I'm  trying to raise my credit score but have charge offs that have have gone to collections. What should I do
350127
The seven years doesn't start all over again.  It's seven years from when it's first reported.
317036
Here is a method I used once to get rid of a legitimate debt that I owed. You may be ablet to adapt this and use it for yourself. \n\nI owed a $485 bill to AT&T that I refused to pay until they took down a cell phone tower that had been illegally erected right next to someone's back yard. Of course they ignored me, so I ignored them right back and things went round and round for a few years like that. finally the debt was sold to a collection agency and then to another one and finally to one in Florida. Up to this point none of them had reported it to any of the credit bureaus. Suddenly one day, there it was! A festering puss-filled sore right in the middle of my credit report! I immediately wrote a letter to the collection agency saying that the debt was not mine, that this was an old debt (by now it was over five years) that was being shopped around until they could stick it on somebody. I told them this was very damaging to my credit, that I had no other late payments, and I demanded they remove it immediately. Also, I said, at the time this debt was incurred there had been two other people living in the same county as me with exactly the same name as me, and it must have belonged to one of them. Again I demanded that they remove this thing from my credit report. About two weeks later I got a very apologetic letter from them saying how sorry they were for the mistake and yes it would be removed from my credit report immediately. It was and I never heard from anyone about this again.\n\n"Hell no," said Tom. "I'm not paying this. You can take this bill and shove it!"
277045
You will not be arrested or go to prison unless it can be proven that you ran up your card with the intent to fraud.  \n\nDon't let the collection people scary you, they like to imply you will be arrested.\n\nCan you afford to pay a little bit each month?  Do you have any other debts?  You can work out some sort of agreement with the credit card folks.  Ask them to lower your interest rates.  \n\nBe sure to work out an agreement IN WRITING that if you continue to try and pay off the debt, they must agree not to place anything on your credit history.  Why pay off the debt and still have a ruined credit report?  \n\nUse the sample letter below as a template.\n\nGood luck
629166
When your credit has reached this point, it is really too late to do anything about it in the immediate term. Typically when a collection agency has to come calling, you credit is totally bad. The only way to improve is to work with the collection agency and find some way to pay down your debt. Over time, your credit rating should improve if you keep up the payments. Good Luck!
42941
you could try closing all your credit cards now (unless youre getting good rates and deals) and opening 1 single new credit card, and buying stuf on it and paying it all off COMPLETELY. and it will raise your credit rating. pretty risky though.
190511
Yes, just becauseit's charged off does not relieve you of the debt.  It just means they have quit trying to collect (for now).\n\nThey can either sell the debt to a collection agency or use their own in-house agency.  \n\nEither way, the debt will be reported to the credit agencies and it will be on your reports for several years.\n\nIf you wish to repay it....VERY IMPORTANT!\n\nSend them a letter telling them that in exchange for paying the debt, they must remove all negative reports from your credit history.  Otherwise, you will still have bad credit, even after it's paid.\n\nUse the sample letter below as a guide.
1168835
Depends on how bad your credit is.  Generally speaking it takes a long time.  You need to remember that it probably took a long time to ruin or seriously hurt you credit in the first place.  So to companies it looks as though you are not good with money.  So like trust you need to earn back the preception that you are good with money.   I've seen credit scores go up as much as 60 points in a 6 month period.  I'd suggest that you get a credit report(you should get 1 free every year).  Then take a look at it and find anything that is no longer active and over seven years old that has a lot of negative marks and write to the credit agencies and have it removed.  If it's good, then you want to keep it.  Another thing you will want to do is make sure that you pay your bills on time.  When you do that you increase your credit score.  If you can you should pay off as much as possible.  There are other things that you can do as well, but sometimes it's a little drastic such as cutting up all credit cards and cancelling all of those accounts.  Sometimes, if you have a large influx of cash you can get a credit card company to make a deal (ie 70% of the  money to pay off the credit) if the account is closed and in collections.  Just depends on the situation.
45327
They could eventually.  What could happen is they can sell your overdue account to a collections agency and the collections agency could sue you and if they win the lawsuit they could have your wages garnished.\n\nThe big issue is that you are destroying your credit, by not paying this debt.  It is probably a relatively small amount and will stay on your record for 7 years.  If it is not in collections contact the book club and make arrangements to pay off your debt.  If it is collections make sure you are staying current on your other bills and pay any extra money to paying off your debt.  If it is in collections paying it off will not help your FICO score, but it will make your credit report look better.
165431
Call the company they will give you the payoff amount as of the day you call.  Credit reports are not up to date as of the day you order them.
