topic Re: Working my Rebuild! in Bankruptcy

Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Thu, 18 May 2017 16:34:15 GMT

Hello Everyone!

I've been lurking these forums for several months now, absorbing wisdom, making plans, considering strategies - now it's time to share my own story.

My wife and I filed a joint bankruptcy in January. We were discharged 4/27/16, so as of now are just over 2 months post discharge. I started our rebuild roughly following SM's *AWESOME* 700/24 guide, with a couple small tweaks to fit our situation. I'd love to share FICO's, but I'm too cheap to pay for them, lol - I joined NFCU (again thanks to these forums) which qualified me for a reduced price of $14/month for Equifax Platinum Shield for the whole family, which lets us at least monitor changes. So I can share our FAKO's - those are around 650, for what it's worth. Here is what we've done so far:

The same day I saw our discharge appear on PACER (literally before the ink was dry), and because I'm not a fan of Credit One and didn't burn Cap One, I apped for and got a Cap One Platinum, with a $3k SL! I've been running almost all of our monthly spend through it (about $2,500), paying most of it off before the statement cuts to keep the util down for the last 2 months. I have a VERY large ($75,000+) student loan which of course survived and has no lates, so no need for an installment loan here. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to find that our joint auto lease through Hyundai which I have never stopped paying is still reporting post-DC, so technically we both have two, at least until the lease matures in 07/2017.

SHE

DW was not able to follow suit, since she burned Cap One - so for her we picked up a Credit One card, which was opened at $400 but CLI to $600 right when the first statement cut. We're charging about $2 a month and paying it the moment the statement cuts. Since she doesn't have the student loan boat anchor to fill the installment loan checkbox (before I found the lease was still reporting), we went to Alliant CU (thank you again myFICO) and got her a share-secured $500 5-year loan, which I immediately repaid $400 of: Installment loan, check - low-utilization and AAoA increasing as it ages, check. Automatic reporting of on-time status with no actual payments due until 2020, check.

Each of is AU on the other's CC - so both of our reports are showing each card

WHO WE BURNED

Bank of America - Me

US Bank - Both

Discover - Both

Citi - Both

Capital One - She

Fingerhut - She

Verizon - Me (I was already filing, I wanted out of that pesky 2-year contract!)

WHAT'S NEXT?

So that's where we stand - the question is, what's next? I plan to hit the luv button on my Cap One after the 3rd statement cuts and has been paid, then wait for credit steps a couple months later. I don't plan to app anything else until November. I did join NFCU, but only have checking and savings so far. I'm not sure how much history they want to see post-DC...6 months? 12?

Since DW will still be blacklisted with Cap One, I was thinking maybe Barclays or Alliant CC for her in Nov? NFCU CC/CLOC or another Cap One for me?

My major goal is to have a decent history built up by May 2017, when it's time to shop for a replacement for the aforementioned leased Hyundai.

This is where you, dear reader, come in - please drop whatever comments or suggestions come to mind!

FICO 8 Credit Score History - Me

EX / TU / EQ

673 / 667 / 660 - 07/15/16

664 / 654 / 673 - 09/03/16
666 / 654 / 673 - 10/10/16
655 / 658 / 677 - 11/15/16
655 / 664 / 680 - 12/22/16
655 / 659 / 680 - 12/29/16
661 / 660 / 680 - 01/05/17
661 / 660 / 676 - 01/12/17
674 / 660 / 676 - 01/19/17
674 / 658 / 671 - 01/26/17
675 / 666 / 676 - 02/02/17
676 / 668 / 681 - 02/09/17
676 / 668 / 681 - 02/16/17

676 / 668 / 681 - 02/23/17

676 / 668 / 681 - 03/02/17

674 / 668 / 681 - 03/09/17

674 / 668 / 681 - 03/16/17

674 / 668 / 681 - 03/23/17

674 / 668 / 681 - 03/30/17

672 / 665 / 678 - 04/06/17

672 / 665 / 678 - 04/13/17

658 / 661 / 678 - 04/20/17

658 / 662 / 678 - 04/27/17

658 / 662 / 678 - 05/04/17

655 / 660 / 676 - 05/11/17

655 / 660 / 676 - 05/18/17

FICO 8 Credit Score History - She

EX / TU / EQ

674 / 649 / 631 - 07/15/16

671 / 653 / 693 - 09/03/16
674 / 650 / 685 - 10/10/16
655 / 650 / 685 - 11/15/16
656 / 664 / 688 - 12/22/16
656 / 663 / 688 - 12/29/16
669 / 674 / 688 - 01/05/17
669 / 674 / 688 - 01/12/17
684 / 674 / 697 - 01/19/17
681 / 675 / 697 - 01/26/17
683 / 675 / 697 - 02/02/17
686 / 675 / 697 - 02/09/17
686 / 675 / 697 - 02/16/17

