Search the Community

I will use this as my running thread for my home buying attempt. My BK7 will be 2 years old on 1/22/15. I am attempting to get a pre-approval now. let us see what happens!

Hello everyone. I'm a new member here and have been reading topics on here for about 2 or 3 days prior to starting this topic. I didn't find anything quite like what I'm looking for beforehand, so here I am making a new topic to try to get some advice. I started paying for Experian Credit Watch a couple days ago so I can try to fix everything wrong with my credit. However, upon inspection of my credit report I found a few things that made me rethink my entire situation, Just so you guys have a little back-story, I'm young (22) and made some very poor decisions resulting in me not being able to pay all of the credit accounts that I had open. I've been working 60-72 hour weeks since the second week of January this year and haven't made any headway. However, I recently got a promotion along with a fairly significant raise so now I'm just tying to figure out what I'm going to do. On my credit report I have: CapOne - potentially negative (paying on this one now) SpringLeaf - potentially negative (also paying on this one) Citi - potentially negative - closed (had this CC since 2010, got overwhelmed and couldn't pay it) Enhanced Recovery - potentially negative - closed Enhanced Recovery - potentially negative - closed Franklin Collection SV - potentially negative - closed IC System Inc - potentially negative - closed Matco Tools - potentially negative - closed (Could not keep up with payment after a slow down in work last year then couldn't get caught back up) CCU - Current CCU - Current CCU - Current - closed CCU - Current - Closed SpreingLeaf - Current - closed So my first question is: How do I find out why I even have 4 closed collections accounts on there? I think that they're due to non-payment of an accident I had last year where I got burned by 500 degree plastic. This accident happened at work and should have been taken care of by workers comp but I've been having issues getting my company to pay for these bills but since I don't have any more copies of the bills since I already turned them in to my HR department once I don't know what to do there. Second: The Citi and Matco accounts are potentially negative and closed, so should I pay on those once I have money to go towards them or will that re-open the accounts and mess with the SOL? I don't really understand that part. Third: Would it just be easier for me to file bankruptcy, keep my car and try to start over again? Is this even fix-able? I'm not sure what I'm doing. Thanks in advance everyone for any advice, I appreciate your time. If this needs to be moved to another category please feel free to do so.

Hello all! I'm excited to be a part of CB. I have been reading and reading and reading, and I'm ready to ask for help. Here's my story. I have a discharged Chapter 7 - DECEMBER 5, 2014!!! Yay me! TU and Exp scores are about the same (628). The site I use is down so I can't give the exact number of negative accounts reporting. My question is this. Where do I start? I feel so overwhelmed with all the info I've read in the PsychDoc transcripts and member posts, and I'm just not sure where to start. Will someone please give me some help? My goal is home ownership. I'm not in a major rush and would like to do things as thoroughly as possible with as much informed help as possible. Thanks so much you all!

I'm one year post-discharge Chapter 7 and my three actual FICO scores are all around 670. My utilization is 2%. 10 new accounts. Two inquiries left on each CRA. I am curious what kinds of true FICO scores are possible with a BK 7 still reporting (10 years). Can people indicate what their scores are and how fmany years post-discharge? I do realize that part of this is based on average age of accounts and whether or not you have a mortgage for credit mix, so the maximum will of course vary. I am thinking that high scores are likely to cap around 720 - 730, but I don't know.

I just got an alert that negative information was reporting. It is this company, Statebridge, who purchased our mortgage from Bank of America recently. We filed Ch7 BK in 2009 and included the mortgage. This is how it is reporting: Date Opened: 11/2006 Date of Status: 11/2014 Reported Since: 11/2014 Last Reported Date: 11/2014 Account History: Filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy on Nov 30, 2014 It also shows a zero balance and zero payment. I am afraid my current creditors, especially Barclay, will see this and close my accounts! I did not file BK last month; it was 5 years ago! And, I have worked really hard to rebuild since then. The other things I see wrong is that they are re-aging it and they are reporting a default/charge-off after it was included in bankruptcy. So far it is only showing on Experian. I will dispute it. I was also thinking of sending a certified letter to these jokers. Maybe I can sue them. Does anyone have any advice, suggestions, or dealt with these morons? Thanks in advance! I am not sure if this should be in the BK forum?

