I cosigned a car loan with an ex. BIG MISTAKE, I don't recommend that for anyone! Anyway, we were apart for about 2 months and he totalled the car. He was always irresponsible with the car payments. I had to make many of them in the past. I gave the finance company my new address at the time the car was totalled. However, they apparently had my address down as a PO Box, which was his address, not the one I had given them. Therefore, I never got any notice that there was a little over $600 balance remaining after the insurance company paid off the car. They sent out notices to the PO Box, he of course, ignored it and I never heard about it. It was due in May 03. I found out about the remaining balance and the wrong address the end of July03. Immediately called the financing company. They had sent it to a collection agency the end of Jun03. I mistakenly paid off the remaining balance with the collection agency without getting anything in writing that my account would not have any derogatory statements. I checked my credit report yesterday and as of Oct03, the account is now listed as Paid, Charge off. Called the finance company, they said they made it a charge off in Jun03. They STILL had the wrong address listed for me. The wrong address was listed on the Equifax report as well. I never used that PO Box. I never got any of the notices due to that. What can I do now to get this "paid, charge off" removed from my record? My credit was good to excellent before this occurred. Do I have any leg to stand on and what steps can I now take? I really hope I do not have to wait out 7 years. Thanks.
In rare cases, a creditor might consider removing from the tradeline from your CR. But usually they'll insist that the debt was joint, even with the different addresses. A long shot might be a goodwill letter (there are some good samples around). But for the most part, they're gonna maintain that you assumed liability for the debt and that you had a minimum of enjoyment of the asset that was purchased.