684 / 675 / 697 - 02/23/17

684 / 674 / 697 - 03/02/17

682 / 669 / 689 - 03/09/17

682 / 669 / 689 - 03/16/17

682 / 669 / 693 - 03/23/17

682 / 669 / 693 - 03/30/17

684 / 670 / 689 - 04/06/17

684 / 670 / 697 - 04/13/17

667 / 669 / 688 - 04/20/17

667 / 669 / 688 - 04/27/17

668 / 671 / 696 - 05/04/17

659 / 668 / 680 - 05/11/17

659 / 662 / 680 - 05/18/17

Re: Working my Rebuild!

armymom — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 13:41:16 GMT

Hello and welcome to the forums! Looks like you are off to a good start and you have your foot in the door at NFCU. I'm 9 months post discharge and was approved for the gorewards card. I would have your wife try the cap one pre qualifier. I've seen some here get back into cap one shortly,after discarge, others it takes a year to get back in. Good luck!

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 05:24:31 GMT

Yeah, tried but no dice there - this was a ' slow death' where I was paying minimums for years before throwing in the towel...so almost no lates at all before filing, meaning the first delinquency was the filing itself - She's going to be cap 1 free until January at a minimum given their 1 year blacklist policy.

(Edit) make that April - I've confirmed it's 1 year from discharge, not filing

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 05:45:49 GMT

TygerHawke wrote:
Hello Everyone!

I've been lurking these forums for several months now, absorbing wisdom, making plans, considering strategies - now it's time to share my own story.

My wife and I filed a joint bankruptcy in January. We were discharged 4/27/16, so as of now are just over 2 months post discharge. I started our rebuild roughly following SM's *AWESOME* 700/24 guide, with a couple small tweaks to fit our situation. I'd love to share FICO's, but I'm too cheap to pay for them, lol - I joined NFCU (again thanks to these forums) which qualified me for a reduced price of $14/month for Equifax Platinum Shield for the whole family, which lets us at least monitor changes. So I can share our FAKO's - those are around 650, for what it's worth. Here is what we've done so far:

ME
The same day I saw our discharge appear on PACER (literally before the ink was dry), and because I'm not a fan of Credit One and didn't burn Cap One, I apped for and got a Cap One Platinum, with a $3k SL! I've been running almost all of our monthly spend through it (about $2,500), paying most of it off before the statement cuts to keep the util down for the last 2 months. I have a VERY large ($75,000+) student loan which of course survived and has no lates, so no need for an installment loan here. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to find that our joint auto lease through Hyundai which I have never stopped paying is still reporting post-DC, so technically we both have two, at least until the lease matures in 07/2017.

SHE
DW was not able to follow suit, since she burned Cap One - so for her we picked up a Credit One card, which was opened at $400 but CLI to $600 right when the first statement cut. We're charging about $2 a month and paying it the moment the statement cuts. Since she doesn't have the student loan boat anchor to fill the installment loan checkbox (before I found the lease was still reporting), we went to Alliant CU (thank you again myFICO) and got her a share-secured $500 5-year loan, which I immediately repaid $400 of: Installment loan, check - low-utilization and AAoA increasing as it ages, check. Automatic reporting of on-time status with no actual payments due until 2020, check.

Each of is AU on the other's CC - so both of our reports are showing each card

WHO WE BURNED
Bank of America - Me
US Bank - Both
Discover - Both
Citi - Both
Capital One - She
Fingerhut - She
Verizon - Me (I was already filing, I wanted out of that pesky 2-year contract!)

