How to Negotiate a Repossession or a Charge Off Off a Credit Report

Options are extremely limited for removing repossessions or charge offs from credit reports. The Fair Credit Reporting Act maintains that the information must remain on credit reports until it expires in seven years. However, one legal loophole exists that allows early removal. Many people try removing repossessions and charge offs from their credit reports because they are very damaging to credit. A vehicle repossession can make it impossible to finance another car without a large down payment and sky-high interest rate. Charge offs make it hard to gain any credit at competitive rates. A charge off is a credit account that a person stopping paying, causing a default.

Instructions

1

Contact the creditor or debt collector that placed the repossession on your credit report. Offer to pay a lump sum payment for any balance remaining after the repossession -- in exchange for the debt collector deleting the information from your credit report -- a process called "pay for delete."

2

Contact the debt collector again the following month if he turns down your proposal. A debt collector or creditor does have the right to delete certain information from your credit report, but some will not participate in pay-for-delete arrangements because of ethical reasons. However, continuing to ask won't hurt anything.

3

Contact credit card companies with the same strategy for removing charge offs. Offer to pay the full amount remaining on a charge off in exchange for removal of the information from your credit report. Keep trying each month until you have a deal.