Valley, please don't close the cards, unless they are just bad cards to have (ie. AFs, MFs, etc). Just don't let half or more of your cards to reflect a balance and keep overall and individual uti b/w 1-9% and you will see a nice score bump now.
Starting Score: 469
I am new to posting in the forums so I don't want to step on any toes but the sentiment of "people in the back row" is very condescending and helps no one. The fact is that there is no hard set rule about if it goes up or down. The fact is that the length of your oldest credit notation makes a difference and how many accounts you have in good standing and what your debt ratio is.
So for someone like myself, when I got my bankruptcy off my credit report (in 4 years) my score went from 662 to 725 but that is not to say that it will do that for everyone. I also have a 17+ year history on my report and I have no other negative items against me. The only reason it didn't go higher was that I have student loans in deferment that mess with my ratio. But 725 is nothing to sneeze at and I will take that for now over being turned down simply because my bankruptcy would show up. Even if it doesn't count against you in the score after 2 years, companies are likely to consider it just the same.
Try a few simple things to your best ability and you should be fine. 1) try as quickly as possible to rebuild your credit, 2) do not close good standing accounts, especially the longer you have had them the more they will help you, 3) don't make the mistake of using cash only as no activity will hurt you more, 4) try to get as many of the negative notations off your report as soon as possible, 5) don't use consolidation services and if you use services to remove your negative stuff be careful as they are not all the same, with a little patience you can do it yourself, 6) don't request too many credits in a short time, they will hurt you bad, especially if you are declined and even if you are not, finally) pay down as much as you can as fast as you can and keep your balances low, it takes more than 30 days for them to report your lower balance to the credit agencies and this means you ratio will continue to show high.
good luck everyone.
Message Edited by Guardian on 04-23-2008 03:03 PM
Message Edited by Guardian on 04-23-2008 03:08 PM
So for someone like myself, when I got my bankruptcy off my credit report (in 4 years) my score went from 662 to 725 but that is not to say that it will do that for everyone. I also have a 17+ year history on my report and I have no other negative items against me. The only reason it didn't go higher was that I have student loans in deferment that mess with my ratio. But 725 is nothing to sneeze at and I will take that for now over being turned down simply because my bankruptcy would show up. Even if it doesn't count against you in the score after 2 years, companies are likely to consider it just the same.
Try a few simple things to your best ability and you should be fine. 1) try as quickly as possible to rebuild your credit, 2) do not close good standing accounts, especially the longer you have had them the more they will help you, 3) don't make the mistake of using cash only as no activity will hurt you more, 4) try to get as many of the negative notations off your report as soon as possible, 5) don't use consolidation services and if you use services to remove your negative stuff be careful as they are not all the same, with a little patience you can do it yourself, 6) don't request too many credits in a short time, they will hurt you bad, especially if you are declined and even if you are not, finally) pay down as much as you can as fast as you can and keep your balances low, it takes more than 30 days for them to report your lower balance to the credit agencies and this means you ratio will continue to show high.
good luck everyone.
Message Edited by Guardian on 04-23-2008 03:03 PM
Message Edited by Guardian on 04-23-2008 03:08 PM
