I guess it is appropriate for my first entry to be in the BK section. I have spent the past two months reading and absorbing all of the information on this forum. I must say that I have learned so much thus far, but regret not finding this sooner. Maybe I could have saved myself before BK7. My journey begins like so many…good income, mortgage, car note, student loans, and relatively small cc debt (<$5k) and then in 2011 laid off. I spent 2+ years making 45% less than I was previously making and I just could never catch up. I found myself underwater by $80k in my mortgage, almost maxed out cc, and jumping on and off deferment of my student loans. The worst was that my car was nearly repo’d while I was ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. We were drowning and found myself personally disappointed for where I ended up.
I decided to finally pull the plug 10/13 when I ended up in court facing a foreclosure sale. Up until that point I was already thinking about BK7 and had been paying a retainer to a BK Firm that I found on www.legalzoom.com. I filed for BK 1/14 and was discharged 4/14. Thankfully, I got an unbelievable start back on the road to financial recovery, 1. Finding this forum and 2. Getting a new job with more than I was making 3 years ago!
Just after my discharge, I was reluctant to pull my credit report. I was afraid that my score would be critically low and that I would never be able to climb out of this hole I dug for myself. After finding this site and reading http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Bankruptcy/HOW-TO-From-BK7-discharge-to-700-in-24-months-or-less/td-..., I officially joined myFico and pulled all three CRA scores. They were not as bad as I thought, but certainly not great either (listed below).
…the best part! I have student loans that are reporting as 6 separate loans. Prior to BK7 I was paying 4 in Rehab (that I was able to complete the required 9 months prior to filing) and they immediately were transferred to a servicing company. The other 2 were deferred prior to BK7 filing. After I filing in 1/14 all 6 loans went into deferment. Once they all started reporting again with a clean payment history, my score jumped 23 pts to 607. This is just the kick start that I need! I am beyond excited and anxious to begin rebuilding.
BK Burned: Chase and Capital One
FICO 4/14: EQ 579 – TU 551 – EX 583
FICO 6/14: EQ 611