I am in the process of divorce, and I have racked up a lot of debt. I am not sure how much information I should give, so I will start with some basic information. I have a mortgage, car loan, lending club consolidation loan and 11 credit cards. I want to try to keep from filing bankruptcy, but not sure if it is even possible. My plan is to close several if not all of the credit card accounts. I want to call each company and explain my situation and see if they will allow me to close the account, adjust the balance and/or APR My wife owes me her share of the marital debt and is giving me half of the money owed. I was going to look at the accounts with the highest APR and highest balance and apply that money on them to help lower monthly payment amounts. Anyway I was curious if I am headed down the right or wrong path. I appreciate any input.suggestions sk

Hoping someone can assist here with getting my bankruptcy removed early. My ch 13 is due to fall off in December 2014/Jan 2015. So far I have been able to get TU to remove early, as a result, I received a nice jump in my CS as a result. I've tried to call Experian to have it removed no success with the rep, same with Equifax. Both basically are saying I need to ride it out until the fall off date. Any suggestions as to how to proceed next with an early removal?

I posted this already in the bankruptcy forum: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=534860 I have student loans with Nelnet. that were not discharged in bk7. Bk7 was discharged about a month ago. The loans show admin forbearance until the year 0001. I called them to try to get the loan status and find out when I can re-apply for the income based repayment plan. I was on the IBR plan until I filed bk7 and my payment was $0. They told me that it was valid until January 2015, but that I need to reapply in October or November. However, the rep I spoke to last night said I will not be able to do this online because of the admin forbearance status. She says I have to submit a paper request, but that I can't do that until January. The previous rep said not to wait until January or I might have to make payments until they process my request. When I go to studentloans.gov, and try to request the IBR plan there, it says I have no eligible loans. Likely because of this admin forbearance. Should I be concerned about the forbearance date? Or should I just wait it out? Anyone else go through this?

Hi. I am new and have been lurking and ready for about a month. I finally decided to pull my reports and post here. I have been in a battered women's shelter for 5 months. I now have my own apartment a great job starting at $13.94 an hour with a trucking company as a dispatcher and an opportunity for tons of overtime this holidau season. Here is my situation. I was with my crazy ex for 12 years. He handled all fiances. I pulled my trans report and score faco was 589 and $16k in collections. Lots of medical 3-5 years old and some of his credit cards where I was on them that are 5 years old. I pulled experion and score was 507. Total was $25k in collections owed. Again medical and credit cards joint with him and some cell phone and cable collections as well. I could not get equifax to pull. Said I had an account and I would need to call. I need to have my top teeth extracted and dentures VERY soon from where he broke a lot of my teeth and I am in severe pain. I also need a car as I am borrowing on that I have to give back next month. So I have decided the best thing is to file bankruptcy and start over. I am a frugal person and use to have great credit until I let a true sociopath take over and ruin it all. There is no way I cN catch up and I don't know how to afford the $2k needed for extractions and a denture on top at the moment but I am working as much as I ca to try and get there. Here are some questions: 1) what does it cost to file chapter 7? 2) do you think with my situation that would be my best bet? 3) if I file ch 7 how long before I could start to rebuild credit? 4) any suggestions on getting a car? Would a big here lay here for a cheap car work for starters? I can't afford to just pay a couple grand for a car. I would need a loan of some sorts and yes I know I would have a high rate but I have to start somewhere. I am rock bottom and just getting out of a shelter and Into an apartment and now Paying $850 a month rent is grocery plus light bill kid taking care of two kids us gas in the car I am borrowing takes all I have. This why they are letting me work overtime. I am suppose to get $1150 a month child support but dad is in jail awhile so that doesn't get received. I am just looking for advice on how to start and get my life back on track. My BIG issues is I need a car and i need my teeth fixed within next month or two MAX. Thank you for any suggestions or kind words. We do not qualify for food stamps or state assistance so I think I am doing damn good with what I have right now. Again thank you!!

Hi all, This is my first post, as I am new here. My husband and I recently filed Chapter 7 BK and it has been discharged since September 2014, we are now wanting to rebuild our credit, our scores are both just shy of 600, (my husbands score shot up 87 points AFTER BK was filed...mine went up by 1 point...weird huh) We are thinking we will need to get a secured credit card, which is fine, but do not know who to go with? We currently bank at a local credit union and thought of going through them, but wanted to make sure it was reported to all 3 credit bureaus, So should we go for a MAJOR company such as Capital One? What do you guys recommend? Any help/advice would be great! Also we were advised by someone else rebuilding their own credit, to only use 10% of credit card limit and pay off on time each month to get BEST credit rating. So only use $30 on $300 limit and NO more. Does that sound right to anyone else? We want to make sure to do this right. We are not in NEED of a credit card, but just want to use one to improve our credit so one day we can buy a house. We currently have NO credit cards, No car loans, No personal loans, No retail credit cards, Nothing that is reporting to credit bureaus. We are in need of getting a small car loan ($5k or less) some time soon (within 6 months) should we apply for that now? or wait till we have had credit card for a few months to show on time payment history? What would be the best scenario? I don't wanna add too many "inquiries" to our credit reports right after filing BK, so trying to do this wisely. Thanks again for your help!

