Hello everyone. This will be my first post and I wanted to introduce myself and give everyone a little bit of background on me, my credit situation, my current rebuilding strategy, and my future plans to obtain an 800+ credit score. 
My husband and I filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April 2013 and we received a discharge August 31 of 2013. Although we did not reaffirm our mortgage, we did decide to stay in our home and continue paying our mortgage payments because a few years ago we had our mortgage modified through the HAMP to a 2% fixed rate and our mortgage payment on a $200,000 home is only $650, so we cannot even rent this cheap. We currently owe about $40,000 more than our home is worth so it will be a while before we have any equity in our house. Our mortgage is with Ocwen bank and they have informed us that as long as we pay our monthly payment on time, they have no intentions of ever foreclosing on our home and in fact, if we pay off our home in full over the next 24 years of our loan, we will even get the deed to our home so it is a win-win situation for us. the only problem we are having is now that the mortgage is showing up as included in our chapter 7 bankruptcy, our monthly payments are not reporting anymore so I will have to call the bank and find out if we can fix that so that our monthly payments will report to our credit reports.
Our discharge was August 31 of 2013 and within a week of our discharge I started receiving preapproved credit offers from credit one bank, orchard bank, and capital one Bank. We were also receiving many preapproved offers for auto financing from the day we filed for bankruptcy but we decided to wait until the bankruptcy was discharged to buy a car. The first week of September I went online and applied for a preapproved capital one MasterCard and was given a $300 unsecured credit limit. The very next week we went to the Nissan dealership and financed a $25,000 brand new Nissan Altima with no money down, no trade-in, and were approved through Capital One. We received an interest rate of 15.99% for 72 months. Later that week my husband decided to apply for capital one MasterCard is well, even though he had not received a preapproved offer in the mail. We believe this may be due to the fact that he put a capital one MasterCard into our bankruptcy. At any rate, he applied online and was approved for $300 unsecured MasterCard, just like mine. So by the end of September 2013, just 30 days after our chapter 7 bankruptcy was discharged, we had a $25,000 auto loan at 15.99% with no money down, and each of us had a $300 unsecured capital one MasterCard platinum card. We decided not to apply for the credit one and orchard bank cards.
A few weeks after I received my capital one MasterCard in the mail, I noticed that I had another preapproved offer from capital one so I decided on a whim to apply for it and see what happened. To my surprise, capital one approved me for a second MasterCard unsecured with the credit limit of $500. My husband decided that he would go online and also apply for another capital one MasterCard just like I did but he received a response that they were unable to process his application. A week later we received a lettter in the mail stating that they could not approve the card because he already had another card application in process. We are assuming this was because of how new the first credit card was. In mid-October I was online shopping at Walmart when I noticed an offer for $25 in free merchandise credit if I opened a Walmart credit card online and spent at least $75 on my first purchase. I really did not expect to get approved but I applied anyways. Once again, to my surprise, I was approved instantly online for a $400 credit limit and the card was sent to me within a week. My husband went online the next day and also applied for the Walmart credit card but he was declined for the card. My husband had a Walmart card that was included in bankruptcy so this may be the reason. I also shop online at a store called womanwithin.com and they sent me a preapproval for a $250 credit card limit in my email a few weeks ago. I went to their site and applied for the card and was approved instantly online.
I forgot to mention that at the time our credit report was pulled for the vehicle at the dealership, both of our credit scores were in the mid to high 500s, so the fact that anyone would give us credit with scores that low was amazing to me. As of today, my husbands FICO score is now 665 according to myfico.com and my FICO score is 635, so our scores have went up significantly since the first week of September.
On a whim tonight, my husband logged in to pay a payment on his capital one MasterCard with the $300 limit and decided to see if he was pre-approved for another card. The message said he was not pre-approved but suggested the Platinum classic card, along with a few others. He decided to apply again for a second MasterCard with capital one since the letter we received in the mail stated that the reason they could not approve him at the time is because he had another application being processed. He selected the apply now button on the top suggested card. To our absolute surprise he was approved for a capital one MasterCard with a $2000 credit limit. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that, I absolutely could not believe it! So as of December 1, 2013, my husband and I each have two capital one MasterCard's with credit limits of $300, $500, $300, and $2000 respectively. I have a Walmart credit card with a $400 limit and a woman within credit card with a $250 limit. We are done applying for and getting credit cards for at least a year. We plan to pay on time every month of course, and keep our utilization below 10%. In one year from now we will apply for a barclays rewards card and see what else is possible for us at that time. We also plan on requesting credit limit increases every 4 to 6 months on the cards that we currently have.
