How do I Get Legal Charge Offs Dropped From a Credit Report?

1). Pull a copy of your credit report. You can get a free copy at annualcreditreport.com. The report will list all open, closed and charged-off accounts. Find the account in question. It may show up under a different creditor's name if it was sold to a collection agency.
2). Contact the creditor and negotiate a repayment plan. The credit bureaus will not remove any accounts that have outstanding balances. You must speak with the owner of the account. You can negotiate a full repayment plan or a settlement, where a portion of the balance is forgiven.
3). Pay off the account in full or according to the terms of the settlement. Get a paid-in- full letter from the creditor, showing a zero balance, last payment date and status of the account. Keep this for your records. The paid charge-off will remain on your report, unless you can persuade the credit bureaus to remove it.
4). Write a goodwill letter to the credit bureaus--TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. These bureaus will not remove any accounts unless there is a legitimate reason for the default. Common reasons include: unemployment, underemployment, disability or injury. Make sure you have documents corroborating your reasons for default.
5). Address each charge-off in the goodwill letter. You must write when the account first became delinquent, why, what led up to it, and how you attempted to rectify the delinquency. Ultimately, a human being will read this letter, so appeal to the empathetic side in people. Candidly discuss the difficulties leading up to each charge-off.
6). Write down all the information about each account. This includes the opening date, the account balance, the current creditor, the account number and the payment amount. All of this information will help the credit bureaus locate and review your charge-offs.
7). Send the goodwill letter with all documents related to default and your paid-in-full letter to all three credit bureaus. See "Resources" for the credit bureau addresses.
8). Wait 30 days for a response. The bureaus have a legal obligation to respond to the request within 30 days and have an additional 90 days to render a decision.