forgiveness of your Federal Perkins Loans after serving a few years.

10. Become a police officer or corrections officer. The firefighter plan also applies to police officers and corrections officers.

Many career options offer partial or complete student loan forgiveness. There’s a common theme to these programs: you must be providing an important service to those in need. You can gain valuable experience and enjoy the knowledge that you’re helping to improve the lives of others while you get rid of your student loans.

You can also use the DYI Credit Repair Program Template Letters in MyCreditSystem to have most if not all your student loan debt wiped out. 

What to Look for in a Contract with a Credit Repair Agency

Your most important tool against bad credit repair deals is your credit repair contract. Before you sign any kind of contract with a credit repair agency, you need to make sure you're protected.  

Most contracts are written by the credit repair agency and are naturally written more for their benefit than yours. That said, if you know what to look for, you can make sure that everything you need is covered in the contract. 

Here are the most important clauses to look for in any credit repair contract. 

What They're Agreeing to Do 

• The contract should explicitly state exactly what the credit repair agency will do for you. 

For example, they might commit to sending X letters to X agencies to help you remove items from your report. They might agree to follow up with those companies, as well as to advise you on lawsuit opportunities. 

• If you're having them also take on a debt consolidation role, make sure you also cover all your bases there. The agreement should spell out explicitly how the consolidation process is handled and what kind of support you'll have during the process. 

The Cost Structure 

• The contract should contain details on how the program is priced. Any implied verbal guarantees should be written into the paperwork. There should be no additional costs that you don't understand, no fine print with extra fees. 

• Different credit repair agencies charge differently. Some require an upfront fee, others don't. Some charge a percentage of debt and some charge a flat fee. 

• If you're just having the repair agency remove items from your credit report for you, usually the payment will be made in the form of a "per item" fee. For example, an agency might charge $250 for each item they can remove from a credit report. 

Make sure you understand the cost structure and any additional costs before signing the paperwork. 

How Long before You Can Expect Results 

• The contract should have a set duration. Six months to one year is a good period of time for an extensive credit repair project. 

• If a contract doesn't have a set duration, make sure you have a crystal clear cancellation period. After all, if you've seen no results for six months, you want to make sure you can back out and find someone else to help you. 

These are some of the most important things you should look for in a credit repair contract. Before you sign anything, make sure you read over every line and fully comprehend everything you're signing. If the contract accurately represents everything that you talked about verbally and you believe it's a good deal for you, then sign the paperwork.

Understanding Your Credit Report and Score

Your credit score is based on a formulation used by the credit reporting agencies that creates a general average of your credit history and assigns a number to show whether you have excellent, good, fair or poor credit. While, your credit score is an average of your credit history, it is often the first thing creditors look at when deciding whether or not to give you a loan or credit account. While, you are unable to change the credit score directly, you can change and better your overall credit and credit report which will directly reflect on your credit score.

When looking for a way to improve your credit score there are many steps in the process and it will take a little bit of time for the improvements you make to reflect on your credit score. You can go through the process alone, or you can enlist the help of a credit counselor which can help with the process, paperwork and the law on what you are allowed to change and dispute and what you are not.

1-    Request all of your current credit reports 

Your credit report is available from each of the three major credit reporting agencies, including Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. All of these agencies have a web site where you are able to order your credit report that can be delivered in paper form or instantly electronically. Once you have your credit reports, print them out. This will take lots of paper, but it worth it to have them spread out in front of you for the best results when looking over them. 

2-    Know your credit

You may not know your current credit or have kept up with what is on your credit report until now. This is a big mistake. You should purchase, or get a free credit report, once a year to check for mistakes or fraud. If you never have, you will need to pay extra close attention to the items on your credit report.

3-    Go through your credit report with a highlighter

Go through every part of your credit reports including the personal information, highlight anything that is incorrect. This should include wrong addresses, misspelled name(s), any accounts and other items you don’t recognize. Also, mark items that are yours but that you may want to dispute the balance, interest rate or other parts of the account.

4-    Follow the directions for disputing inaccurate information

At the end of the printed and electronic credit reports are the instructions on how to dispute items on your credit report that you feel are inaccurate. You can complete this process in writing or online. When doing so you will need to provide ample proof of the item you are disputing, whether that’s receipts for an item you paid or proof of your identity to dispute an identity or past address problem. You should also always make copies of everything you send to the credit reporting agency.

Regardless, of the information you find on your credit report, it’s important to understand how credit works and how you can improve and dispute the information on your credit report. The most important thing to take away from this is the need to get all three of your credit reports every single year to check for inaccurate information. This is not only smart financial practice, but one of the best ways to protect yourself from identity fraud.

What Debt Collectors Can and Can't Do

Debt collectors are like mosquitos. They can be annoying and they’re hard to dissuade. Fortunately, there isn’t a whole lot a debt collector can do besides call you and send you mail. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) spells out the actions that a debt collector may and may not undertake in the process of collecting a debt. 

Your state has additional laws that may limit debt collectors even further. It’s worth investigating these laws, so you understand the rules and can play the game accordingly. 

What Debt Collectors can do: 

1.  Call you directly between the hours of 8 am and 9 pm. However, you have the right to request not to be contacted by phone again in the future. This request must be done in writing. You can also insist that the debt collector only contact your attorney instead. 

2.   Contact you via mail. However, it can’t be obvious to someone looking at your mail that the correspondence is from a debt collector. Postcards aren’t permitted, since the nature of the correspondence would be obvious. 

3.  Take you to court. The details are very state specific, but your creditors can certainly take you to court. For smaller debts, this rarely happens. If you had the money, you’d have already paid it. If it you don’t have it, an expensive legal proceeding isn’t worth the effort. 

4.   Request postdated checks. This is allowed under the FDCPA but may not be permitted under your state’s debt collection laws.

5.  Report your payment delinquency to the credit bureaus. Paying your bills on time is an important part of your credit score.

6.  Accept less than the full amount as payment in-full. This can be a great option to get the collection agency off your back. The debt may appear as “settled” on the credit report, which harms your score. You may also have to pay taxes on the amount of the debt that was forgiven. 

Debt collectors must follow the laws provided by the FDCPA and your state of residence. If you owe money, it’s reasonable to expect that your creditor will try to collect that debt. However, there are limitations. Many collection practices are illegal. 

What Debt Collectors Can’t Do: 

1.  Call you on a Sunday. Monday through Saturday is fair game, but even debt collectors have to take a break on Sundays.

2.  Call you after 9 pm or before 8 am. They only way debt collectors can call you outside these hours is with your permission.

3.  Contact your employer. Unless the debt is related to non-payment of child support, your employer is off limits. They also can’t contact you at work if they know you don’t want to be bothered there.

4.  Contact your friends, family, or neighbors regarding your debt. They can, however, contact these people to determine your address or phone number. It cannot be revealed that you owe money.

5.   Use threatening language over the phone. Vulgar language or the threat of prison or loss of reputation isn’t permitted.

6.  Call you repeatedly in a short period of time. This is open to interpretation. But if you’re constantly receiving calls, it can be considered harassment under the FDCPA. You can sue the debt collector in this case.

This is the short list of items that many debt collectors have been known to violate. Familiarize yourself with the FDCPA for additional restrictions. Remember that these rules only apply to debt collectors and not the in-house collection employees of your creditor. See your state laws for additional guidance. 

Debt collectors may be annoying, but they are required to follow the law just like everyone else. Each violation of any of the rules can carry a $1,000 fine and debtors have been very successful collecting these fines in court.