Interesting Question

[ToofDoc]

OK, here's something that some of you may know or even had experienced...

I've burnt all of the popular great credit card companies such as Cap1, Citi, Chase, Discover, and AMEX with my Chapter 7 a year ago. Hypothetically if I go through a credit repair company and IF they were successfully able to have my bankruptcy and all negative items removed by dispute and all of the sudden my FICO 8 scores goes from 653 to high 700s or even potentially into low 800s, I would still get denied by AMEX and Chase and all of the rest of them correct?

Because even though my FICO 8 are high, but to all of those credit card companies have flagged my SSN in their internal system/database for X amount of years, correct?

Just wondering if with high 700s FICO 8 score alone will be enough to get me back with AMEX? I doubt it. 

[CashBackQueen]

If your bk is only a year old, why would you expect it to be removed 9 years early? And yes, the companies you burned would still have their own memory of what happened.

Be careful, I don't believe posts like this (with unethical credit practices) are took lightly on this forum.

[DebtStinks]

Yes is the short answer to your question.

As another posted stated, removing a legitimate item such as a BK is highly unethical...and not that likely you would succeed on all 3 major reporting agencies. Not only that, but let's say you're not able to get all IIB items removed from all bureaus and/or any of them are placed BACK on your report(s)...then you have an account showing IIB (7 year reporting of the account itself) but not BK on your record. This would raise an immediate red flag to ANY live underwriter....or assuming you get an automated approval on an account and they're doing an account review and see this...MOST underwriters would then close your account based on that. 

To sum up, it's simply not worth the risk...and MOST importantly it's illegal to even dispute a valid and correctly reporting item.

Furthermore, AMEX is pretty easy if they were not IIB. FIve years and one month post filing you can apply. If they were IIB, it really depends as we've seen people getting approved at that mark and some 10-15 years later not getting approved with no BK on record and stellar rebuilds. This is 100% a YMMV scenario.

Capital One, on the other hand, is VERY VERY VERY forgiving. They want normal credit criteria they require (which is very minimal for their starter cards like Platinum) and 12 months since charge off or BK filing...based on whichever came FIRST.

Discover is likely 2-3 years minimum before getting back in. YMMV, but it's a soft pull prequal....can't hurt to check every 8-10 days.

Citi is unlikely to approve, unless you go for a co-branded card...even then it's a shot in the dark for most.

Chase will not approve if you have a BK on your record. Plain and simple. Once the 10 years has passed, it's still a good luck situation, but quite a bit can change in the next 9 years.

[mich800]

The credit card companies that help rebuild credit after a BK get a bad rap around here.  But not enough is said about these snake oil credit repair agencies claiming to remove legimate derogatories. 

[Getty59]

SMH...... If there is one thing I have learned on this forum it is FICO score is not always the deciding factor to getting a card. IMO I can't believe that one would even attempt to go down that road the risk is definitely not worth the reward. 

[ToofDoc]

Great thorough info! Thank you.

I'm certain each and every credit card companies that I burned will have me on their internal "black list" EVEN if my bankruptcy is not listed on my credit reports and I have a high 700 FICO.  That's OK, I just wait for those cards (Amex, Cap1, Citi, Discover, etc.).

But any new lines of credit such as a new mortgage, auto loans or personal loans will be normal to obtain then since my FICO will be high and I'll have zero baddies or public records on my credit reports which I find just as exciting.  

So I guess, getting back with those credit cards that I burned would be nice but I can wait for those.  I much rather wait with a higher FICO and with my bankruptcy off of my credit report than wait with mid-600s with a public record on my credit report for another 9 years.

Lastly, I disagree with you that it is illegal to dispute our bankruptcy on our reports. Yes, it did happen to us, but if a credit restoration company can find within the law to prevent having our personal record displayed on our credit report, then I see nothing wrong with that. The law is the law, but there are loop holes that these credit restoration companies are using to get this done. I am not personally fabricating a fake credit report, by disputing and removing a bankruptcy off of my credit report is no different from disputing and removing a hard inquiry or an old address from my credit report.  Not illegal at all to dispute bankruptcy. You'll need to know how and the tactics WITHIN the law 👍

[Anonymous]

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@ToofDoc wrote:

Lastly, I disagree with you that it is illegal to dispute our bankruptcy on our reports. Yes, it did happen to us, but if a credit restoration company can find within the law to prevent having our personal record displayed on our credit report, then I see nothing wrong with that. The law is the law, but there are loop holes that these credit restoration companies are using to get this done. I am not personally fabricating a fake credit report, by disputing and removing a bankruptcy off of my credit report is no different from disputing and removing a hard inquiry or an old address from my credit report.  Not illegal at all to dispute bankruptcy. You'll need to know how and the tactics WITHIN the law 👍

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Gonna throw some "real world" on this. Not trying to sound sanctimonious here, but I think there are some misconceptions that need clarity.

There aren't any special tactics or secret handshakes that the "repair" outfits know. They simply dispute everything, throw the whole wad at the wall, and hope some of it sticks and those accounts fall off due to no response from the OC. Success rate varies wildly, but the price of failure can be considerable. More on that in a minute.

Many of these groups dispute one item per month to stretch out the process as long as they can while charging you each month. If you were so inclined, you could do the same thing but dispute every account the same afternoon and have it over with a) at no charge, and b) much more quickly. The results will be the same - maybe something gets deleted due to oversight or apathy on the part of a CA, but the majority will come back validated. Almost certainly any OC account you (or they) dispute, which was burned in BK, will come back validated. They took a loss and they're not about to let you off the hook that easily.