WHAT'S NEXT?
So that's where we stand - the question is, what's next? I plan to hit the luv button on my Cap One after the 3rd statement cuts and has been paid, then wait for credit steps a couple months later. I don't plan to app anything else until November. I did join NFCU, but only have checking and savings so far. I'm not sure how much history they want to see post-DC...6 months? 12?
Since DW will still be blacklisted with Cap One, I was thinking maybe Barclays or Alliant CC for her in Nov? NFCU CC/CLOC or another Cap One for me?

My major goal is to have a decent history built up by May 2017, when it's time to shop for a replacement for the aforementioned leased Hyundai.

This is where you, dear reader, come in - please drop whatever comments or suggestions come to mind!

Great expression of what you & DW are doing!

Where are you at when it comes to knowing what your Fico 8 Scores are for each CRA?

Have you pulled at least one an annual credit report for each of you to determine what they look like, how accurate they actually are?

Is everything properly reporting post- BK ?

* sorry for the push, but I didn't recognize that any of this was addressed. I have come to realize that is is somewhat of a standard baseline around which most people discuss credit, and most all credit issues have this as a foundation.

Welcome & have a great upcoming weekend.

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 06:07:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
These are great questions - here are the answers!
Great expression of what you & DW are doing!

Where are you at when it comes to knowing what your Fico 8 Scores are for each CRA?

I have patchwork knowledge at best - I pulled a fico for each of us from discover's free service, and it pretty closely matched what I found out from Equifax - at this point I'm not as concerned about the score itself as the file that creates the score - I have learned that if you build the file, the scores WILL come

Have you pulled at least one an annual credit report for each of you to determine what they look like, how accurate they actually are?

My experience with annualcreditreport.com was less than stellar (the silly questions they asked kept getting me referred to requesting the darn thing by mail (and they mean mail as THERE IS NO FAX NUMBER), so I broke down and paid for a 3-bureau report to get this done - YMMV

Is everything properly reporting post- BK ?

Amazingly enough, we got lucky and found that for each of us, all of our own lines either stopped reporting entirely, or were already updated to IIB/current/$0 - the only ones we had to dispute were the AU lines (in other words, my lines were showing up wrong on her report, and vice versa) - all those have since been disputed off as 'no longer responsible' and the CRA's are as clean as they're going to get

* sorry for the push, but I didn't recognize that any of this was addressed. I have come to realize that is is somewhat of a standard baseline around which most people discuss credit, and most all credit issues have this as a foundation.

I wouldn't post my life if I wasn't welcoming comment, no worries

Welcome & have a great upcoming weekend

you too!

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 08:26:58 GMT

Update time!

Tonight I pushed the often-celebrated "luv button" on Cap one - after having reduced the balance to $10 and let it sit there a couple of days

THEY RAISED IT TO $7000!!

For those of you paying attention, that's a 125% increase from the SL, 77 days after account opening

Next step: After this statement cuts and is paid I'm going to call and see about upgrading it to QS

I'm a very happy camper right this minute

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Vegas4Play — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 07:10:40 GMT

I wish u the best of luck !!!

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:30:39 GMT

Congratz ! ! ! !

TygerHawke wrote:
Update time!

Tonight I pushed the often-celebrated "luv button" on Cap one - after having reduced the balance to $10 and let it sit there a couple of days

THEY RAISED IT TO $7000!!

For those of you paying attention, that's a 125% increase from the SL, 77 days after account opening

Next step: After this statement cuts and is paid I'm going to call and see about upgrading it to QS

I'm a very happy camper right this minute

Re: Working my Rebuild!

jkjklkjkl — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:33:03 GMT

If your wife has not actually applied for a Cap One card, I wouldn't assume she's blacklisted. I burned them and I was approved for a card, before I was even discharged, for $500 and no credit steps.

Re: Working my Rebuild!

armymom — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 13:40:00 GMT

That is awesome!

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Scupra — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 18:03:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Update time!

Tonight I pushed the often-celebrated "luv button" on Cap one - after having reduced the balance to $10 and let it sit there a couple of days

THEY RAISED IT TO $7000!!

For those of you paying attention, that's a 125% increase from the SL, 77 days after account opening

Next step: After this statement cuts and is paid I'm going to call and see about upgrading it to QS

I'm a very happy camper right this minute

Congrats on the awesome limit!