I am so thankful to this board for the information that I have learned from reading the forums. I really and truly expected that I would have to rely on secured credit cards to start off with and never in a million years did I dream that we could get a car finance with no money down just days after a chapter 7 was discharged. I understand the interest rate is high but we plan to have this car paid off in full within the next 18 to 24 months. We are sending an extra $1000 every month with our payment so we can pay it off quickly, so the interest rate will effectively be way lower than 15.99%.
I also wanted to mention that we both applied for a target card and an Amazon card based on the information I read on these boards but we were both denied for the cards. I am thinking it is because our bankruptcy is so fresh so maybe after a year it would be easier for us to obtain these cards but in a year from now we will not want these cards. LOL. The only other thing that we plan to do is open a $3000-$5000 credit limit secured card through our credit union that will report to our credit reports and help to hopefully raise our credit scores, other than that we are happy with the cards that we have and have no intentions on applying for any more cards for at least a year.
One more thing, as soon as we received our capital one MasterCard's in the mail, we went online and register them for an online account to manage them. We put each other on as authorized users to each other's accounts and they are already showing up on our credit reports so I believe this is also helping our scores as well. I will update my signature as soon as I figure out how to do it and I plan to contribute as much as I can to this board and I appreciate all the help that I have received from reading so far.
@Divaofsongs wrote:Hello everyone. This will be my first post and I wanted to introduce myself and give everyone a little bit of background on me, my credit situation, my current rebuilding strategy, and my future plans to obtain an 800+ credit score.
My husband and I filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April 2013 and we received a discharge August 31 of 2013. Although we did not reaffirm our mortgage, we did decide to stay in our home and continue paying our mortgage payments because a few years ago we had our mortgage modified through the HAMP to a 2% fixed rate and our mortgage payment on a $200,000 home is only $650, so we cannot even rent this cheap. We currently owe about $40,000 more than our home is worth so it will be a while before we have any equity in our house. Our mortgage is with Ocwen bank and they have informed us that as long as we pay our monthly payment on time, they have no intentions of ever foreclosing on our home and in fact, if we pay off our home in full over the next 24 years of our loan, we will even get the deed to our home so it is a win-win situation for us. the only problem we are having is now that the mortgage is showing up as included in our chapter 7 bankruptcy, our monthly payments are not reporting anymore so I will have to call the bank and find out if we can fix that so that our monthly payments will report to our credit reports.
Our discharge was August 31 of 2013 and within a week of our discharge I started receiving preapproved credit offers from credit one bank, orchard bank, and capital one Bank. We were also receiving many preapproved offers for auto financing from the day we filed for bankruptcy but we decided to wait until the bankruptcy was discharged to buy a car. The first week of September I went online and applied for a preapproved capital one MasterCard and was given a $300 unsecured credit limit. The very next week we went to the Nissan dealership and financed a $25,000 brand new Nissan Altima with no money down, no trade-in, and were approved through Capital One. We received an interest rate of 15.99% for 72 months. Later that week my husband decided to apply for capital one MasterCard is well, even though he had not received a preapproved offer in the mail. We believe this may be due to the fact that he put a capital one MasterCard into our bankruptcy. At any rate, he applied online and was approved for $300 unsecured MasterCard, just like mine. So by the end of September 2013, just 30 days after our chapter 7 bankruptcy was discharged, we had a $25,000 auto loan at 15.99% with no money down, and each of us had a $300 unsecured capital one MasterCard platinum card. We decided not to apply for the credit one and orchard bank cards.
A few weeks after I received my capital one MasterCard in the mail, I noticed that I had another preapproved offer from capital one so I decided on a whim to apply for it and see what happened. To my surprise, capital one approved me for a second MasterCard unsecured with the credit limit of $500. My husband decided that he would go online and also apply for another capital one MasterCard just like I did but he received a response that they were unable to process his application. A week later we received a lettter in the mail stating that they could not approve the card because he already had another card application in process. We are assuming this was because of how new the first credit card was. In mid-October I was online shopping at Walmart when I noticed an offer for $25 in free merchandise credit if I opened a Walmart credit card online and spent at least $75 on my first purchase. I really did not expect to get approved but I applied anyways. Once again, to my surprise, I was approved instantly online for a $400 credit limit and the card was sent to me within a week. My husband went online the next day and also applied for the Walmart credit card but he was declined for the card. My husband had a Walmart card that was included in bankruptcy so this may be the reason. I also shop online at a store called womanwithin.com and they sent me a preapproval for a $250 credit card limit in my email a few weeks ago. I went to their site and applied for the card and was approved instantly online.
