I acquired a BK attorney which I am paying on monthly payments. The papers are to be filed ASAP, I am supposed to see my lawyer Monday to go over some documents. Any advice for what to do once the BK is discharged? Obviously I don't want to @@@# my life and credit again, but I do need to rebuild and repair the credit reports. I also am joining Debtors Anonymous to help ensure this never happens again. I've been to one meeting already. It's free too I am a bit sad, but very relieved. I tried hard to keep afloat and it got worse and worse.
Hang in there. It's really not the end of the world. Once you are discharged (not before), get an Orchard Bank credit card (www.orchardbank.com). They gave me an unsecured one 1 month out of discharge. Don't EVER be late making payments. This is how you build yourself up. Keep paying everything faithfully, early if you can. Your credit will slowly improve. Just takes some patience.
Author, I had a bankruptcy discharged about 1 1/2 years ago, and decided that I had no use for credit cards. Believe it or not, you can still travel on airlines, rent cars (Budget), and live your life without them. My husband and I recently went to Miami and flew, reserved a hotel (with a visa check card) and enjoyed ourselves without the help of a credit card. We also routinely have more money than we ever had when we had credit cards. My advice is to stay away from them, they are too tempting. People say you need them to "build" credit but the reality is, you can still get a car, or buy a house after bankruptcy, and credit card use often starts people back down the road they were trying to get off of. My question is What exactly do you build credit for? in most cases to get more credit cards, something most people don't really need, and you can't "live" in the credit you built. The argument for credit cards is that they will improve interest rates when you wish to buy a car or house, but I also believe the reality is more like they drain the money you could save to put toward a car or house. I spend several months just cleaning up my reports, but still avoid cards. My advice as a post BK person is do the same. It gets much easier as you go, and when you look at your growing bank account, and small pile of bills you will be likely very happy.
i agree 100% i am 5 yrs out of ch7 - have never gotten a credit card since. i pay cash for everything - including cars. my only active tradeline is my mortgage and i have near 700 scores. we are just now contemplating an auto loan and credit card. figuring out how you are going to obtain credit cards needs to be the furthest thing from your mind. focus on building a decent savings account (at least 6 months of income) before trying to obtain credit. as a lender, i would rather buy a loan where someone has fair credit but good liquid assets compared to someone with good credit but no liquid assets.
