Consumers Are Unaware of the Dangers of Charge-offs on their Credit Reports

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 10, 2014

BestCreditRepairCompanys.com (BCRC) conducted a survey to see which negative items consumers are most concerned with removing from their credit reports. Charge-offs are one of the most damaging credit report entries, however only 10.4% of consumers are worried about their affects.

Charge-offs are reported to the credit bureaus when someone has failed to pay off their credit card for several months. Not only is the consumer still responsible for the credit card debt, their credit score also takes a hit. Charge-offs typically remain on a credit report for seven years.

"Only a small portion of consumers seem to be concerned with the effects charge-offs have on credit scores," Carlie McKeon, BCRC Site Director, said. "Consumers are unaware of just how much one charge-off can hurt. Consumers need to work to pay off that debt and have the item removed, especially if they are applying for a loan."

Most negative items generally remain on a credit report for seven to ten years and charge-offs are not the only negative items consumers have to be concerned with.

In the BCRC survey, which gathered information from over 1,500 different people, consumers were asked which negative item they believe is most damaging to their credit scores and needs to be removed from their credit report.

According to the survey, 23.1 percent of consumers believe that late payments are the most important negative item to have removed from their credit reports. Bankruptcies were a close second, bringing in 20.3 percent of the responses.

Other responses included 17.5 percent of consumers believing collections were the most important item to have removed from their credit report, followed by foreclosures with 14.6 percent of total responses.

While late payments seemed to be the popular answer amongst consumers, 47.1 percent of respondents claimed to believe that none of the common negative items were a problem and needed to be removed from their credit report.

"It is interesting to see that the majority of consumers who participated in our survey said they do not believe common negative items are important to have removed from their credit report," McKeon stated. "This tells us a large portion of consumers do not understand the affects negative items have on their credit scores. A person's credit report/credit score dramatically impacts their financial life."

Fortunately, there is a way to have erroneous and certain negative items removed from a credit report. If there is a mistake, or if a consumer has paid off their debts and cleared it with the creditor, they have the right to have the item removed from their credit report. This will increase a consumer's credit scores and demonstrate financial responsibility to lenders.

Consumers can repair these damages on their own by contacting the credit bureaus, or utilizing a credit repair service.

To find real consumer and expert reviews of credit repair companies, visit http://bestcreditrepaircompanys.com/.

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