In October 2004, I filed Chapter 13 BK. I paid in full and completed my plan and received a discharge in May 2008. It was my understanding that Chapter 13 falls off your report 7 years from the date of filing, not discharge. Is this correct? If so, it should fall off my report October 2011, correct? Will my negative accounts (those with late payments prior to filing the BK) drop off in 7 years? Is it 7 years from the date of last payment? It's not last reported, right? Because I have one old account closed in May 2005 (this was a home loan that I kept during the BK. I had the house for sale. The only reason I really filed the Ch. 13 is that I had a $23,000 second that would be discharged as a unsecured debt (not enough equity in house to cover 1st & 2nd). The house was being sold as a short sale, and negotiations with the bank took several months, which lead to late payments still being reported on that loan, even though I had filed a BK (they filed for a relief from stay to foreclose, even though I had told them I was trying to sell/work on a short sale). In any event, that is a long, complicated story that I could explain further if someone was really interested, but my main point is this: When will that account (Countrywide) fall off my report? It is reported as "date of last activity - 8/2004" but date account closed is listed as 5/2005, and date reported is listed as 4/2009. I have NO IDEA why there would be date reported nearly FOUR years after Countrywide was paid and the house sold. Any thoughts on this? I may have inquired about those late payments around that time, trying to clean up my report or something, but that shouldn't trigger a re-aging on a paid and closed account, right?
During and since the filing, I have made all payments to my student loan accounts (man those things take FOREVER to pay down/off!) I have re-established credit (Juniper Bank opened 12/08, Credit Union line of credit 3/08, Gap account 8/08, Household Bank 1/08, Orchard Bank 9/05, CitiBank/Dell Financial 3/07, and was added to my husband's Macy's card (he opened it 5/88). I am also on our mortgage now, opened 5/09. NONE of these accounts have ANY late payments since opened. I have been fanatical about setting up online payments to make sure nothing is ever late. I always pay more than the minimum. I am actively working to reduce my utilization, which, on just my credit cards (not mortgage or installment/student loans) is being show on Equifax as 67%. I am looking to have this reduced to under 10% because I know the high utilization is hurting my score. My current score with Equifax is 638. Given that the BK is nearly gone, and I've re-established some credit with a flawless payment history, I am surprised (or a I guess disappointed) that the score is not higher. I need to check my other reports/scores as well to get a baseline. Other than reduce my utilization, what can I do to improve the score? I am looking to reach 750+
Primarily interested in when the negative accounts will fall off (date of last payment? date of last activity? date reported?) and since they are actually all over 6+ years since last payment/activity, are they really have much of a negative impact on my credit, or is it primarily the utilization? Also, the highest limit on my credit cards is $3,500. Right now, it seems creditors do not want to (1) lower interest rates or (2) increase credit limits, so until my utilization is lower, I am not going to even try.
Thanks for any suggestions/comments!
