When payments haven't been made on a credit card for six months, the credit card company removes the balance from their accounting records and calls it a charge-off, meaning they no longer record it as an asset on their financial records. This doesn't mean you don't owe the money, and it doesn't mean the lender won't come after you for it.
A. Credit card charge-offs usually appear on your credit report whether or not they have been turned over to a collection agency.
If you pay a charged-off balance once it's been charged-off, it will typically show on your credit report as a settlement instead of paid as agreed, because you didn't meet the original terms of your agreement with the credit card company when you opened the account.
Sometimes it's possible to negotiate with the credit card company and get them to report your payment as "paid as agreed" instead of "settled," but you are most likely to get them to agree to this when you are negotiating the payment. You will probably not be able to convince them to change it after the fact, but it doesn't hurt to try.