Hi I recently started fixing my credit to buy a house. I have read, read, and read a lot of information on this forum and thanks to everyone I have learned ALOT!! I sneaked peaked my Experian dispute online and saw 2 deletes and several updates (not sure what that means, hopefully something good). They are the only CRA I have done thus far. I do have a few questions. I had a BK Chap 7 back in 2010 and have a couple TL that were paid through the BK and I would like to get those removed. Any suggestions? Also would love to get 2 public records (one is BK and other is civil judgment for a CA from '09) wiped clean as well. I am also looking to get a TL removed that was transferred, but can't find where it was transferred to. Should I just dispute the original TL? I also have a Capitol One CO that was purchased by another lender and can't figure out who that is either. I would like to DV those, or whatever anyone suggests I am also looking at doing the 1-2 punch for a few, but I noticed several of my TL haven't been reported for quite a while. I'm assuming that it would be pointless to try this method??' Finally, if something has been removed from one CRA can I use that to prove to another CRA that I no longer have that TL? I thank you all for your help!!!

I apologize if this has been answered. I have searched for 3 days now trying to see if I could find a specific answer, I have found similar but not exact. 10/13 I was in an auto accident (which is the reason for the BK now) I was the middle car in the three car accident, my insurance had to pay for my medical bills. There is one bill for 84$ that was not paid. I notified the OC in March 2014 that I intended to file bankruptcy, they made note of it, April 3rd I filed, and the stay letters from BK court were sent out. Fast forward to June 9, 2014 a collection shows up on my credit report for $84.00 and tanks my already credit score by about 30 points moving me from one credit level down to another. I contact the OC and she tells me she received notice of my bk filing but until its discharged they continue collection activities. Does that defeat the purpose of the stay? She forwarded my bankruptcy information to the collection agency and now it reports as a collection in bk status and updated today to bk discharged. If they filed the collection after the bk was filed isn't that a violation? How can I get them to remove that collection from the reports? I have been reading Whychat's HIPPA guide but since I do not owe this bill as it has been discharged by chap 7 bk, and it is being reported after the bk was filed I am unsure what direction to proceed. Again sorry if this has come up before, I searched and could not find a specific answer. Thank you for any help.

My Chapter 7 is being filed by an attorney electronically this weekend. I will not reaffirm my car, but plan on paying to retain with the balance discharged. I'm upside down by about $4,000 on a 2011 Corolla, but have never been late on payments. My attorney has suggested I not reaffirm, and I can't redeem and a 722 redemption is not in my best interest. I was referred to a loan broker who specializes in pre-discharge and post-discharge auto loans. I think If I went on my own to a dealership the best I could do is 14 to 18 percent apr on a new car (just want a Honda Civic). I spoke with this broker. At first, I thought he represented lenders and was paid by them per loan, but he says he is actually paid by dealerships he has a relationship with. I explained the information on my credit reports and income, and he was confident he could get me financed at 11 to 12 percent APR and to submit an application once my petition is filed. He says he in essence cuts out the sales staff in deals, deals directly with the F and I guys at the dealership, and always gets his customers better financing. He says he handles price negotiating, gets complete terms from the dealership and if I don't like the deal I just walk. Has anyone had any experience with these type of brokers? I told him I would have $2500 down on a $20,000 purchase, and said it didn't matter, that he routinely finances with zero down. I found that advice somewhat disturbing. My credit bureau history is more than 25 years and I had stellar credit up until becoming disabled in 2008 and having to resign my $70,000 a year job. I should have filed Chapter 7 in 2010, but became hospitalized and had to pull out and get a refund from my attorney. The benefit of filing so late is that my derogatory trade lines will fall off sometime next year even when listed as IIB. From 2009 until 2003 I had zero positive trade lines, so when I bought this car I got hit at 24 percent interest. Since then, I have two positive trade lines for credit cards and a 15 month history of paying on time for the present auto loan. I routinely get auto refi offers in the 10 percent range, but didn't refi knowing this Chapter 7 filing was coming up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And I am very grateful for the experiences shared here on this forum.

