Rebuilding My Credit After BK 7!

[riverbluffer]

Hello all!  I'm mainly going to use this thread to keep track of my progress.  I recently was discharged from BK 7 and I am on the road to rebuilding.  I just opened a Cap1 auto loan and I received my secured Matrix Discover card today.  I also just opened a banking account with Chase and I want to build a good relationship with them.  I'm hoping these two lines will help me rebuild a positive history and raise my scores!

My secured cc has a limit of $300 and I will be using it just for gas and paying the balance before it reports.  My auto loan is for about $23k at 19% (ouch!) and I plan to refi after about a year or so after I establish a good payment history.

My scores as of 7/22/12 were 472 (TU) and 487 (EQ).  I was discharged on 7/24/12 and my score as of today is 528 (EQ) due to some accounts posting as $0 balance and discharged.  I'm also hoping that as more accounts report with the discharge my score will continue to increase.

So to all of you out there who have successfully rebuilt credit, do you think I am on the right track?  Is there anything I can do now to help me rebuild credit?  Is there anything I should consider in the future when rebuilding my credit?

Any advice would be great!

Thanks!  

[tboy1977]

i wish you would have gone to a credit union or gotten a secured card instead.  you may have bad credit, but there is still no excuse for the predatory lending practics of Matrix, Applied, Credit One, or First Premier.  otherwise you are doing well.  congratulations on the cap1 auto loan.  while id like to see you with a higher limit on card, while maintaining zero or low balance, ultimately, nothing but time will heal this wound

many secured cards offer near prime interest rates and some, especially with a credit union, have no annual fee.  and certainly no monthly fees

[riverbluffer]

---

@tboy1977 wrote:

i wish you would have gone to a credit union or gotten a secured card instead.  you may have bad credit, but there is still no excuse for the predatory lending practics of Matrix, Applied, Credit One, or First Premier.  otherwise you are doing well.  congratulations on the cap1 auto loan.  while id like to see you with a higher limit on card, while maintaining zero or low balance, ultimately, nothing but time will heal this wound

many secured cards offer near prime interest rates and some, especially with a credit union, have no annual fee.  and certainly no monthly fees

---

I did obtain a secured card with Matrix (Continental  Finance).  I activated it today and immediately paid my balance to $0... they charge a $75 annual fee at account opening.  This is just one of the many growing pains of rebuilding credit.  My goal is to graduate to more secured cards and eventually unsecured.  Cap1 turned me down for a secured card (even though they approved an auto loan lol) so I have to start somewhere.  I just openend an account with Chase so I will see if they have any secured options for me to explore.

[leah5570]

Maybe go in to your local credit union and look into one more secured credit card. Then you will have two credit cards about the same age. 

In 12-18 months, go back to the same credit union for the refi on the auto loan. Capital One doesn't refi on their auto loans. 

Establishing a good relationship with a local credit union saves you a lot in the future and opens more doors for you. That's my new mission. I was working very hard on my credit for the past two years, ultimiately filed bankruptcy 7 in October of last year. Only have a Cap One credit card unsecured. Need to set aside some money for a secured card at my credit union. 

[riverbluffer]

This is an update to my post-BK progress...

My FICO for EQ as of today is 543, a big jump from the 487 I had pre-BK.  I can proudly say that everything is going as smooth as possible!  Since my discharge, I managed to open an auto loan with Cap1 and get a secured card with Matrix.  Also today, I just got my first pre-approval mailer from First Premier Bank.  I applied and got approved for an unsecured MC with a starting limit of $700.  Of course there are fees but that is to be expected given my credit situation.

I also recently opened a bank account with Chase (as mentioned above) and I have been managing it very well, actually keeping up with my checkbook this time lol!

It feels good to be free of all that derogetory debt and to be on the right path to rebuilding my credit for the future... a better car, new house, etc.

Any ideas on extra steps I can take to rebuild are welcome!