Stagnant Credit Scores

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2017

Good morning:

I filed chapter 7 bankruptcy last February (its was discharged in May). I included 2 car notes, a judgement for a voluntary repossesion, a capital one 360 account, capital one credit card, and various utility bills in it.

Post-bankruptcy, I applied for a Navy Federal Credit Card- $500 SL; and a Care Credit Card (Synchrony Bank) -$500 SL.

I still have my federal student loans (which are still in good standing because I am a student).

That is pretty much all that is on my credit- the two cards and the student loans, but my score is pretty stagnant. Prior to filing for the bankruptcy, my score was low 500's; it is now stuck at 620 (FICO) and has been for 3-4 months now.

Can I please have opinions/input on what else I need to be doing?

I have also being receiving prequalification letters from Capital One on a weekly basis, but I ignore them because I figured that I should lay off on opening new credit cards.

Please let me know what I should do; OR what you have done to get things moving?

Thanks!

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Good morning:

I filed chapter 7 bankruptcy last February (its was discharged in May). I included 2 car notes, a judgement for a voluntary repossesion, a capital one 360 account, capital one credit card, and various utility bills in it.

Post-bankruptcy, I applied for a Navy Federal Credit Card- $500 SL; and a Care Credit Card (Synchrony Bank) -$500 SL.

I still have my federal student loans (which are still in good standing because I am a student).

That is pretty much all that is on my credit- the two cards and the student loans, but my score is pretty stagnant. Prior to filing for the bankruptcy, my score was low 500's; it is now stuck at 620 (FICO) and has been for 3-4 months now.

Can I please have opinions/input on what else I need to be doing?

I have also being receiving prequalification letters from Capital One on a weekly basis, but I ignore them because I figured that I should lay off on opening new credit cards.

Please let me know what I should do; OR what you have done to get things moving?

Thanks!

What is your utilization on the two credit cards?

You do want a third credit card to maximize that component of your score, but you'll want to make sure your utilization is optimized before applying. One card should be reporting $0 and the other should report a small balance 1-9% of your credit limit on that card.

Anonymous · ‎03-06-2017

Thank you SteelerNYC,

My utilization is around 30% on my NF card, and 0% on my Care Credit Card.

So the ultimate goal is to keep one card pretty low, and then at the point, apply for say a Capital One card? If I do that, I am hoping for a higher limit, because having 3 cards with only a $500 limit isn't really worth much.