Frustrated.

[Anonymous]

Our chapter 7 was discharged on the 24th of this month. Yay!! According to credit karma, and identity guard my husbands score shot up to a 601 across all three agencies. Mine didnt budge, and is still in the high 400's low 500's ( how fair is that crap??!?!) My husband applied for the Capital one secured, he was approved for a 200 limit with a 49 dollar deposit. Decided it wouldnt hurt to try for the quicksilver one card, bam, he's approved for one with a 300 dollar limit. Yay for him. I cant get approved for anything. I'm wondering if its because on his CR the bankruptcy discharge shows, but on mine it doesnt? I"m frustrated, after reading all of the forums, it seemed that it would be fairly easy to get a credit card after discharge ( i only had one CC on my bankruptcy, all of our debt was medical, and one civil judgement ). I'm feeling crappy.

[Anonymous]

I did the pre qualify for the credit one bank, it declined me because it said their is a bankruptcy on my credit report. My husband tried, it declined him but it didn't have the bankruptcy on there as a reason at all. 

[Anonymous]

Not sure exactly why, but I know my wife's score is significantly lower than mine after our discharge as well. I need to do some investigation on her reports to see why, but you may need to do the same thing.

The main thing I preach (to myself more than anything) is patience. Make sure your husband adds you as an Authorized User on his Cap1 cards. That will begin to help your scores. 

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

i've been staring at my reports for two days..the only difference between ours is mine says nothing about the bankruptcy being discharged, and transunion doesnt even have the we filed the bankruptcy on my report.

[bstone]

First off, congrats on your discharge.  It's a great feeling knowing the things which were stressing you out are now gone.  Now you can focus on rebuilding and creating a better life for you and your family.

Now, on to business.  You need to order all three of your credit reports and ensure all of your accounts show IIB (included in BK) and $0 balance.  This needs to happen before you apply for anything else.  You also want to make sure your discharge reports, but that should happen automatically within a few days.  Also, do not rely on your scores from Credit Karma, mine are always way off when compared to My FICO scores, and FICO are the ones lenders look at.  Credit Karma is good to monitor your credit, nothing more.

Second, realize rebuilding is a marathon, not a sprint. DO NOT START APPLYING FOR EVERY CARD YOU THINK OF!  I suggest joining a local credit union, get a secured card if you have to, and give it a few months to report to your credit.  I have had good luck with Capital One (and we burned them) as well as Navy Federal and Comenity Bank (store cards).  Also, don't rely on the Capital One pre-qual tool - the tool told my wife and I both there were no pre-qual offers, however when we did the hard app we were both approved for $500 QS and Platinum cards.  We waited until our reports were accurate before we applied though, and I've heard of people waiting three or four months after discharge getting $1500+ credit limits.

Good luck, and don't get stressed about approvals.  The reality is you should be paying for everything with cash anyway, credit cards are just a tool.  As you rebuild you will start getting approved, but the more you apply and get declined now it's going to make your rebuild that much more difficult.

[Anonymous]

ThNk you. You're right. I will wait until after the first and order all reports from the agencies and do what you suggested.