question about Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

I've got a discharged 7 on all 3 CRA reports. In another 2 weeks all 3 of my scores will be over 700 because I paid all my credit cards down to $1.50 yesterday and of course I continue to dispute...
With scores over 700 your BK won't mean much against you. At 750 your BK won't stand in your way at all.

 

Just curious...first it was gonna be to $5 then last night you said $2...so I guess you went for $1.50 huh? Must be nice. Oh well........someday I'll be prime too

 

I just went on line and pulled a copy of my report and score from one of the CRB.

I filed Chapter 7 in 1999. Wiped out all my debt except my mortgage. Since then I have obtained 4 auto loans, co-signed for my daughter on an auto loan, I have 3 credit cards; two with good limits (over $3000) and a rate below 18%, I have obtained a personal signature loan and I am in the process of refinancing my mortgage to lower my interest rate.

My score is currently 645. I don't know if that is good or bad, but it seems ok to me. I still get credit approved.

My report does say that I have too many inquiries and that is one reason the score is lower than it could be, but I noticed that most of the inquiries are from companies i don't even have an account with or I haven't applied for credit with them. To me, that doesn't seem right that a company is able to obtain your report and make an inquiry without your consent and have it affect your score. I didn't ask them to review my report, so why should it affect my score?

Does anyone know if there is a way to stop this inquiry crap?

 

Louie,

As long as that Ch. 7 shows most prime companies will not touch you. Chase, MBNA, First USA, and BofA all have policies that state as long as BK shows no application will be approved.

Sean

 

Sean is correct about the anti-chapter 7 posture that some companies have because I experience it. But if your scores are high enough BK means less and less. If you've got a BK and a 750 score you probably would get most anything you applied for. Assuming of course that your debt ratio could stand it.

Christi, $5 is a figurative term. I know not to pay down to $0 and I know to leave at least a balance of $1 or more. My cards were all charged right to the hilt. Two of those cards with the maxed out limits helped cause my EQ score to tumble 66 points in 2 weeks.

Out of an abundance of caution I paid every card down to $1.50. From doing this month in and month out I know what to expect. By Jan. 20 if not sooner, my scores will take a jump of 20-40 points.

 

Could you explain this please....why wouldn't you want to pay it down to $0?

 

ok....reading this board has made me think more closely about my interest rates on my cards.

I just now called one of them (I have two accounts with them) and on one of them I got the interest rate lowered to 0% until August and the other I got the rate reduced to 14% and an increase of another $500.00 plus this card has a stupid annual fee that I pay every month....but they wiped that out also.

Tomorrow I'm going to call my other card and request the same!

 

Many cards have a 25 day grace period so that you can pay no interest if you pay it to $0 on or before the due date. What they don't tell you is that if you ever pay the card to a $0 balance you will hurt your scores sometimes dramatically. The Fico scoring model penalizes you for not having a balance. On the other hand, you get a higher score if your balance is very low. You should never allow your balance to exceed 35% if you're trying to rapidly build your score but best case scenario is a blance of $1.50 or so. As long as your balance is more than $1. I have a chapter 7 BK on all 3 reports. Look at my scores. They were all in the low 400's in March of 2001. They are still climbing.

 

superadman, I get a good feeling after reading all of your posts, knowing that I will also be able to increase my scores someday even with a discharged ch.7. However, I have questions for you or other posters here who know theirs scores from all reports. I asked one question in a separate post but I don't think I got an answer that I understood... Anyway,

1. Are the scores you list in your signature all fico scores or the various independant scores from each credit bureau?

2. How do you go about checking your scores regularly without paying the $8.00 or $8.50 each time?

Thank you.

 

There is life after BK...

The scores I post are the ones that come with each CRA report. EX and EQ are based on the FICO scoring model, TU has their own strange procedure that typically causes your score to appear higher. The top possible score on TU is almost 100 points higher than the top possible score on EQ or EX. Go figure.

Go to http://creditexpert.com and sign up for credit manager. It is free for the first 30 days then $79.95 for the year. This a good service, you can view your live score and report every day whenever you like.

Then go to http://myfico.com and order the subscription to Score Power that allows you 4 separate pulls of your live score and credit report for only $38.85.

TU has an online subscription service that they will sonn make available to consumers later this month. In the meantime, you can go to http://www.transunion.com/Personal/OrderCreditReport.asp and order your score and credit report online free if you live in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, or Vermont or $8.50 or less in any other state.

All three CRAs online score and report programs allow you to do online disputing which is a very good thing, believe me.

Just follow these instructions and you will soon have peace of mind, you'll know your scores. Good luck.

 

Thank you for the information. I already have subscribed to the myfico service so I know my EQ score from 12/5/01, which was 602. I will definitely subscribe to the creditexpert and TU's new service when it shows up.

 

Louie: I have two cards through Capital One. One card has $1000 limit and the other 3200. One of them (not sure which off hand) has 0% interest until August (I think the lower one)and the other is 14%

The other card is with Providian with a $3700 limit. They won't work with me as much, never would. I requested numerous times to have the interest lowered, but just finally over the weekend, they agreed to lower it from 23.99% to 19%. Not enough for me, but I'll take it for now.

 

needinfo: You can get your score free from TU. I did it on-line. I got my report and my score combined. That is of course if you haven't pulled your report within a year or if you have been declined credit within the past 60 days.

Some states may charge for an on-line view. check it out though, because it didn't cost me anything from them.

 

What event brought you to Ch 7 in 1999?

Thanks,

David

 

I had a chp 7 filed in March 2001, discharged July 2001. Scores are TU-647 EQ-637 EXP-643. 7 good tradelines including an auto loan dating back 10 years before the chp 7 helped me I think. When I checked my reports I thought I'd be in the 500's!