You have just shared some things even I had not known about, but I think "charged off" most-typically amounts to a creditor selling the debt to bill collectors to take their own shots at and then re-sell again while the original creditor as well as the previous bill collectors add the losses to their tax returns. So yes, the debt still exists and somebody somewhere still owns it, but I know from experience that even the bill collectors eventually give up and drop attempts at collection...and rightly or wrongly, I consider that "charged off" or whatever.