Hi there! I have been lurking for a bit but am rady to help myself. In 10/98 I filed chp 7. Owed maybe $25k on 4 CCds. Had a vehicle on lease as well. BK was discharged in 1/99. In 4/99, go new apartment with no problem. Had about $53k in income so that probably helped. Got C1 secured card starting at $500 in 7/99. Paid off about half of the time - 2x min due every other at least. In 2/00 got Aria no grace period card which is now a Gold Get Smart - I have a zero balance on this and haven't used in maybe 6 months. In 3/01 got Gold C1 card and have used and paid off here and there. At one point had AMEX green that I cancelled prior to BK. Never have been able to get AMEX product since BK. Got $30k loan at 6% var rate on new car in 8/01 for new job. Got new apart. again with new job move. Now here is where I am. C1 secure - 1500 CL owe 1200 C1 gold - 2000 CL owe 1700 GetSmart - 1900 CL owe 0 - hate using with no grace Diners Club (auth user) from my mom as acct holder. Owe maybe $30k on student loans, nothing bad reported on them. All current cards have no bad history. found out I have a Sterns card I haven't used in like 7 years on my CR as still open. PROBLEM - I need more revolving credit. I put all of my job expenses on cards (they do not provide corp card). They pay back in 30-45 days. Part is I only do ER twice a month, I send to boss, boss sends to HQ, HQ sends check....so it takes a while. Some of the moving expenses I have incurred plus a lot of travel has put the crunch on me. The new DC will help with travel, but accept. of DC is not that great. Of the amount on C1 owed, maybe $200-300 is personal that will not be reimbursed by company. How do I got about this? Any pointers without going through dispute/verifivcation, etc..... What if I decide to improve my credit score (609 Experian)???? Can I get the 4 CC and 1 car lease (which I returned in BK) that were discharged in chp 7 BK off of the CR? How do I go about it? Thanks
I'm a 500 club member so I have no real useable advice, but have you gotten all 3 credit reports to see exactly who is reporting what? Just my observation, but usually post BK people have better scores than 609, much to my jealousy! ;-) ... do you have a lot of inquiries? Those are contestable; you can try to get those taken off/deleted from your credit reports... Maybe the same for the other accounts... Deb @ Mich St
Your scores are low because there's over 50% usage of credit. Pay it down, then try to get more cards.
You may want to search the board on "cards after bankruptcy" or some such modified term. Several people had at least one thread going about their CC successes after BK. I cannot comment on removing BK related tradelines from the credit report, but I do know that people on this board have done it.
Well what I would really like to do is delete the 5 tradelines "discharged in bk" and the BK listing itself.
This is about the only place where I can give advice. Go to planetfeedback.com and write a letter to Providian Financial, saying that you enjoyed using their card, but you decided not to use it anymore cause of no grace period. When they call you (and they usually do). Tell them you want a grace period, a lower rate and a CL increase. Tell them they can make $0 with no grace period and a high rate or they can make interest off 25 day grace period with a xx%. Tell them you use your Cap. 1 card cause of the grace period etc. Then call back in a month and ask for a lower rate. Providian NEEDS their paying customers! Kellie
It looks to me like you've received some really good advice here: 1) Debmac suggested that you begin by acquiring all three CRA files in order to find out exactly who's reporting what and to whom. 2) Debmac further suggested that you take inventory of your inquiries and begin disputing them, since each can chip away at a credit score. (Creditnet members have seen their best success disputing inquiries with Experian and Trans Union. Equifax seems to be a tougher nut to crack.) 3) author_22 noted that your scores are lowered significantly by the simple fact of your credit utilization being over 50%. Actually, I've also experienced major swings when I've paid down debt significantly. You'll probably see a major swing if you pay your debt down by half or more. (Added benefit: you'll free up some badly needed breathing room for monthly business expenses. Tip for better living, lol: If you can't pay it down, then cut your expenses until you have paid down your debt.) 4) marci suggested that you search the board here on "cards after bankruptcy" and similar terms, since so many people before you have posted detailed accounts of their post-bankruptcy credit successes. You could actually spend a few days reading these archives, and that would net far more hard-core information than waiting around for the magic anti-BK bullet to appear here. (Hey, I'm getting poetic, lol.) 5) KHM offered a specific suggestion for your Aria account: Visit PlanetFeedback.com and direct a letter to Providian which informs them that you would be a much more profitable customer for them -- i.e., actually use the card for expenses and so on -- if they would add a grace period for purchases. She further suggested that, upon second contact, you comment upon the APR and credit line. These are terrific ideas for post-bankruptcy credit building. Although you've not commented upon any of these specifically ("re-re-bump ... any help out there????"), I really encourage you to consider all of them and act on any you've not yet implemented. Finally, it's difficult to address your goal ("Well what I would really like to do is delete the 5 tradelines 'discharged in bk' and the BK listing itself") without violating your initial request when you began the thread ("Any pointers without going through dispute/verifivcation, etc....."). The fact is that you'll need to begin disputing with the CRAs. You might be surprised to know that people successfully dispute BK-related tradelines all the time; it's a matter of being diligent with the task and fighting discouragement when you fail. Doc
Thanks Doc for the followup there. Tonight, I called C1 and got them to increase my CL to $2300 on both and they unsecured my one card. They lowered the I to 14.9 and 15.9. Not bad. I tried to get rid of the monthly fee but no luck....rep said try back in a couple of days. Regarding the inquiries, I do have a TON! A lot were in August when I was car shopping. I think I got nailed for about 10. I should have been smart and gone to the CU first and only. They were great to me. Anyway, every place I went got me for like 3-4 inquiries each because they all shopped the loan to all the different subprime lenders. A few even tried directly with the manufacturers. How do I go about getting these inquiries removed? Do I write to the CRAs? Include a copy of the CR and highlight what I am disputing? Do I just say I do not recall authorizing this inquiry? As to the "disc in bk" tradelines, what is a good approach to the CRA to get these off in a dispute letter. Just say it is not mine? Thanks BTW - I tried Providian and they said they would not help with grace period, int rate since I haven't used the card in 6+ months. I said that is because the terms suck. THeir reply was to use the card and it would get better. I think I will just leave the card open for the CL.
