I would like to help my daughter who wants to get on the right path after some unfortunate circumstances. As I started my credit journey much later than my BK, I wasted many years in there. So, if you would give me your best suggestions for steps to take immediately after filing a BK 7. She is going through a divorce, this BK7 was with ex-to-be, and she has a young child..there are definitely tough circumstances. Not making an excuse, just explaining. So far, we have 1) gotten her credit reports my hunch is that we shoudl 2) ensure entries are correctly marked as in BK?? 3) She has accounts that are the sole responsibility of her soon-to-be ex on her account and they should be disputed/removed. 4) Never send the BK papers to the CRA's 5) Somehow get a secured card???? Money's tight, tight so it would have to be a $200 one. All help is much appreciated.
On point two, never turn a small negative into a large and almost impossible to remove lager negative. Before you dispute an item as included in BK, post the item here. On point three, I don't exactly understand what you are saying. If she has his individual accounts on her report, they should not have been their in the first place. As soon as they are living at different addresses these should be no problem to have removed. The two main things are to work on getting the three credit reports as fixed as is possible and to get one or two secured credit cards. If you have negative items that can't be removed, you do want to have them closed so they will age of the report. Don't dispute positive closed items as they may just get deleted. Make sure the here name and address is spelled correctly on all three reports. Here are two links for secured cards: http://www.cardweb.com/cardtrak/surveys/secured.html http://www.cardoffers.com/reviews/c...9&apr2=9999&intro=9999&Submit.x=32&Submit.y=9 Good luck.
I agree with what Erik says on the credit report issues, and DEFINATLY have her get some sort of credit card. I got Aria/Getsmart about 3 mos out of BK. Non-secured. Then I got capital one around that time soon, 99.00 security deposit. My best friend went thru a bad divorce and BK about 5yrs ago, she didnt want anything to do with credit cards for 4yrs after the BK. She had a hard time qualifying for a house refinance because she didnt have 2yrs of established credit on 3 different tradelines. She sys she could kick herself for not following others advice on getting 2-3 credit cards right after. She could have been in a better situation right now if she had done that. Good Luck, Jamee
I waited, too, almost 5 years. I was lucky because some of my positives from before the BK remained and I had those to deal with. Luckily, my daughter has her car, which she reaffirmed, with a perfect payment history so she has something. But, her report is a disaster!!!
Erk, I have read that you shouldnt send your BK papers to the CRA's (whewww, shouldnt be trusting my mortgage broker) My wifes bk was filed in 10/95 and discharged in 2/96 so its been almost 7 years. What is the best way to remove the bk items from her credit?
Dispute them as obsolete due to the dates/age! You can start now as they sometimes delete up to 6 months before the final of the 7 years.
Thanks... So something like this.... Dear CRA, The following 4, 7, 20 ?? items listed in my credit report are obsolete due to the date listed. Please remove them ASAP. ???
Gr8design Generally you should never send your bankruptcy papers to any of the three major CRA's. The date that the BK was filed is the date that should be used for aging the accounts assuming you are talking about a chapter 7 bankruptcy. Actually Experian and Trans Union go by the date of status. Equifax uses the date of last activity. These dates should be the same as the date the bankruptcy was filed or entered. The bankruptcy items should age off the report in October of this year. I would call up the credit bureaus in September and dispute up to three items at a time if they are still on the reports. For a dispute like this the CRA's don't need any additional information. All they need is the date the bankruptcy was filed which is, of course, all ready on the report. Good luck.
1) Correct thing to do...now verify accuracy of reports 2) See #1...If items are included in BK make sure there is no reporting of account after filing date. 3) Any account that does not have her listed as an owner on the account(not authorized user) should be disputed and removed immediately. 4) ABSOLUTELY CORRECT 5) Correct...best bets are CAP1 or FCNB...keep limits low and pay in full every month for about 1 yr before even considering increases. Good luck and I hope this helps. fla-tan
Yep, These entries should be removed as they are obsolete. Period. While technically they don't have to until the last day of the 7th year, I've had 3 removed with a 6 months left time period. Also, check when they say they are due to remain on your report because I had some last activities that were before my BK (I mean, you stop paying before the BK generally) so they actually had 7 years from earlier dates. They may be different than the BK. I have one coming off in November but my BK is 7 years next june! Fla-Tan: Thanks!
