Bankruptcy friendly credit cards

[whitehat]

Jakookie,

I'm no expert but, this is what I did to go from BK discharge and zero credit to now having credit cards with $25,000 limits within 18 months.

You can use all your cards but, even though it is difficult with low limits try to keep your balances under 10% and pay them off completely when you get your statement.  If you use more than 10% of your credit limit, pay it down/off before your billing cycle closing date this way a higher balance won't be reported.  This essentially does a few things for you:  #1 it shows you aren't living off your credit #2 you won't pay any interest charges and most important #3 you're keeping your debt-to-credit ratio low.  Your debt-to-credit ratio is a pretty high factor in calculating your credit score.  First each account is factored individually then they are summed up and looked at altogether.

I don't see this mentioned much but, payment amounts are actually reported. I am not sure if this is factored in to FICO scores but, I do know this does work to your benefit when you pay balances in full each month when requesting CLIs.

Of course.. this advice is on top of the usual don't apply for a ton of cards, pay on time, diversify your credit account types (credit cards, auto loan, personal loans, lines of credit, whatever you can), let your accounts season minimum 6+ months before thinking about applying for new credit (remember lenders need to see that you can handle the new credit line), etc. 

[Scupra]

When I initially obtained my Cap One card it had a $500 limit and was enrolled in the "credit steps program" It stated that on my 7th (can't remember exactly) statement I would receive a $250 CLI. I logged in today to see if the CLI had been applied to my card yet and to my complete surprise my limit is now showing $2,000!!!!! Not sure why it was done or how but I am going to count my blessings and accept it Happy re-building all

[mk2012]

I wasnt set up to get an email when someone replied and I forgot where I posted this question! Sorry for the late response. His credit score is 650 because he had a repo on a Cap One car loan. He let his brother "take over the payments!' and that never happened, the brother wrecked the car, never told us, never paid! AGH I know it was against my better judgement but I couldn't convince him otherwise at the time. That may be the reason why. 

[starry1]

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@Scupra wrote:

When I initially obtained my Cap One card it had a $500 limit and was enrolled in the "credit steps program" It stated that on my 7th (can't remember exactly) statement I would receive a $250 CLI. I logged in today to see if the CLI had been applied to my card yet and to my complete surprise my limit is now showing $2,000!!!!! Not sure why it was done or how but I am going to count my blessings and accept it Happy re-building all

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That's awesome, scupra!

[hrguy]

Good Scupra!  I think they are revamping their processes and realizing they will lose customers after the rebuilding is done if they didn't change

[Scupra]

Thanks guys! 3x CLI is ok with me anytime they want to try out new tactics! haha

[StevenMDG]

SO helpful to have all of you great people here helping each other. I myself got into pretty deep debt due to medical bills and went chapter 7. I burned allot of CC capitol 1 and HSBC CC and store cards. I was finally discharged, I reaffirmed my house since I have good equity in it and now looking to start rebuilding. Does anyone have any clues on what card I should apply for first or start with? i see Orchard was bought by HSBC now and was skeptical of going there. My discharge has been anout a month and a half now. I make good money but would like to rebuild credit so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Guyatthebeach]

Since you burned Capital 1, you want to go the credit union route. You may get lucky since you reaffirmed your mortgage and get an unsecured CC. If not I'm sure you can get a CU-backed CC. After 6 months of great payment history, try for an unsecured card.

[StevenMDG]

Thanks for the heads up. I will try the CU way first. Just dont want to drop a bunch of apps out there if they are not going to get approved. Also some things are sill on my credit report so I know I need to wait for them to update correct?

[Scupra]

A card that everyone knows is BK friendly, Express, but I wanted to be excited...

I just got my first pre approval in probably 5 years! Express sent me a letter with an id # to enter on their site. I know it's nothing special, but it does feel good. Happy rebuilding