I'm not sure what grounds there would even be for disputing a BK. It happened, it was your name/SSN/accounts, you showed up in court, met with creditors and attorneys, faced a judge, and it's all documented as part of the process, and that's that. Disputing based on erroneous information contained in the file simply corrects that information. Finance law states that a BK7 stays on for ten years. It's black and white. It isn't the purview of a single creditor who might be convinced or persuaded to remove it. It is what it is. No one is removing it for you nine years early. Yes the bureaus can perform EE, but it happens on the scale of a few months, not 10% of the way into its reporting period. Most of the so-called experts on sites like YouTube may mean well but are horribly misinformed, often flat-out wrong, and/or are making sales pitches to lure you and your money in, much like the repair companies who promise to clear everything...while the fine print says they guarantee nothing.

Circling back to the price of failure on disputes: when an account is put into dispute, it is often removed from scoring contention while the investigation is performed. When it is upheld as a valid reporting, it is reinserted into your report. Your scores will then take another whack across the face as the FICO algorithm sees this as a new derog and punishes accordingly. In your case, since the BK is recent, you wouldn't suffer as much as some who dispute older, dormant accounts - in those cases, where a derog is present but hasn't been updated in a long time, disputing and then having it validated results in a bigger penalty because it is refreshed after a long period of dormancy, and that fresh update to a benign negative hurts even more.

Anyhow, these are all reasons why you'll see many of us here advising not to dispute factual accounts and to avoid these credit repair companies - they often do more damage than good. For firsthand examples, I'm sure @Anonymous can fill you in on her disasters with them. 

I would follow the advice you see around here when approaching a post-BK rebuild - work on your profile, go slowly, have emergency savings, and plan every move. It's been proven over and over and over to work.

[Anonymous]

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@ToofDoc wrote:

OK, here's something that some of you may know or even had experienced...

I've burnt all of the popular great credit card companies such as Cap1, Citi, Chase, Discover, and AMEX with my Chapter 7 a year ago. Hypothetically if I go through a credit repair company and IF they were successfully able to have my bankruptcy and all negative items removed by dispute and all of the sudden my FICO 8 scores goes from 653 to high 700s or even potentially into low 800s, I would still get denied by AMEX and Chase and all of the rest of them correct?

Because even though my FICO 8 are high, but to all of those credit card companies have flagged my SSN in their internal system/database for X amount of years, correct?

Just wondering if with high 700s FICO 8 score alone will be enough to get me back with AMEX? I doubt it. 

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Cap One will let you back in probably first.

Amex and Chase, no matter if you had your entire credit report wiped and 850s, they have internal records they keep for a *long* time. They will like not extend you credit for quite some time....unless....you pay them back, in full. They cannot make you repay them, it was discharged via BK, but they will not give you any credit in the time being. Some have had to wait 30 years for Amex. Some got lucky (and I mean lucky) at 5 or so years. People usually say 10-20 years. Chase will not grant you credit with a BK on file and not with their internal records of your past.

Citi and Disco, I am not entirely sure, others can give you advice on those creditors, but I am going to guess you will be on the naughty list like the creditors above for awhile.

Don't waste the money on credit repair. I paid like a sucker for 2+ years and ended up with majorly worse credit than my bad credit I already had. Wasted $1000s for nothing! They will not magically remove your BK, especially a fresh one, and again, these creditors keep their own internal records and cannot be forced to delete them.

You will need to decide how badly you want back in. Are you willing to pay what was discharged in BK just to get credit with specific lenders? They may not let you back in the next day after you pay, either. There are many, many creditors out there. While you burned some of the most popular ones out there, there are so many more (and equally popular ones and awesome lesser known ones) you can gain credit with, especially over time. It is a personal decision only you can make. 

I would start with preapprovals and not shooting off apps and wasting inquiries. Cap One will likely be the first to let you back in with their starter cards and you can build from there. Disco has a preapproval and you can see the denial reasons if they give you "unsatisfactory prior relationship" and/or "BK". Amex will just let you app and block a HP when you do if you are still blacklisted, when you get the HP, you know you are off the blacklist (no guarantee at an approval).

Search the forums about eachnof these creditors and BK. Plenty of people have DPs and shared the info you seek.

Good luck. Be patient is the hardest part of rebuilding!

[Jnbmom]

As others have advised I agree with them . There are several banks that you can start your rebuild with .

Disputing  your bankruptcy, you filed its on your record as it should be . If you want to do things the right and ethical way then stick around read the forums and you can rebuild. 

[mich800]

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@ToofDoc wrote:

But any new lines of credit such as a new mortgage, auto loans or personal loans will be normal to obtain then since my FICO will be high and I'll have zero baddies or public records on my credit reports which I find just as exciting.  

So I guess, getting back with those credit cards that I burned would be nice but I can wait for those.  I much rather wait with a higher FICO and with my bankruptcy off of my credit report than wait with mid-600s with a public record on my credit report for another 9 years.

Lastly, I disagree with you that it is illegal to dispute our bankruptcy on our reports. Yes, it did happen to us, but if a credit restoration company can find within the law to prevent having our personal record displayed on our credit report, then I see nothing wrong with that. The law is the law, but there are loop holes that these credit restoration companies are using to get this done. I am not personally fabricating a fake credit report, by disputing and removing a bankruptcy off of my credit report is no different from disputing and removing a hard inquiry or an old address from my credit report.  Not illegal at all to dispute bankruptcy. You'll need to know how and the tactics WITHIN the law 👍

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Seriously, are you trolling this forum?  I cannot believe some talk so openly about something so unethical.  I guess some parents just did not teach how to take responsibility for ones mistakes.