962513
Call Shopping Essentials or whoever it is and inform them of the unauthorized charges.  If you are not getting any resolution from them, contact your credit card company to dispute the charges.  The vendor will have to provide a authorized signature slip or some sort of authorization to prove you made the charges.  If they fail to do this within 30 days, the charges may be removed.
542555
Here is how the game is played....\n\nIf you pay off your debt, you still have to deal with that negative report on your credit.\n\nPlacing "paid" on it does NOT remove  negative information such as late fees or that it went to collections.  Those who tell you otherwise are lying or ignorant.  I've counsoled many, many people who made the mistake of paying off debts, hopeing to get their credit improved, only to see it barely helped at all.\n\nThe ONLY person who can edit/delete credit information is the creditor to placed that information there.  And it's very unlikely you will get their cooperation once you have paid the debt.\n\nTherefore, before you pay them a dime, get IN WRITING that they will remove all negative information from your credit report.  Don't pay them a dime unless they do!\n\nRemember, you are trying to fix your score.  Why pay them if it's not going to help you out?  \n\nUse the sample letters below and write a negotiation letter.
889320
Yes, I have helped many, many people do this.  First know that the bureau must verify any debt you dispute.  If they can not verify it, it must be deleted.  They have 30 days to do this.\n\nWith 7 years in the credit business, I recommend disputing them all at the same time, as you will likely need to go through several rounds of letters to get what you want done. If something is blatently wrong with your credit report, call the bureau after they write back and refuse to remove it. Go up the food chain until a manager agrees to remove or amend the incorrect info on the spot. Don't buy into their speach about re-disputing it - but make sure you have provided the information necessary by mail already to correct the error. It will not help you to insist on something being removed if you have not provided verificaiton on why.\n\nWhen you mail in the dispute letter, mail in as much information as possible with it. If your verification is a bankruptcy, send in all the pages to your petition and tab the important pages for them to review.\n\nAlso mail in a copy of an electric bill and a copy of your ID to avoid any delays. See the FTC web's site for your specific rights with collectors and debt reporting:\n\nhttp://www.ftc.gov/\n\nIf your problem is directly with the creditors, write to them ONE time. If they do not remove incorrect information, write to your state's attorney general's office and the FTC. This will get you the results you seek if you are in the right.\n\nIf this is a collection agency problem, write to the same people plus the ACA at www.acainternational.org. Collection agencies are generally slime, so know your rights before you call them. See your rights here:\n\nhttp://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/index.html\n\nIf you have legit items that are bad, dispute them also. If they can not be verified, they must be deleted. It is not your responsibility to prove they are inaccurate, it is the credit bureaus who must demonstrate they are.\n\nHope this helps!
1140477
Start by reporting this to your credit card issuer. \n\nThen get a report from the major credit agencies: \n\nExperian   http://www.experian.com\nEquifax   http://www.equifax.com/\nTransUnion http://www.transunion.com/\n\nGet on it right away. You will be responsible for only $50 of illegal charges, but it takes time. Don't delay.
281119
You must first understand how your credit report and credit score is figured out.  Go to the links below and learn about them.\n\nYou already paid off your debts, which is great.  But you made a mistake in not getting an agreement from your creditor to remove any bad reports off your record.  \n\nThey may still do it for you if you ask nice.  Ask them to change the account to "paid as agreed" or at lease remove the negative report from the records.  \n\nBy fixing any negative report it will help to improve your credit score.\n\nNext, study the MYFICO site and understand how your scores are calculated.  Then take the tips they give in improving it.  \n\nIt will not happen overnight.  There is no magic bullet that will fix it.  \n\nAnd don't fall for the claims from Credit Repair Agencies that they can fix it either.  They will do the very things I've mentiond, but charge you a few hundred dollars.\n\nGood luck
338466
Perhaps instead of a debt consolidation your in need of a credit repair company, as these old debts have been charged-off already.?
817563
Charge offs, paid or unpaid, remain for 7 years from date of last activity.  Credit reporting agencies do not forget to remove them; they purge automatically.  \nPaying a charge off won't remove it, but not paying can cause a judgment to be filed, and that also can remain for 7 years from date filed.\nPaying a large debt may increase your score somewhat, but, also, future creditors look at unpaid charge offs less favourably than paid charge offs.
3552
They dont.Even if you pay off the balance owed its still in the credit report for 7 yrs.The best thing to do is try to make arrangements with the creditors owed and set up a payment plan.This will reflect in your credit report helping to atleast raise your score back up.Becareful not to miss or forget to make a payment when you agree to make payments this will show that you are unable to commit to payment plans in the report.It will take up to 6 months reflecting your payment history to Equifax, and theres 2 more that i cant remember.