topic Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13 in Bankruptcy

Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 20:43:27 GMT

This site has been great, but there is a ton of info to read. I am hoping that maybe I can consildate this a little bit for my own benefit. I am currently in the early stages of a CH 13. Tried getting a 7, but was punted to a 13 cause of my income. Which sucked, but oh well. So I burned BOA, Capital, Chase, Citi, Amazon, and Discover (so I have a feeling I am not off to a good start).

I was given a Pay Pal line of credit right after my CH 13 was approved. Not really sure how that happened, but I got a CL of 1200. I also have an offer from CreditOne Bank, that I am hesitent on applying for. I know there fees are high, but think I should give it a shot? I was just going to use this to pay cable and phone bills with.

According to Mint my Credit Score is 653 and according to Credt Karma my CS is 657 with TransUnion and 766 with Equifax (Not sure how that is possible.

Any advice or direction would be great and even it's don't do anything till you pay off CH 13. At this point I just want to rebuild and I am also thinking of making extra payments into the 13 to get this thing paid off as soon as possible.

Thank you all in advance.

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 20:49:01 GMT

So I just doubled checked my Experian on their actual site and my CS is 565. So that makes more sense considering everything.

Thanks

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 22:03:37 GMT

First I would ask your lawyer and or trustee to make sure its okay to obtain credit while in a Ch 13. I filed back in June obtained a Credit One card 300SL and 39AF before I filed the petition, Since then I obtained Open Sky(no credit check) $200 deposit, US bank secured I have a checking account for over 2 years with them which probably helped. A self lender account if you have no installement account reporting. My gamestop card with 2+ years payment history survived somehow so that helps with the rebuilding process. I pretty much burned everyone Cap One/Chase/BOA/Sync/Amex/Disco/NFCU/Penfed. Im pretty satisfied with my rebuild so far got a long way to go but its doable. Hope this helps.

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:40:18 GMT

Thanks Slick. Yeah I am going to talk to my lawyer, but just wanted to get some opinions here before I did.

Just received an offer from OLLO with no AF, so that is a much better offer compared to Credit One.

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:41:47 GMT

My other question is that my State and Federal taxes were included in my 13 and I am paying them with my monthly payments. I will be getting a Fed Tax return this year, will I receive that or will it be taken by Trustee to pay that back?

Again I will be asking most of these questions to my lawyer, but I just want to get some perspectives from you all with your experiences

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Yeliaba1 — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 01:01:31 GMT

Hockey, I’ve had luck graduating secured cards with Navy and FNBO while in Ch 13. Like the previous poster said, make sure you get trustee approval or guidance from your attorney. I also had an OpenSky secured. While OpenSky has its faults, there is no credit check and hanging on to it through your BK will allow you to finish with a well -aged account ( an important detail often overlooked).

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

dynamicvb — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 15:00:31 GMT

I had some back tax payments included in mine and the feds took any refunds before I even saw them. Definitely want to make sure you get approval from your trustee. I went my entire 5 years without doing any new credit and while my score may be higher now if I would have, teaching me to live on my own reserves really helped me learn a lesson and better plan for life. I believe I'm in much better financial shape now than I would have been if I would have used credit during that time. Just my opinion

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

pizza1 — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 15:08:43 GMT

Your refunds if any from both federal and state will go back to them to satisfy their debt.

Also, before you get any loans or credit of any kind, you. HAVE to get permission from the trustee first. So, your attorney will have to contact them and ask permission for you to get a cc or loan or whatever.

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 19:43:59 GMT

As others have said talk to your lawyer and trustee to make sure you can. I even asked about going back to school as I would have to take out student loans. His questions was will this hlep you in the future to make more money, said yes and he said go for it.

You can also look into getting a secured card.

As for tax returns it all depends but it sounds like you will have to turn yours in. If I remember correctly you can keep up to $200 or $250 and the rest goes to your debts. I got to keep mine for some reason or another.

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 22:09:46 GMT

Good afternoon everyone and Happy New Year. Hope things are tracking in the right direction and going well. So just wanted to give a little update. I spoke with my Lawyer and he told me, if I get a tax return the money will come to me and not go towards the debt. Found that pretty odd, but is great to hear. But I will beleive it when I see it. But if I do get some return back a good chunk of it will go towards the debt.

As for opening other accounts to start building, he didn't answer that question. Will have to follow up on him about it. But after reviewing my CR I have a few hard inquires coming off in May, so I will wait till they fall off and see what my CS looks like. Rather have the higher score if I am giving the green light. By then I will be finished a year of paying into the 13, only 4 more to go.

Thanks again for the advice and I'll keep updating this thread as things progress.

