Charge off with balance removed by Lexington Law...how is that possible?

[nycfico]

I hired Lexington Law about six months ago to go through all my bad accounts and do what they do.  I've had reasonable enough success as 14 'baddies' have been removed and combined with my on time payments for a year now, my scores have risen from the 550-ish range to the 610 range in six months.

One of the removals on Transunion, however, is a charged off account on which I was an authorized user at Bank of America.  It charged off about three years ago and still had n $11,000 balance.  Frankly, I wouldn't have even asked them to hit that one as I assumed that if it has a balance, they are going to keep reporting it (versus an old satisfied debt that they may not care much more about).

So, the charge is off my Transunion report (still being challenge on Equifax and they don't report to Experian), but it seems too good to be true.  I assume I still owe that $11,000 debt, but it's not showing any longer on Transunion.  It was removed about a month ago.  Is this one that I should expect to pop back up?

I spoke with the paralegal at Lexington Law and he said that the debt is gone, but the kid seemed borderline clueless about basic questions, so I asked for a call back from an attorney for this an other questions...

[Shogun]

Lexington Law is a Credit Repair company, they are not allowed to contact the creditors according to the CROA.

It's an AU account, then you would not be responsible for it any way.  It should be an easy removal.  Do a direct dispute with BoA and indicate that you wish to be removed as AU from the account.

[nycfico]

Wow...I didn't realize that was possible?!  So if it's my wife's account and I was an AU, I can simply get removed and it's off my credit report for good?

[Shogun]

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@nycfico wrote:

Wow...I didn't realize that was possible?!  So if it's my wife's account and I was an AU, I can simply get removed and it's off my credit report for good?

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Simple answer?  Yes.

[nycfico]

When I'm finally out of this hole I am going to come on here and help people the way you are.  THANK YOU.

[nycfico]

One more question....can I simply call the creditor and tell them to remove me as an AU or do I need to send them something in writing?  If so, is there a sample letter somehwere?  I'm searching the site but can't find one.

[TRC_WA]

How much did you pay Lexington Law?

I'm asking because they don't do anything you can't do yourself... so hopefully it wasn't more than $5 or so.

[IamB2]

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@nycfico wrote:

One more question....can I simply call the creditor and tell them to remove me as an AU or do I need to send them something in writing?  If so, is there a sample letter somehwere?  I'm searching the site but can't find one.

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The best way is to send a letter to the address stated in your credit report. In fact, I'd copy that page where it shows that account and send it in with the letter.

There is nothing specific you need to put on that letter. Simply stating that you were an authorized user on this account, but not primary responsible for the balance. And ask them to kindly remove your name from the account and as a result have them remove the entire tradeline from your credit report. This is not a temporary fix, it is a permanent one.

Best of luck, and welcome to the forum.

[Shogun]

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@nycfico wrote:

One more question....can I simply call the creditor and tell them to remove me as an AU or do I need to send them something in writing?  If so, is there a sample letter somehwere?  I'm searching the site but can't find one.

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Yes, you can do that.  I called Chase and had them remove me from the DW's account.  It was quick and painless.

[nycfico]

Thanks, all.   There were two creditors, each with two accounts BOA (Amex) and Discover.  I called them both this afternoon.  Discover took me right off and confimed that the next time they report to the CA's, I will be off the accounts.  BOA-Amex was a little trickier.  They said I'd be listed as 'terminated', but the history will still be on the report.  I'm not quite sure what that means, although it sounds as if going forward the balance due will no longer show up and the account will no longer appear.  Not sure what impact all of that will have on the FICO score.

I'm assuming I did the right thing by eliminating myself from Discover.  The thing is, we've been making regular on time payments now for about three years, so I would think that that positive tradeline (even though it's a closed account) was helping me.  BUT we had quite a few 30 and 60 day lates going back to the 2009-2011 time frames that now will be off my report.  I might actually get dinged, I guess, on losing an account with a long history and a consistent 36 month tradeline, but I'm trusting my gut that getting rid of all those late payments, even though their aging, will help me (not to mention getting rid of the balance due.

Of course, this is still all on my wife and she's a stay at home mom so I'm effectively still paying for this stuff anyway, but at least an increase in my FICO score will be helpful as I try to expand my credit lines and keep my util low.