I had a credit card when I was 18 that I ended up settling on because I couldn't pay it (of course!) on my credit report, two of the agencies have it as paid in full but one has it at a charge off, which hurts my score by almost 100 points with that credit bureau. Can I dispute the "charge off" with them since I did pay, although it was a settlement of half of hat i owed. We are trying to buy a home and will most likely go off my husbands credit only, but if I could improve my score it would obviously help a lot if we decided to use my credit also. It's hurting me as far as getting approved for legitimate credit cards as well... Since I've gotten married I've been able to get approved for store cards only.
The settled card is with capital one, I have been a secondary user on my husbands capital one card for about a year now and it is reporting to my credit that we are in good standing... However, is having my name on his card prolonging the time the settlement card will be on my report? I know if I have a debt on your credit it falls off after 7 years, but if u pay anything on it within that 7 years, it restarts that 7 year cycle. Could that happen as a secondary user? I don't see why it would but I just want to be sure
Re: Can I dispute this?
I don't have an issue with it not saying paid in full, the issue is that expierian has it listed a a charge off and it's not a charge off.
I spoke with capital One and they are going to contact the credit agency to correct it.
I thought that what you are describing was a charge off that had been settled. It couldn't be paid off, it was settled for less than the original amount. I thought that was the definition of a charge off ~ Because it was charged off doesn't mean that it couldn't also be settled.
I'm glad CO is going to do something about it, but keep an eye on it. I haven't had good experiences with CO in the past, and eventually closed any accounts with them.
ETA: This is from Experian's website:
Dear Experian,
If you have a charged off account, is it better for it to show ?paid in full? or ?settled for less??
- JMN
Dear JMN,
It is always better for an account to show it was paid in full than to show it was settled for less than the full balance.
A status of ?settled for less than full balance? means that you negotiated repayment of the loan for less than was actually owed. Any time you fail to repay the full amount you owe it will be considered negative.
When a charged off account is paid, the balance will be updated to show that it is no longer past due. However, the account entry will still show the amount that was initially charged off as a loss and the payment history of the account, including previous late payments.
Thanks for asking.
http://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/tag/charge-off/
I mean I get that it'll still say account not paid in full, that's fine. But my expierian score is 100 points less than the other two because of that "charge off" so that why I want to get it corrected so its "less bad"
heres another question, I have a charge off on there for a Alltel bill for $35 for a phone I had for literally a day. If I pay that will it make a difference? I've heard that if there's something on your report for less than $100 it doesn't make a difference. I'll pay it if it'll improve the score or help the credit but if not ill just wait for it to fall off
If you owe money to a company and you don't pay them, regardless of the amount, it shows as negative.
Lenders will view it like this, "She has a charge off for $35...what's the deal there? Why couldn't she pay that? Did she lose track? If she lost track, how responsible is she with her bill paying? Maybe we don't want to give her a loan for $100k if she can't even pay $35."
Don't think small amounts on your credit report don't matter. I had an unpaid "collection" on my credit report for $100. I won't go into the long story, but the collections agency wouldn't give me any info on what it was for either over the phone or after I wrote them multiple letters, so I finally gave up on them and said screw it. It's already on my report anyway, I'm sure it's not my debt, so I'm not going to pay it.
But then I was in the process of buying a house 5 years later and that stupid collection came back to rear its ugly head. I basically had to pay it and show proof to the bank I had paid it, before they would approve my loan.
And almost the craziest part? I called that collection agency SO many times and left message after message begging them to call me back so I could PAY them. How is that for a turnaround, lol. Never called me to collect their money so I finally sent them a check in the mail with a letter to deposit it quickly since no one could bother calling me.