CO pain.

[Dbremer]

I know that a CO is painful for 7 years but is there a point during those years that it hurts less? I have a few from 2009 and 2010... I wonder if they are worth GWing since they are fairly old. Appreciate any advice or experiences!

[IncrsCredScore]

Personally, I recommend the goodwill and pay off.  It is personally satisfying to do that for yourself.  Also, the way I understand it from these boards, is that COs stay on the credit bureau reports for 7 1/2 years - that's a long time to continue to hurt.

[Dbremer]

They are all paid showing a zero balance. Just curious if after not reporting for a few years if it affects the score less.

[Dbremer]

Sorry ...not updating for a few years

[lmfields]

I would definitely try a GW.  I have removed 2 old 2008/2009 charge off's successfully just last week by writing letters to executives of the company.  It certainly never hurts to try.... I am not sure how this will affect my score with them being deleted being that they are so old, but I will take any deletion I can get!

[gdale6]

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@Dbremer wrote:
I know that a CO is painful for 7 years but is there a point during those years that it hurts less? I have a few from 2009 and 2010... I wonder if they are worth GWing since they are fairly old. Appreciate any advice or experiences!

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Yes the impact of the CO(s) lessens with time. Since you have paid them off I would GW them.

[RobertEG]

Reporting of a charge-off to your credit report is basically placing a statment of record in your file that you let a debt with them go to the point of delinquency that they no longer expected you were going to pay.  Thus, an expected total loss.  Yes, they recover a bit by then obtaining a tax writeoff with IRS, but a statement in your file that you are one who stiffs a debt is very serious.  A majr derog.

If you later pay the debt, that is a huge mitigating factor in any manual review of your credit report, apart from scoring.

It shows that you are not a consumer who stiffs a debt, but rather were going through some temporary hard times, and met your debt when able.

That same mitigation by paying the debt could also be a basis for a GW request to them, with the argument being that payment of the debt shows you do, regardless of their earlier stated perception,  meet your debt obligations, and thus deletion of the reported CO would more accurately reflect upon you as a consumer who pays their debt, not one who stiffs their debt.