How to remove a paid charge-off item?

[Michael Gao]

This is one of those "If I had known better" posts...

It all started in 2007-ish, when I was helping a new student to get a cell phone plan. He didn't have any credit to secure a phone line at Verizon, so I stepped in and used my credit to do that for him, out of good will. 

After one year, he refused to pay a small bill from Verizon and didn't tell me. So Verizon issued a charge off record and after a few months, I found that out from my credit report. The first thing I did was to pay it off, but Verizon refused to remove the record from my file (They claimed that would stay there fore 7 years). 

Now fast forward to now, 6 years later after I paid it off, that record is still haunting me like a ghost. My FICO score was hurt badly and I had numerous troubles getting financing on my properties.

I am sure you get the morale of the story by now, and I hope my story help you not to make the same mistake...

However, life goes on and I still need to deal with it to get my financing... In desperation, I come to BP and ask for help: If anyone can share some experience in how to remove this nasty paid charge-off item from my credit reports, you have probably just saved my life...

Thanks in advance,

Michael