I forgot to mention that at the time our credit report was pulled for the vehicle at the dealership, both of our credit scores were in the mid to high 500s, so the fact that anyone would give us credit with scores that low was amazing to me. As of today, my husbands FICO score is now 665 according to myfico.com and my FICO score is 635, so our scores have went up significantly since the first week of September.
On a whim tonight, my husband logged in to pay a payment on his capital one MasterCard with the $300 limit and decided to see if he was pre-approved for another card. The message said he was not pre-approved but suggested the Platinum classic card, along with a few others. He decided to apply again for a second MasterCard with capital one since the letter we received in the mail stated that the reason they could not approve him at the time is because he had another application being processed. He selected the apply now button on the top suggested card. To our absolute surprise he was approved for a capital one MasterCard with a $2000 credit limit. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that, I absolutely could not believe it! So as of December 1, 2013, my husband and I each have two capital one MasterCard's with credit limits of $300, $500, $300, and $2000 respectively. I have a Walmart credit card with a $400 limit and a woman within credit card with a $250 limit. We are done applying for and getting credit cards for at least a year. We plan to pay on time every month of course, and keep our utilization below 10%. In one year from now we will apply for a barclays rewards card and see what else is possible for us at that time. We also plan on requesting credit limit increases every 4 to 6 months on the cards that we currently have.
I am so thankful to this board for the information that I have learned from reading the forums. I really and truly expected that I would have to rely on secured credit cards to start off with and never in a million years did I dream that we could get a car finance with no money down just days after a chapter 7 was discharged. I understand the interest rate is high but we plan to have this car paid off in full within the next 18 to 24 months. We are sending an extra $1000 every month with our payment so we can pay it off quickly, so the interest rate will effectively be way lower than 15.99%.
I also wanted to mention that we both applied for a target card and an Amazon card based on the information I read on these boards but we were both denied for the cards. I am thinking it is because our bankruptcy is so fresh so maybe after a year it would be easier for us to obtain these cards but in a year from now we will not want these cards. LOL. The only other thing that we plan to do is open a $3000-$5000 credit limit secured card through our credit union that will report to our credit reports and help to hopefully raise our credit scores, other than that we are happy with the cards that we have and have no intentions on applying for any more cards for at least a year.
One more thing, as soon as we received our capital one MasterCard's in the mail, we went online and register them for an online account to manage them. We put each other on as authorized users to each other's accounts and they are already showing up on our credit reports so I believe this is also helping our scores as well. I will update my signature as soon as I figure out how to do it and I plan to contribute as much as I can to this board and I appreciate all the help that I have received from reading so far.
I am at work so I cannot go into detail but.. I don't think this card is needed, both of you have 2-3 unsecured cards and an installment loan already. Maybe if there is a chance of it graduating to an unsecured card I could understand. I think it may help you get higher limit cards.. FICO likes 2-3 revolving cards and installment history which both of you guys have 
Hopefully someone else will chime in to help you. Congrats on the awesome progress so far and WELCOME TO THE BOARDS!
Agree with Scupra!!
Welcome to the boards, and congrats on dc! Mine was dc mid August and I cheated and had a secured card 2 weeks before my discharge already, and a month later cap one MC, and in October NFCU visa. So I'm on my way as well I keep my reported balance on one card only to 2%, and $0 report on the other two cards, but I use all three cards. I also have 2 federal school loans in good standing and reporting.
At the beginning of August all my scores were mid 400's, and now in my siggy. I'm still doing credit report clean up making sure everything is reporting as it should on accounts IIB. Once those report as they should , plus with my cards reporting over the next months... I should see more of a change by April
Welcome to the boards, and congrats on dc! Mine was dc mid August and I cheated and had a secured card 2 weeks before my discharge already, and a month later cap one MC, and in October NFCU visa. So I'm on my way as well
I keep my reported balance on one card only to 2%, and $0 report on the other two cards, but I use all three cards. I also have 2 federal school loans in good standing and reporting.At the beginning of August all my scores were mid 400's, and now in my siggy. I'm still doing credit report clean up making sure everything is reporting as it should on accounts IIB. Once those report as they should , plus with my cards reporting over the next months... I should see more of a change by April
@CrazyCatLady75 wrote:Isn't this too many different lines of credit? I'm just curious. I am newly debt free and I was under the impression you should have no more than 2 store cards and 2 regular cards.
I am learning right now. I am not even ready to apply for my first card yet as I have some credit report updates that need to be done.
It does not really matter how many credit cards you have as long as you use them responsibly and you keep your utilization reporting correctly. FICO likes to see under 10% util on one card and all other cards at $0 The only thing with acquiring may cards is the inquires and shortened AAoA that come along with them. Even at that though, your score will recover in time Hope this helps!
Congrats on your success Diva!