I am starting a KickStarter campaign to fund an art project. (I am an artist). I have credit card judgments as a result of prolonged unemployment, also one judgment from a past eviction. When my high paying corporate job went bad, and I couldnt find any work, I decided to pursue my passion in art. Assuming my project is fully funded for $10,000.00 and that money gets wired into my account, is it at risk for seizure from my credit card judgements? That would be a problem, since the backers of the KickStarter are expecting original pieces of work in return for a contribution. I know there is a bankruptcy in my future, but I wasn't planning on doing it now. Would the courts allow the creditor to seize these funds? Should I incorporate, or bank out of state? I know I can file Ch 7. But My income is so low and my assets are so little, I'm basically judgement proof. Also, in addition to credit card debt, I have about $150,000.00 in student loan debt (not in default, in forbearance). I also owe the IRS about 5K (when I lost my job last year I had to live off my 401K so thats where the tax debt comes from) So filing bankruptcy wouldn't get rid of the student loan debt and taxes (not at this point of time anyway) I'm in NY so the first $1750.00 in any checking account is exempt from seizure. I have read about people using out of state banks to avoid creditor seizures. Of course a judgement debtor exam would reveal those accounts and render them worthless. Can anyone make any recommendations?

If you were able to opt out of Lexis Nexis, does this really increase your chances of getting a public record removed from your CR?

I'm almost done my chapter 13 plan and my mortgage guy thinks he will be able to get me approved for conventional financing. My credit has bounced back, I've got a steady job and income as well as a decent down payment. Has anyone here been able to qualify for conventional financing soon after a 13 discharge?

I'm in the midst of rebuilding my credit after getting my defaulted student loans discharged and cleaning up my credit report, and I've got a quick question about authorized users, bankruptcy, and card utilization for some of the more expert folks here on CB. In 2012/2013 I was an authorized user on a relative's (not spouse) Capital One card which had a $500 CL. She declared bankruptcy in early 2013 and of course the Capital One card was closed and discharged in that bankruptcy. Even so, the card is still showing up on my credit report, although as a Satisfactory account which is showing as current, but with a date of last payment & date reported of 05/2013. However, it appears from CreditKarma and what I can make out of my credit report it's showing up with the a balance of $474 and the $500 CL, which of course is effecting (increasing) my utilization. My question is, should I go ahead and dispute this hoping to get the balance changed to 0 and therefore reduce my utilization? Or would that just be asking for trouble and I'm much better off leaving it be? I'm not sure how the CRA's handle bankruptcy on CC's when the authorized user didn't file, and obviously I don't want the tradeline to go from showing up as a current, satisfactory account w/ a balance to one that shows up as a negative bankruptcy. Thanks in advance for anyone that can weigh in on how I should handle this, or not!

I have a question. I have bankruptcy protection under a chapter 13 bankruptcy and I have been making my payments on time but I think that Chase has me a month behind. I could make my payments much easier if I could get rid of the PMI. I already have 20% down and am wanting to know if the bankruptcy will keep me from getting the PMI taken off if I either get caught up or find out that I am not really behind? It is only a few hundred dollars a month but I could apply that to the principle or other bills. Thanks ahead of time.

Does anyone know if these vampires are still in business? (I know, they sold their portfolio to Ocwen a few months ago, but if I dispute a TL, will anyone respond, or will it quietly drop from my CR?)

Well I decided to apply with logix. Mainly because I have been recently hearing good things about them though that information may not be 100% correct. I applied for the regular savings. Then I decided to apply for the credit card. After the application it said I was pre approved for the following: Platinum Rewards: 15K 13% Platinum :15K 12% I selected the rewards card since the interest rate does not matter to me. If approved for that rate it would be my lowest. If approved for that limit it would be my highest. Blowing Navy's out of the water at 12K I have a discharged bk 7 two years ago. I have multiple inq's on EX (8 or so). Scores are around 650's. Utilization is 3% or so. Several other credit cards in the 1000 dollar and up range. Current auto loans with nothing but good history. Current personal loan with good history. Ect ect. Now, I wonder if they will approve me. I know they are funny and even though I was pre approved someone still has to review it. Impatiently waiting here.....

I have been doing a lot of reading, but not sure exactly on the answer here. I know I have to wait 2 year post CH7 to get financing, however, haven't seen any discussion on if i can start the "pre-approval" process before that 2 years is up? Is there any reason I can't? or would they just want to wait til the 2 year mark to be sure?

