Just today November 21, recieved a letter from Stephen Snyder at the After Bankrupcty Foundation. For those of you familiar with his prior book "Credit After Bankruptcy" and seminar you may know he has a new book coming out tentatively titled "It's All About Your Credit Scores." A paragraph from his letter follows: I finished writing the book last week and its now in the final stages of editing. After recently being trained by Fair Isaac Corporation again, I needed to add more information to the book. The book title may change, but this book is really good! Our goal is to have it ready by Christmas, but if we miss that deadline it will certainly be ready to go by January 2004. (Stephen spent his own money to go thru several training sessions so as to better understand the way Fair Isaac works and then did it again just recently!!! For those of you not familiar, Stephen and his wife have been thru BK, this is not someone who just wrote a book without going thru the financial hardships and the repair/rebuilding of credit.) You can also log onto www.afterbankruptcy.org for more info
I also filed bankruptcy a couple years ago. I read all the books. Then I stumbled upon Creditnet! As far as learning about fico and rebuilding credit..this forum helped me the most! The knowledge contained within the posts on this board are invaluable if you learn how to search and find the right info. Next Wednesday I close on my very first house. I owe it all to this board! Thanks so much for all those who offered their tips and advice and shared what has worked for them!
There was some discussion about these seminars several years ago. Some of the people posting at that time had been to one. Here is one of the posts. If you do a search for Snyder, you can find the old posts. There aren't too many.
Scarletjaz | 2 posts since Nov 2003 205.144.73.254 | 11.20.2003 @ 21:17 Chap 7 discharge 3/02, reaffirmed auto loan with Chase.. in excellent standing also have one credit card MC with Household... credit report was pulled last week TU 592 EXP 593 EFX 659 How are these increased up? Paying off the car and credit card in full? MC has a $200 balance but is current with payments... Auto will be paid off in '05 about $5??? left on it... What FICO's numbers are good with lenders 6?? Can anyone help? All comments will be greatly appreciated Scarletjaz "what comes around goes around"
One of my first steps after Bankruptcy was reading his book around 2 years ago. In his book he seemed like a really nice guy and knew what he was talking about. After some research on the internet and discovering how to pull credit reports with a FICO score on TU and EQ I felt like I knew how to make progress. I did alot of disputes and opened 5 credit card accounts in a short time period. I had no idea what Creditnet was until this year. Anyways I finally E-mailed Stephen Snyder to tell him what I had done and the results I had. He said there was no way I had that many deletions without using a credit repair company. Also he said that opening 5 accounts was a terrible idea and that I should have opened 3 accounts MAX after Bankruptcy. And then he said after 3 accounts go after a mortgage. Basically I told him I thought he was wrong because the results from what I was doing was right in front of me at all times. I guess maybe at that time I knew more about FICO then he did (at that time). Now after Stephen Snyder comes out with this book I am waiting to see what he really says about what to do after a Bankruptcy. The guy was a real jerk towards the end of our E-mails and we just could not even agree to anything. Basically he stuck to the point that I screwed up opening 5 accounts and should close 2 of them. I told him I understood not going into to debt again and 1.5 years later I am still at that route. He was so convinced 5 accounts opening after a Bankruptcy was a bad thing. At that time I E-mailed him about FICO scores and it did not matter. Anyways 1.5 years later he is coming out with a book soon and has information about how Fair Isacc works. I can't wait to read it, the guy owes me an apology for not being informed about FICO scores at that time. I still to this day think opening 5 positive accounts after a Bankruptcy is the right thing to do. From what I know now I wish I would have discovered Creditnet 2 years ago. You Vets would have had a nice discussion with him, trust me on that. I have found that the FICO score simulator is probably still one of the best things out there for improving your credit. If someone were to use all of the steps posted here on Creditnet along with the FICO score simulator it would still be the best advise I have seen anywhere! When I started I had almost 100 negative items between the 3 reports with the BK(7). Today you can read my scores and other members on this site have had at least this much success. I also have 7 open accounts, I am curious as to what Stephen Snyder's new book will say about doing things now. I really hope he learned alot from Fair Isacc and will print it in his new book.
The nice thing is, we all learn from different experiences and because of the way Snyder dealt with his bk, I think he fears others will make the mistake again and that is something we should all want to prevent. We are all aiming for the same thing, a great credit report and fico score. WE have had great results with help from this board as well as Creditboards.com and of course Stephens book. I got "gritchy" when I listened Suze Orman who knows absolutely nothing about bk but gives advice. If you haven't been thru it, you can't possibly begin to understand what needs to be done, both financially, emotionally, and with credit repair and rebuilding. She forgets so many of us are victims of recession, job loss and medical problems. So keep the info rolling in, good luck to all of us with our endeavors. PS: Gritchy- to be grouchy and bitchy at the same time, but make it not sound so bad.
J. Vick, I can understand Snyder's stand on how many credit cards. His role is to give out simple, easy to remember bullets that people can repeatedly execute. From a "keep it simple" standpoint, 3 cards sounds right. I'm sure he's concerned about how much debt any individual can rack up, and he wants people to succeed, not fail. For you, 5 (or more) cards worked out well. It's too bad he couldn't give a disclaimer along those lines - "not what I tell people, but if it worked for you, great!"
Snyder is also in business and has a strong point of view. Just remember -- empiricism is the greatest test of correctness. In other words, if it worked for you, you were right. Finally, we all know that multiple deletions can occur in a short period of time for do-it-yourselfers who don't mind turning credit repair into a consuming avocation (or, in my case, addiction), LOL. Doc P.S. I also appreciate Snyder's point, since too many bank card accounts comprise one of FICO's "reasons" accompanying a lower credit score. That said, you've proven that five cards wasn't catastrophic in your case. As your credit rating continues to improve, you might consider going for higher lines of credit on two or three of your cards and then cancelling one or two others. Big credit lines on fewer cards makes for a better score than do lower credit lines on a fistful of them.
Everyone has different experiences. I've emailed Snyder a few times, and I've always found him to be very nice and extremely helpful. And his book and seminar are the biggest reason I am now a homeowner. We are all products of our own experiences. No matter what the person's or company's reputation, I'm willing to bet that someone on this board has had a negative experience with that person or company. And I imagine every creditor has violated the law at least one person while trying to collect.
Stephen Snyder really is a nice guy and is really helpful, but his straight ahead point of view on credit repair and rebuilding is the only thing that bothers me. I suppose he is right though, if he is dealing with the average person that recently went through a BK the simple straight ahead approach to only open 3 cards is probably right. I guess some of us take credit repair and rebuilding to alot higher levels than what is normal. He just could not agree at all that in my unique credit situation that opening 5 credit cards was the right thing to do. He does mean well but he is really strong headed on what he believes. I honestly can't wait to see the information about Fair Isacc in his new book. It might break things open to a higher level than what most of us know now.
