Credit Score post bankruptcy

[EBates]

Hi there! I am new to the forum. I have some questions about post bankruptcy. I am scheduled to be discharged 2/4/2014. My current score is 572. Will this change after my discharge? Is it normal for the score to drop immediately after? What was your game plan to rebuild credit? I wanted to hopefully buy a new car soon. I have one credit account of revolving credit with a 1000 limit that I kept. Tell me your story! Just trying to get a game plan. I only have a few weeks left!

[0REDSOX7]

Ebates, welcome.

I, like you, am scheduled for discharge on 2/4/14.

Your score will not drop anymore when your bankruptcy status updates from In-Process to Discharged.  What will have the biggest impact on your score will be to ensure that all accounts are reporting properly.  Are all the accounts you listed in your BK reporting as IIB (included in BK) and reporting a zero balance.

You can go ahead a pull a copy of your credit reports and see how everything looks.  If you see stuff that is not reporting accurately, you can go ahead and dispute.  I had to do this with several of my accounts (Mainly Capital One), but, you can do this now or wait until after.

[EBates]

Thanks for the response! I think I will pull my reports in about a week. Thanks for the tip! Are you planning to start off the rebuilding process with a secured card? I know I've heard both negatives and positives with that. I think it would be much easier than trying to get an unsecured. Well at least not right away

[0REDSOX7]

I havent decided what Im gonna do yet with the rebuild.

I dont want to do a secured card - frankly, I don't want any credit cards, but, this country penalizes those who don't have them with lower scores.  If anything, I'll give it a few months and go for the Barclay's card.

My scores now range from 670 - 685 across all three bureaus, so, we shall see.

I'll still have my student loans reporting post BK, so I have that.

[StartingOver10]

After you have your discharge in hand, you will want to rebuild anyway - even if you don't want to obtain a lot of credit.

Your credit score affects things like your auto insurance rates and job possibilities too so.

Barclays wants to see a min of 12 months of re-established credit after your discharge before they will issue you a card (usually).

Here is a great thread on "How to" rebuild after your discharge from one of the members (Soulmaster) that did it:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Bankruptcy/HOW-TO-From-BK7-discharge-to-700-in-24-months-or-less/td-...