I have heard through someone that banks cannot charge-off the account until a minimum of 180 days have elapsed since past due date. I have a charge off that was never more than 120 days past due. That makes me think, if there is no legal limit as to what is the time period after which banks can charge-off, they can as well charge-off an account after ... who is to say... 90 days??? If they have to wait till 180 days, I have a legal point against them. Please advise.
They don't have to wait 180 days. The 180 day mark is when they are required to chargeoff defaulted accounts. They may chargeoff sooner if they desire. When I was in banking, we chargedoff at the 150 day mark.
You are barking up the wrong tree if you think you have something to gain by pursing this angle. The charge off status and time has nothing to do with you the debtor. It is for accounting purposes. It means that a debt that a creditors owns can no longer be considered an asset on their books. Yes, there are rules that bank's must follow about the timelines before a delinquent debt must be converted to charge-off status. However, these rules are to prevent the financial institution from inflating the value of their "assets" by reporting an uncollectable debt as an asset. In otherwords, they can't wait 6 months before changing the status. None of this means anything to you as a dilinquent debtor. Your loan can be 5 minutes late and they can take legal action against you and charge it off. Even when charged off, they still own the loan have every legal right to collect their money. In general, most companies charge off a loan between 60 and 90 days delinquent. This action usually prompts the creditor to accellerate collection efforts, including hiring CA's and sueing. Does that clear things up?
firstly, thanks for the response. secondly, i did have a good idea what charge-off is, i did not realize that a bank can charge-off even for 60-90 days period. i have never seen a charge-off at such early stage like 60-90days. thanks for clearing that part. as far as my account is concerned, i fully paid the entire amount in cash as soon as it got to the charge-off status before any CA could come in the picture. i was asking this question, to see what i could do to get this removed from my report, which is due till 2007. i am starting a dispute/investigation with the CRA's as a first step. thoughts/suggestions?
do a search on "paid charge off", I have seen lots of threads posted over the last three or four months that deal with removing a paid off charge off.
Darn it. Since you already paid the debt you've lost your best negotiating tool - money in exchange for removal of negitive info. I'd set my mind to being the biggest pain in the neck they ever saw, until they delete the information just to get you out of their life.