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 18:37:23 GMT

@jkjklkjkl wrote:
If your wife has not actually applied for a Cap One card, I wouldn't assume she's blacklisted. I burned them and I was approved for a card, before I was even discharged, for $500 and no credit steps.

Yeah, but while there may be an outside chance, it's a FAIRLY safe bet...she comes up empty on the Prequal, and Cap One is definitely one of the shiny new IIB accounts on her CRA's - there are plenty of other options, I'm going to hold on Cap one for her until next April at a minimum

Re: Working my Rebuild!

jkjklkjkl — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 21:29:20 GMT

I had no prequalified offers, and still don't. And, if she's blacklisted, it won't be a hard pull. Most people who've been approved by Cap One after bankruptcy don't get any prequalified offers.

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Scupra — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 22:08:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@jkjklkjkl wrote:
If your wife has not actually applied for a Cap One card, I wouldn't assume she's blacklisted. I burned them and I was approved for a card, before I was even discharged, for $500 and no credit steps.
Yeah, but while there may be an outside chance, it's a FAIRLY safe bet...she comes up empty on the Prequal, and Cap One is definitely one of the shiny new IIB accounts on her CRA's - there are plenty of other options, I'm going to hold on Cap one for her until next April at a minimum

A pre-qual is not needed to qualify for a Capital One card. Plenty of people have burned Cap1 and then are able to get right back in. Like stated above, if she is blacklisted they won't pull her credit.

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Scupra — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 22:09:50 GMT

@jkjklkjkl wrote:
If your wife has not actually applied for a Cap One card, I wouldn't assume she's blacklisted. I burned them and I was approved for a card, before I was even discharged, for $500 and no credit steps.

I would be shocked if you weren't enrolled in credit steps

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 02:22:26 GMT

@Scupra wrote:
@jkjklkjkl wrote:
If your wife has not actually applied for a Cap One card, I wouldn't assume she's blacklisted. I burned them and I was approved for a card, before I was even discharged, for $500 and no credit steps.
I would be shocked if you weren't enrolled in credit steps

I am enrolled in credit steps - I'll post another update once the card hits that 5th statement

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Jul 2016 04:51:49 GMT

Update!

Funniest thing happened last week - I realized the monitoring product I was using from EQ sucked so I cancelled it - went with CCT instead, so now I have real FICO's for y'all's viewing pleasure:

ME - 7/15/2016

EQ - 673

EX - 667

TU - 660

SHE - 7/15/2016

EQ - 674

EX - 649

TU - 631

not sure why her EX and TU are lagging, but if I had to guess I'd say that's where Fingerhut reported her (legitimately) 30 days late right before we filed, and Fingerhut was all hers

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 18:13:09 GMT

Another update! (I'm just rotten with updates recently, aren't I?)

I was on Cap One reviewing transactions, when I saw the large, green, shiny, candy-like "Chat Now" button...I know I had planned to wait until my next statement...but it was so shiny...and large...and green...and candy-like...I tried to resist...really, I did...but my mouse seemed to slowly travel over the screen of it's own accord and before I realized...I had pressed it!

Fortunately I was then connected to a very nice customer service rep who was sympathetic to my plight, and was able to help...

My non-shiny no-AF Platinum card is now a shiny-new no-AF Quicksilver card!!

(I also asked for an APR reduction, but that was a no-go)

Cash back here I come! Whee!!

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Scupra — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 18:44:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Another update! (I'm just rotten with updates recently, aren't I?)

I was on Cap One reviewing transactions, when I saw the large, green, shiny, candy-like "Chat Now" button...I know I had planned to wait until my next statement...but it was so shiny...and large...and green...and candy-like...I tried to resist...really, I did...but my mouse seemed to slowly travel over the screen of it's own accord and before I realized...I had pressed it!

Fortunately I was then connected to a very nice customer service rep who was sympathetic to my plight, and was able to help...

My non-shiny no-AF Platinum card is now a shiny-new no-AF Quicksilver card!!
(I also asked for an APR reduction, but that was a no-go)

Cash back here I come! Whee!!

Great job!!! Glad they got it converted for you

Re: Working my Rebuild!

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 20:11:33 GMT

With those scores, I think both you and your wife should apply for NFCU cash rewards card. They are bk friendly and will grow with you.

Barclay is going to want to see 6-12 months of payment history. I have no idea on Alliant and their unsecured products.