It was very wise that she reaffirmed her car loan. This adds a very big positive to her post Chap 7 bk credit reports. It is vital that she continue making on-time payments until it is paid off. This will add many points to her credit score. American Pacific has a secured card. You said she can only put down about $200 right now. The minimum for A.P. is $300. It would be worth the effort to come up with the extra $100. I heard it is a pretty good card to have. I believe they report it to all 3 credit reporting agencies as an Unsecured Card. Target is known to be good to Chap 7 applicants, although the credit limit might be kind of low to start. If she plans on applying for any other cards MAKE SURE that she (or you) ask the people on this forum for their advice. For example, there are many card that will turn you down automatically with an early Chap 7 on the report. i.e. Wal*Mart, Home-Depot, JC Penny Be careful about sending out disputes without pre-checking with the forum. Wrongly worded disputes can get you unwanted results. Especially with Experian. They are very stubborn with their investigations. It is hard to get them to investigate any single item more than twice. Please do a keyword search on: CHOD on the forum. This will help her later in the year with her disputes. I hope she kept her old creditor statements. She needs to find out the Date of Last Activity for each account on her reports. Most dates on credit are incorrectly listed. She needs to know when the negative info must be removed.
Just from my own experience having filed March of 2001 here's my story: I did order my reports right after my discharge and got busy disputing with all three. I tried using the suggestions here and have had half-way success in getting some things removed or changed. What I did notice was that not all of my creditors had had enough time to update and I really could have waited a month or so to give them time to report the bk notation because some that I hadn't gotten to yet automatically got caught up. Mine all say "included in bk" (equifax & TU) or "discharged in bk" (experian) with zero balances and these are listed as negative items. My Texaco and Mervyns survived the bk and have helped me rebuild and I also got a Providian a couple of months after discharge (only $1000-even at 23.99% my finance charge is only a few bucks cause I keep it low or paid anyway.) I then got Orchard $300.00, 18.99 unsecured about 2-3 months after discharge. I did get offers to apply for these and was disputing at the time I applied, which I don't know for sure helps or not, but may be worth a shot. I know the rates seem unreasonable after having such low ones before bk but I figure it's to get me going for now and to help me rebuild a whole new history of on time payments. It's up to me how much this kind of credit will cost me by how much I charge and with these low limits that's not a huge worry. I got turned down for Target the first time I applied but did get $200 a couple of months later (less than 6 mos discharge) and they automatically raised it to $500 after a couple of months. I got offers for FCNB, DMB and others but their fees were totally outrageous. I just went with the best I was offered at the time and hubby too. I didn't use or apply for any secured cards so I don't know about them. All in all, my scores are in the mid 600's now. I just pulled Equifax and it's at 660 (was at 597 in Dec), TU is at 672. I figure one or two more years and I should be a little better off to apply for a FHA loan. My advice would be to not panic or worry that you have to get it ALL fixed at once. In my case (not saying everyone's) things did catch up, my disputes worked in some cases (sometimes on the second, third try etc.), and the offers for new credit products did come. Disputes are like a roll of the dice in my opinion. I have had mixed results but will surely keep trying. Really, I expect to live with the bk reporting, it is mine. I'm just trying to work around it as much as I can to get on with things. The only creditor who really ticks me off on Experian is Discover because they keep reporting as a charge off and "petiton for bk" which no one else has, and the dates don't coincide with my case. My next step (after spacing out a few tries) is try directly with them although I've also heard that it's just "their way" of reporting and it doesn't hurt me any worse than the bk reporting itself! I really don't know who or what to believe anymore but I shall forge ahead... Good luck to your daughter. I'm sorry things have worked out like this for her but tell her to have hope, it's very possible to rebuild soon after discharge and the offers will come by the droves. Just be selective and don't take something because you're afraid that might be the best you can get. My offers ran the gamut of reasonable (as much as so after a bk) to outright ridiculous. Newstdt
