@jason0618 wrote:Hello,
I've filed a chapter 7 due to a giant mess of a divorce and some uninsured medical type of bills. My question pertains to the rebuilding process. Do I need to? I still have student loans that are not discharged and still reflect a great payment history. I haven't pulled credit in over two years so I have zero inquiries, I bought a pretty basic car with cash so no car loan and no plans to buy a house for a while. Will my student loans be enough to rebuild my score to where I'm able to get a mortgage in a couple of years? If not, what's a good credit card to apply for?
you're going to want some (at least 3 at some point) revolving credit card accounts to bolster your score:
Capital One has a pre-approval tool, same with the Discover's pre-approval tool
Savor One/Quicksilver/Discover IT would be a pretty decent three card combination
if you qualify for NFCU they could be a good option to rebuild with as well
2/6, 3/12, 11/24
How long ago was the BK 7? I understand no inquiries in the last two years so that's good. I would focus on getting 2-3 revolving credit card accounts along with at least one installment type loan. There are several banks that seem to be post-BK friendly if you didn't burn them. I got in with Capital One (long history), Ally, and One Main Financial for my big ones. I'm a NFCU member and they're great too.
For the installment loan if you can deposit a CD for a grand or two then take out a short term loan on it, the interst rate on secured loans is often 1-2% over prime (what they're paying on the CD). It'll show an installment loan on the credit report which is good for rebuilding. You're student loans may qualify as an "installment" but I'm not sure.
Rebuild Started March 2024
@brendini wrote:Yes, my scores only dropped 25 points when the Ch7 hit, and then another 25 points when one credit card reported derogatory after filing. The credit history and excellent payment history, aka no late payments, propped my score up. The remaining open accounts from student loans kept my vantage scores up, too, since those need open accounts and not just good closed accounts.
You will want excellent remarks from credit cards, though, at some point in the near future. I opened two unsecured cards 7 and 11 months post-BK.
If they reported a negative payment mark AFTER you filed and got the automatic stay, you should dispute that with the bureaus. That's not something they're allowed to do.
Citi whacked me with 6 of them after I filed. They responded by deleting the entire negative payment history. That's not what I even asked for, I only asked them to delete the negative payments going back to the month I filed, but they got the previous 6 removed too, which is....cool I guess. 
@GZG wrote:
@jason0618 wrote:Hello,
I've filed a chapter 7 due to a giant mess of a divorce and some uninsured medical type of bills. My question pertains to the rebuilding process. Do I need to? I still have student loans that are not discharged and still reflect a great payment history. I haven't pulled credit in over two years so I have zero inquiries, I bought a pretty basic car with cash so no car loan and no plans to buy a house for a while. Will my student loans be enough to rebuild my score to where I'm able to get a mortgage in a couple of years? If not, what's a good credit card to apply for?
you're going to want some (at least 3 at some point) revolving credit card accounts to bolster your score:
Capital One has a pre-approval tool, same with the Discover's pre-approval tool
Savor One/Quicksilver/Discover IT would be a pretty decent three card combination
if you qualify for NFCU they could be a good option to rebuild with as well
Do we need to get cc's? I sincerely dont want any. Just got a car so I feel that s good enough?
Starting scores after BK (Filed 4/18/24) EQ 571 , TU , EX
Starting Score: 582
@ronstar7 wrote:
@GZG wrote:
@jason0618 wrote:Hello,
I've filed a chapter 7 due to a giant mess of a divorce and some uninsured medical type of bills. My question pertains to the rebuilding process. Do I need to? I still have student loans that are not discharged and still reflect a great payment history. I haven't pulled credit in over two years so I have zero inquiries, I bought a pretty basic car with cash so no car loan and no plans to buy a house for a while. Will my student loans be enough to rebuild my score to where I'm able to get a mortgage in a couple of years? If not, what's a good credit card to apply for?
you're going to want some (at least 3 at some point) revolving credit card accounts to bolster your score:
Capital One has a pre-approval tool, same with the Discover's pre-approval tool
Savor One/Quicksilver/Discover IT would be a pretty decent three card combination
if you qualify for NFCU they could be a good option to rebuild with as well
Do we need to get cc's? I sincerely dont want any. Just got a car so I feel that s good enough?
To get an optimum FICO score, you need 3 revolving accounts and some kind of installment loan (mortgage, auto loan, personal loan, etc). Even if you don't want to use the credit cards, you will need them in a rebuild of your credit. Just use them for simple things, for example, use one to pay your Netflix/Hulu/Random Streaming Service and set that card to autopay. Use another card to pay for all your gas you use and pay it off weekly or bi-weekly, or monthly, whatever works best for you. Then use the other card for grocery store purchases, and like the card used for fuel, pay it off as you go. Even better if you can get rewards cards and you will earn money back on your purchases.