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 19:42:13 GMT

Good afternoon everyone,

Hope your summer is going well. So wanted to provide an update on my situation and see what your recommendation would be. So I spoke with my lawyer and I am fully allowed to obtain new debt to help the rebuild. So that is a good thing, but he did warn me that if there is an increase in my income the monthly payment could increase. So that is something I need to keep in mind with obtaining new debt.

So at this point I just want to get 1 card and use it to pay some of bills like cable and cell phone and pay them off. I would love to accumlate some points, but I am sure that wouldn't be possible with just rebuilding.

According to CreditKarma my scores are Transunion: 664 and Transunion: 780

Mint has Transunion at 664 as well.

Can I call a credit card company and see what credit agency they use? Cause of course Transunion looks a lot better.

Thank you in advance for all of your help.

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

coreyb80 — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 17:30:44 GMT

CK is FAKO so I would take that score with a grain of salt. You can call and ask, definitely wouldn't hurt. No your payment will not increase if your income increases. I just made a job change and my payment still the same as it was before the change.

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 18:25:37 GMT

Good afternoon,

I'm posting this message on here because, well... there aren't too many 13's on the forums. I filed chapter 13 on 3/17/20. I have my MOC on 5/20 and my Confirmation hearing is on 6/11. I'm located in Sunny South Florida. I have spoken with my lawyer several times about rebuilding my credit during my payment plan. He assured me it wouldn't be a problem, and said he's had several clients purchase homes during their payment plan as well. I went on my trustee's website, and it basically states "please contact your lawyer before contacting our office for questions"

I only want a secured credit card... My Target card survived (I'm so happy) and I have my student loan (still showing which I'm excited about)

Once I'm confirmed I'd like to get a NFCU secured card and a TD Bank Secured card... I have accounts with both, and they both will eventually graduate. That will leave me with:

Target

NFCU Secured Credit Card

TD Bank Secured Credit Card

Student loan

I'll be GREAT with this profile and will be able to sit on my hands and ride the wave smoothly for the next 5yrs

Your thoughts?

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 02:36:31 GMT

Update

Since my last post I had my MOC and my credit has finally settled. I closed all of my PIF accounts prior to filing 13 and most are reporting "Exceptional Credit/Closed by Consumer"

I didn't owe anything on my Comenity accounts and I had rather large limits, but they deleted the entire trade lines, which actually helped. A few other creditors deleted as well even though I IIB. I disputed a few errors and

as of today my FICO scores are (via MyFICO)

Equifax 628

Transunion 598

Experian 600

I have (4) open accounts showing on all (3) reports

*Target (TD Bank) Limit $3,000/$0 balance

*Cartier (TD Bank) Limit $8,000/$0 balance

*Great Lakes (Student Loan) $4,800 balance (Started at $10K) Perfect history

*NFCU AMEX (AU) $25,000/$10K balance

My lawyer contacted the trustee and I'm allowed to get (1) secured credit card.

I either want to apply for a NFCU or a TD Bank secured card and start it off with a $2500 limit, as I'm sure it won't upgrade to unsecured until my discharge in 5yrs

Just updating my status. I hope all is well with everyone.

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 15:58:14 GMT

I pulled the trigger this morning. I was approved for a NFCU secured card! I'm so happy! Now I will sit on my hands for the next 5yrs and wait for my discharge. My credit profile now looks like this:

Target (survived) $3K Limit $0 Balance (perfect history)

Cartier (survived) $8K Limit $0 Balance (perfect history)

Great Lakes (Student Loan) $4800 Balance ($140 mo, perfect history)

NFCU AMEX (AU) $25K Limit $11K Balance

NFCU Secured Credit Card $2500 Limit $0 Balance

I will focus on my relationship with NFCU, use them heavy and PIF each month before the statement cuts.

My goal is to become a homeowner by #2022

Re: Your best tips to rebuild while in a Chapter 13

FireMedic1 — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 07:55:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I pulled the trigger this morning. I was approved for a NFCU secured card! I'm so happy! Now I will sit on my hands for the next 5yrs and wait for my discharge. My credit profile now looks like this:

Target (survived) $3K Limit $0 Balance (perfect history)
Cartier (survived) $8K Limit $0 Balance (perfect history)
Great Lakes (Student Loan) $4800 Balance ($140 mo, perfect history)
NFCU AMEX (AU) $25K Limit $11K Balance
NFCU Secured Credit Card $2500 Limit $0 Balance

I will focus on my relationship with NFCU, use them heavy and PIF each month before the statement cuts.

My goal is to become a homeowner by #2022

Since you only need 3 cards to build on. Get off that almost 50% util card. That isnt helping.