What type of account was it? Installment? CC?
Paying off a CO wouldn't affect your socre - its already been charged off - and thus should have a $0 balance and will not be calcuated into utilization.
however - not paying a CO means that its been sold or given to collections and thus they can pop up as well as lawsuits which then can affect your ability to get credit down the line if they are unpaid (mortgage companies do not like seeing open collections or unpaid CO on your reports and will not grant you a mortage with one usually).
scarrollprint,
I disagree with balance not factoring into utilization. Based on my own personal experiences, my 2 CO's were causing my utilization to appear to be 106%.
Just my .02.
CO not showing a balance are not supposed to be calcuated into the UTIL.
If it showed a balance then it would.
@Anonymous wrote:Overdraft bank account. I can pay if off but can I ask them to remove the account from my report?
Yes, you can do what is called a Pay For Delete (PFD).
How old is this debt, when did you stop paying it (or probobably more likely when did you overdraft and never bring your account positive)?
IF this is an old debt - beyond 7 years then it will come off your reports after 7years +180 days after the first delinquency that caused default (charge off in your case). So if its 7 years and 5 months, you may just want to consider paying it and asking for them to remove, but if they don't, I wouldn's sweat it.
Also find out with the Statue of Limitations is for your state. Some is 7 years, some are less, some are more. This is helpful because even if its still on your report, but beyond SOL, you have the leverage not them because they can't sue you anymore. But also the flip side if you live in a state where its 10 years, then even though its off your reports, they can still sue thus you have minimal leverage in asking to settle for a lesser amount.
If its almost 7 years old and beyond SOL you could offer to pay 25% in return that they consider the matter closed and remove all info from your reports.
You could also do that if its recent and/or within SOL however some CA have been known to have a twitchy gun finger and pull the lawsuit trigger when you offer anything less than 100% so I would make sure you have 100% saved up before contacting them if you know your still within the SOL of this debt.
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/What-Steps-Do-I-Take-Do-I-DV-PFD/td-p/337142
Above you will find some information on the PFD process which is being discussed here. Basically you make an agreement with them that if you you pay $XX they will delete the TL from your CR and it would be as it never happened.
Now some creditors will say they can't post false information and this is absolutely true, but there is nothing that says they have to post any information at all and that is what you are going for.
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