topic Re: Life After Bankruptcy! in Credit Card Approvals

Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:36:19 GMT

I was discharged last month. And I have a few cards with small limits! What are some suggestions!

I have Belks $500
JCPenney $400
Capital 1 $200
Walmart 700
Lowes 300
Amazon 700
Care Credit 800

This is my first time having cards ever! But utilization is under 10% so far!

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

AverageJoesCredit — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:56:11 GMT

Welcome to the forum Just use them wisely and be patient. They will grow with time. Also be careful getting so many Sync cards, hopefully not all at once as that can lead to future scrutiny ( hopefully not). Good luck on your restablishing your credit.

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

coldnmn — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:57:16 GMT

Suggestion Garden! Congrats!

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 01:11:55 GMT

Similar situation 2 months post CH 7 discharge. Funny you got approved for ones I was denied (Walmart, JC Penny, Capital One.

I have seen lots of love from Commenity with the following approvals:

Victoria Secret $250

HSN $1,000

Pottery Barn $2,000

Pier 1 $500

Eddie Bauer $250

J Crew $250

Marathon Gas $250

Samuels Jewlers $2,000

I also was approved for :

Kohls $300

Matrix Mastercard $500 high fees so not sure if worth it

Surge Mastercard $500 high fees so not sure if worth it

1st Access (Total) Visa $300

1st Premier Mastercard $500

Gettington $500

Von Maur - varying line of credit

DFCU Secured Personal Loan (waiting on paperwork)

Credit One Mastercard $1,500

I know I went a little crazy but wanted to get enough total credit that I could actually use a card and still keep balances low.

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 01:20:28 GMT

I was thinking the same thing!

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 01:21:02 GMT

Are they bad to deal with?

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 01:23:53 GMT

@njcobra I have a few comenity cards! I wanna close the but I don't want my score to drop. I been working with a credit repair company. So I don't use a lot of them.

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 01:56:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was discharged last month. And I have a few cards with small limits! What are some suggestions!

I have Belks $500
JCPenney $400
Capital 1 $200
Walmart 700
Lowes 300
Amazon 700
Care Credit 800

This is my first time having cards ever! But utilization is under 10% so far!

Welcome to the forum, congrats on the approvals. Now, let them seat for 6 months and request a CLI to increase your available credit.

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 06:15:12 GMT

welcome !! congrats on your rebuild. take it slow. remember, it's a marathon not a race.

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 07:13:26 GMT

Congrats on your start to rebuilding. Now that you have a hand full of new cc's, stop applying. You need to establish positive payment history and responsible usage before the limits will grow. If you keep applying right now, you will continue to get these low starting limits if you are approved. It will take so much longer to grow these lower limits. If you wait until you are re-established, you will be rewarded with higher starting credit limits.

Good luck!

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 08:54:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was discharged last month. And I have a few cards with small limits! What are some suggestions!

I have Belks $500
JCPenney $400
Capital 1 $200
Walmart 700
Lowes 300
Amazon 700
Care Credit 800

This is my first time having cards ever! But utilization is under 10% so far!

Congratulations to you!...Thanks for sharing.

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

daveg38 — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 11:12:38 GMT

Yes, most definitely congratulations on your many approvals!

I burned 1 Synchrony, discharged 5/14/2016.

Comenity wouldn't stop loving me, so I put the brakes on - I have a feeling they would have kept approving anything I wanted, the SOLE exception (for some weird reason) being a denial for Wayfair.

Then Cabelas approved me, so I knew it was time to stop until late-2017 as I need these INQs to go away so I can get in with Barclays and Discover next year.

Too many store cards is asking for a utilization nightmare BUT the good thing is, according to a Kohls rep (for example), store cards never die off since the lenders understand people don't shop for clothes like they buy gas or groceries. Using once every 2-4 months is sufficient on store cards.

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

aussiesareforever — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 14:36:53 GMT

Congratulations.

I agree with everybody who recommended taking it slow. I had only one credit card for almost 2 years after my BK was discharged and was able to rebuild pretty well with it. Read and read and read a lot of the helpful advice on rebuilding on this site. There is great life after BK!

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 01:19:36 GMT

Having too many cards at once will probably hurt your credit score more than a little higher uti. The credit card companies look at that , especially after bk, as extremely risky behaviour. Which they will watch very closely.
Also in building your credit just use it at the pump, for example... then the rest of the time pay cash... then pif every statement, you will find over time and fast your scores will rise and your cl will increase nicely.

Good luck

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Vegas4Play — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 08:27:42 GMT

Congrats to you, Garden a while and work on increasing limits as needed.

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 19:39:58 GMT

If you don't mind me asking what was your credit score after bankruptcy? We just discharged and trying to find out where to start the rebuild

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Aduke1122 — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 19:59:46 GMT

Congrats and please be careful opening up so many Synch or Comenity cards in a short amount of time, it may seem that they LOVE you at the time you are getting approved for them all but I know someone who started their rebuild about 8 mths ago and over the course got approved for lots of Comenity and Synch . Comenity shut down and closed all of her cards recently with little or no other explanation besides too many Inquires.
Not trying to tell you what you should do just wanted to advise you to please be careful . I hated seeing it happen to my family member after all the work that was put into her rebuilding.

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 04:10:35 GMT

Congrats!

@nekia25

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 07:22:59 GMT

First of all congrats!....I 100% agree with Mia25 and Mimsof4...I think using these cards wisely and showing some positive payments...will show them you are trustworthy...and give you time to develop better habits...so you dont get back in the same position again....I do believe in 2nd chances...and thats what you have been given...an opportunity to have a better financial future...Good luck!

Re: Life After Bankruptcy!

grillandwinemaster — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 13:39:12 GMT

Congrats to both Nekia and Cobra!

Now as it has been mentioned repeatedly, stop applying and start gardening!! That's more than enough store cards. In 6 months to a year, both of you could be week into an excellent rebuild with better cards.

Patience is key!

Congrats again!