My BK Story and Hope for All

[Abanomi24]

I wanted to take a moment to come back to these forums and tell my BK story in order to provide some support and hope for those of you going through, or anticipating an upcoming BK.  

Here goes:

• I filed for BK in Feb 2013, discharged May 2013
• At the time of filing and discharge I had no credit cards, bank accounts, or investment accounts that were still live (FICO jumped from 518->647 at discharge)
• At discharge I immediately applied for and was approved for the Barclay card at $1000 (yes, I was shocked)
• I hung out in the garden waiting for my credit report to start clearing up the $323k in debt (mostly medical, 4 CC's at about $9K) for the next 6 months (FICO steadily, but slowly increasing to 689)
• During these 6 months I repeatedly disputed, did goodwill, and asked my former creditors to remedy my CR for "IIB" and misinformation
• At 6 months I applied and was approved for Cap One Quicksilver with a $500 CL (I was a bit mistified by the limit, but bumped to $1300 a few months ago)
• At 6 months I requested a CL increase on my Barclay card and was bumped to $2200
• On the Barclay card in those 6 months after BK I used about 12% of  the available CL and paid in full every month
• During those 6 months and since my BK I have paid each and every statement on time with automatic payments
• In the last 18 months since BK I have only applied for those two lines of credit, nothing else (My FICO did that readjustment thing about 3 months ago to 634 where it holds today)
• The hard inquiries from years before BK are all now gone from my CR
• All collections are gone (about 35 and $323k worth of debt) with the exception of one marked "IIB" (They still refuse to budge)
• My CR now reflects two CC's at $3500 total, one BK, one closed collection account, a foreclosure 4 years before BK, and 2 student loans paid on time and in full a number of years ago

So what happened today?

• I applied for the Cap One Spark for Business and was approved at $2000 while showing no business income and using my SS as the personal guarantee
• I applied for the Cap One Venture and was approved at 10 THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!

Lessons I learned:

• It's okay to be afraid of what will happen after BK
• Use the cards you receive to the 9-15% CL suggestions and pay in full with automatic payments
• Don't apply for anything else
• Stick to the plan!
• Spend time gardening and getting everything in your CR correct, even the BK information

Next:

• Home loan at the 2 year mark next year?
• Doing the same thing (since BK) over and over and this time expecting the GREAT results

A sincere thanks to everyone and I hope my story provides some perspective and optimism for those on this board.  I literally spent 10's and 10's of hours on here trying to find the best way forward and develop a plan with everyone's help.  My eternal gratitude to you all.

Rock on!

[pipeguy]

Nice post, congrats on your progress.

It might just be me, but I see so many posts on here about those that have filed BK and expect  - almost demand  - to be reinstated into the prime market with new cars, homes and a pocket full of high credit limit cards almost at once.

BK and foreclosure are serious and should not be used as a matter of convenience and yes they will haunt you for a long time. You are living proof that done right, one can recover using slow, steady, disciplined and responsible behavior without a sense of entitlement.

Your post shows how to do it (recover) correctly and I for one thank you for sharing your experiences - Bravo !.

(please....no pushback on why one has to file, I'm not looking to validate for or against, nor is this responce about "justification")

[MarineVietVet]

---

@Abanomi24 wrote:

I wanted to take a moment to come back to these forums and tell my BK story in order to provide some support and hope for those of you going through, or anticipating an upcoming BK.  

Here goes:

• I filed for BK in Feb 2013, discharged May 2013
• At the time of filing and discharge I had no credit cards, bank accounts, or investment accounts that were still live (FICO jumped from 518->647 at discharge)
• At discharge I immediately applied for and was approved for the Barclay card at $1000 (yes, I was shocked)
• I hung out in the garden waiting for my credit report to start clearing up the $323k in debt (mostly medical, 4 CC's at about $9K) for the next 6 months (FICO steadily, but slowly increasing to 689)
• During these 6 months I repeatedly disputed, did goodwill, and asked my former creditors to remedy my CR for "IIB" and misinformation
• At 6 months I applied and was approved for Cap One Quicksilver with a $500 CL (I was a bit mistified by the limit, but bumped to $1300 a few months ago)
• At 6 months I requested a CL increase on my Barclay card and was bumped to $2200
• On the Barclay card in those 6 months after BK I used about 12% of  the available CL and paid in full every month
• During those 6 months and since my BK I have paid each and every statement on time with automatic payments
• In the last 18 months since BK I have only applied for those two lines of credit, nothing else (My FICO did that readjustment thing about 3 months ago to 634 where it holds today)
• The hard inquiries from years before BK are all now gone from my CR
• All collections are gone (about 35 and $323k worth of debt) with the exception of one marked "IIB" (They still refuse to budge)
• My CR now reflects two CC's at $3500 total, one BK, one closed collection account, a foreclosure 4 years before BK, and 2 student loans paid on time and in full a number of years ago

So what happened today?

• I applied for the Cap One Spark for Business and was approved at $2000 while showing no business income and using my SS as the personal guarantee
• I applied for the Cap One Venture and was approved at 10 THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!

Lessons I learned:

• It's okay to be afraid of what will happen after BK
• Use the cards you receive to the 9-15% CL suggestions and pay in full with automatic payments
• Don't apply for anything else
• Stick to the plan!
• Spend time gardening and getting everything in your CR correct, even the BK information

Next:

• Home loan at the 2 year mark next year?
• Doing the same thing (since BK) over and over and this time expecting the GREAT results

A sincere thanks to everyone and I hope my story provides some perspective and optimism for those on this board.  I literally spent 10's and 10's of hours on here trying to find the best way forward and develop a plan with everyone's help.  My eternal gratitude to you all.

Rock on!

---

Outstanding work!!!

You're definitely on the right path. Congratulations.

[Anonymous]

Wonderful Job !! Thank you for sharing. May I ask you on Step 5, so to speak, what you were disputing and elaborate on the goodwill letters. I am 2 months post discharge of Chapter 13 and in the middle of disputes.  Were you trying to get the IIB's removed from your CR or were they just not listed?  I am in the process of trying to get some of the me to remove the Delinq reporting history after the BK was filed. 

[Anonymous]

Forgot one more question. Did you let one of these CC's report a balance at all after the statement cut. Or did you let them all report -0-.

[Abanomi24]

Sorry it's been a while.  I usually let them cut the statement with a balance of less than 8% (always less than 10%) of the total CL available on each card.  Then I paid the entire current balance before the due date for no interest charges.  This is to make your credit card utilization % favorable to the credit agencies as they penalize you if you never have credit card usage reported (even if you are using it and paying it in full before the statement date).

[Abanomi24]

Sorry, late again.  Hopefully you have this one figured out.  My GW letters mostly explained it as an unavoidable medical situation, which is actually listed in my BK as the reason (they changed this law to reflect why you filed for BK in the first place after the recession, I believe).  To answer the second part, most delinquent accounts were dropped from my CR after a couple of months from BK discharge and never showed IIB.  Now, over two years later there is just one out of that huge number of bad accounts reporting as IIB.  Just one, and that is an overdrawn bank account that I have called and written to with no luck.  It sucks, because it's the credit union of my college alma mater and I would love to be with them still.  Anyway, good luck and reach out with any other questions.