Q. Is it OK to ask the credit bureau to remove charge-off items from my credit report? Would this make my credit report even worse than it already is? Is this a valid request that I should ask the bureau to do?

A. A credit bureau will not remove a charge-off at your request. It will remain on your credit report for seven years.

A charge-off appears on your credit report once you have missed a number a payments and the creditor decides that the debt cannot be collected. For example, credit card companies will charge off a debt once you have missed six payments.

The only thing that you can do is try to negotiate with your creditor(s) to pay a portion of what you owe them -- maybe only 50% or 25%. But their part of the agreement would be to list the debt as "paid as agreed." And you should get it in writing. That would not erase the write-off from your credit report, but a lender looking at it would see that at least you made an attempt to pay some of what you owed. If you only have two years left until you hit the seven-year mark, you might be better off not paying the bill.

Instead, you could use that money to pay your other bills on time. The best way to build good credit is to pay every bill on time every month. When you have done this for two years, you should see a big improvement in your credit score.

If you are serious about improving your credit score, take a look at the Interest.com article 7 smart moves to improve your credit score. It will give you lots of information that might be helpful.