Charge-Off
Definition
A charge-off is a lender deciding a debt is unlikely to be collected and writing it off its own books, usually after around 180 days of non-payment. The debt does not disappear and you still owe it.
The accounting change belongs to the lender, not to you. The balance remains due, and the account is often sold or passed to a collection agency that then pursues it.
A charge-off is among the more serious marks on a credit file and stays for about seven years from the original delinquency.
Paying or settling a charged-off account does not remove the record, though the file is updated to show the balance is no longer outstanding.