My FICO was 740, husband's was 720 last year. No lates, just lots of debt. I was in 2 car accidents early in 2002 and had to stop work. Disability was held up and we had no choice but to file BK. Filed in September, discharged in December. We surrendered one car and our home. Now renting an apartment. My FICO per Equifax is now about 520, husband's about 560. 1. Our house is going into foreclosure. Yes, we surrendered it, it shows on Equifax as Included in BK. Will the foreclosure further screw up our credit? 2. The car that we surrendered - shows on Equifax as 3 30-day lates and a balance due of $10000. We were never late prior to filing BK. The lates were for 9/02 (we filed 9/16/02), 10/02 and 11/02. 3. A previous home mortgage is showing up twice - the company sold the mortgage to another company, I guess. It was "Paid as Agreed" and shows -0- balance on both listings. Do we need to do anything with this? 4. The car that we kept shows up as "pays as agreed" but it also says "Reaffirmation of Debt-Auto". Is this messing up our score?? 5. We have only ordered credit reports from Equifax so far. Should we order the other two and check them, or would they just show the same information as Equifax? Basically, we are devastated about how low our scores dropped following the bankruptcy, and would like some specific steps to take to increase our scores. Where in the world do we start?? Thanks very much.
I'm sorry to hear about your financial problems. With the BK filing so recent, you will be hard pressed to find someone who will extend unsecured credit to you. I would recommend starting with a secured credit card from a reputable bank (i.e Bank of America, etc.) and start that way. Prepare yourself for high APR's and fees associated with subprime credit. Try to avoid Cross Country Bank, First Premier, and other companies that cater to sub prime consumers. These companies have all kinds of fees attached to their cards. Best of luck to you in your rebuilding process. Please know that there are many people at this site that have been in your shoes and are here to help you. Sean
Hi Bev Sorry to hear about your accidents and foreclosure problems If you would like to monitor your credit reports from all three cra I would reccommend privacy guard. Right now you can get 3 month trial for one dollar. This should help you see whats going on all three reports Good luck and hang in there,a lot of us have been in even worse shape than you guys are now. pb