So after reading about all the people on here about Logix, I decided to give it a shot. A bit about me first. I filed for BK7 (thank you ex-wife) in January of 2012. At the time, my FICO scores were in the 530 range. In June of 2012, Cap One approved me for a Platinum Card for $2000 (currently upgraded to Quicksilver and $3500 limit). After waiting a year, I apped for a few more cards in June of 2013. I was approved for a second Cap One Quicksilver One card ($750 limit). I was also approved for a Merrick Card ($700 limit), a Barclays reward ($1500 limit), and a DCU Visa ($500 limit). I also have a car loan with DCU for about $13000 at a rate of 5.49%. Currently, My FICO scores are EX- 655, TU- 680, and EQ- 674. My annual income is $81000, and I have 6 INQs on my reports. Right now my utilization is a bit on the high side (thanks Santa) at 64%. So last week I opened a savings account with Logix. The process was very easy, and I e-signed all the docs. Yesterday, I decided to give it a shot with a Logix credit card, as I have been reading about very generous approvals and limits. They asked me what I wanted for a limit, and I told the rep to ask for $15000, but that I was willing to take less. I was denied outright. Ouch. Kick in the gut! The rep told me that the BK7 was still too new, and that my utilization was too high. I thanked her and figured I would try again in a few months after paying down my cards. Last night, after considering that Logix uses the same hard pull for any credit apps for 60 days, I decided to see if I could get a better rate on my auto loan. This morning, I got an email from Logix that I was approved, but at the same rate (5.49%) as my current loan at DCU. About an hour later, I got a call from a rep at Logix, about the car loan email. I explained that what they offered wouldn't save me any money. She explained that to qualify for a rate of 2.99%, I would need an EX score of 680. I thanked her for calling, and before hanging up, she asked if there were any other financial needs that she could assist me with. I told her that I was hoping to get a credit card with them. She said that looking over my credit report, that she might be able to get Logix to match my limit that Cap One gives me, if I did a no-fee BT of my balance from Cap One. I asked her to see if $4000 was possible, and she said she would check. About 3 minutes later, she came back on the phone, to tell me that I was APPROVED for the $4000 limit, pending my sending over my most recent pay stub. Wahoo! So Merry Christmas to me! Now I will sit back and see if my other CC issuers will step it up a notch. One thing for sure is that I am grateful to Logix for giving me an opportunity to prove my credit-worthiness. Thanks to all the others on these board who have been posting about Logix. You have been so helpful to me!

I'm back! Been gone a while, living live, working, letting things age. The 2 scores I can see are both well into the mid 700s at this point, 8 years and 1 month after filing a Chapter 7, which discharged in Feb. 06. Amex wasn't IIB, but I was poison to them for years due to it being on my reports. I've been an AU on my DW's acct since she got her card in '07. So last week for S & G's, I applied for a BCE card. APPROVED - for a limit of $9700!!!!!! Not my highest but better than the $1000 toy card I was expecting. Next question...when will this show up on my reports most likely, in others' experience? I want to see if my open date matches the date on my AU card or not. I have a login already on the amex website (for the AU card) that says Welcome Hairmetal4ever Member Since 2007, so I'm thinking I have a shot...

I filed Chapter 13 Bankruptcy in June 2008. The bankruptcy was discharged March 2013. Experian has some of my my accounts listed as the following: Account History: Charge Off as of Sep 2012 Debt included in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy on Mar 18, 2013 They have my account being eligible for fall off in 2019, which means that its been reaged as well. Ive disputed this info numerous of times. Is this info being reported correctly, or would I be able to prove violations of the FCRA AND Federal Bankruptcy violations. Thanks, Art

Hi all, I have applied for a United Airlines Chase credit card four times in the past two years and have been denied each time. The denial letter has always been vague. Yesterday, I spent over an hour at a Chase branch investigating the situation. I gave the manager my social security number and, as it turns out, Chase has a record of a credit card I shared with my father about 18 years ago (my father had given it to me in my teens to help pay for gas for my car. I stopped using it after a few years but he kept using his copy). Here's where it gets weird: The branch manager showed me on his computer screen that there were two cards issued: one had my social attached to it, the other had both mine and my dad's social. Both cards were the same account but re-issued as a different cc number at a later date. The branch manager said the screen showed both cards filed under "bankruptcy". I explained that I never filed for bankruptcy, but my father had. He called the bankruptcy dept at Chase to inquire. The bankruptcy dept told him that, yes, there was a $1,000 balance on the card and was in collections (for 18 years!!!) but there seems to be a "fraud" association and advised the manager to call the fraud dept. The branch manager called the fraud dept and was advised the following: the balance was not in collections. I do not owe anything. But there was still some sort of "fraud" associated with charges on that card. I left the bank, scratching my head and feeling helpless. So here's where I'm at: I really want to apply for a United Chase credit card but each time I do, my social security # activates this strange history on my record. How do I get this cleared up???? Please note that my credit report is impeccable. This activity from 19 years ago does not show on my report. It seems to only show on the Chase side somehow. I have never had any issues getting credit cards from other banks. Thanks in advance for your help!