What Is A Charge Off?

If you consider yourself as someone with bad credit, chances are that you have at least one or more “charge offs” on your credit reports. A “charge off” is a fairly generic term used in the debt and credit industry. A charge off is a term that simply means that the original creditor has given up collecting a delinquent debt. Once the creditor exhausts all collection efforts, it will typically charge the debt off and sell the debt to a third party.

For example, in the case of a delinquent credit card bill, the creditor usually attempts to collect the debt for approximately six months before determining that the debt should be written off or charged off. The creditor suffers because it has lost money on the loan, but experiences a tax benefit by writing the debt off. The creditor is allowed to deduct any charged off debts from its profits which mean it pays less income tax because of the lost profit directly related to those debts.

For consumers, a charge off can be devastating from a credit history perspective.

Next to repossession or foreclosure, a charge off is about the worst mark a person can have on his credit. It can prevent you from getting approved for a mortgage, car loan, credit card, or nearly any other type of new credit. Further, a single charged off debt could create multiple separate negative marks on a person’s credit history. This is due to the fact that a debt could be bought and sold multiple times as each party tries to recover lost profits.

Using the credit card example above, let’s assume that a credit card account is charged off. It may be sold to the highest bidding collection agency for thirty cents on the dollar. If that collection agency is unsuccessful in collecting the debt, they will likely cut their losses and try to sell that same debt to another agency for ten cents on the dollar.

As debts become older they are typically more difficult to collect. Debtors are less likely to pay old debts. Plus, the debt gets closer to the statute of limitations which is a point when reached, gives the debtor a “get out of jail free card.” A debtor has no legal obligation to pay once the statute of limitations runs on a debt.

In any event, as the debt is bought and sold over and over again, it is likely that each collection agency will place a negative mark on the person’s credit report. Some consumers report a long trail of charge offs on their credit report for a single debt!

This may sound egregious to some people. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act police credit bureaus and collection agencies and prohibit them from providing misleading, inaccurate, or unverifiable information. It does not specifically prohibit a string of collection agencies from this practice. Although it is implicit that a collection agency should remove a credit report charge off mark once they sell a debt, it does not mean it is always diligent in doing so.

Therefore, the burden often falls upon the individual consumer to remove the inaccurate items by way of dispute letters, investigation requests, etc. Thus, a person dealing with even a single charged off debt may have a lot of work to do if they want to clear their credit history of charge offs.

In sum, a charge off is something that consumers should try to avoid if possible. If you are delinquent on an account, try negotiating directly with the creditor. It is both in the best interest of both parties to avoid a charged off debt.