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Life after bankruptcy

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Life after bankruptcy

My husband & I just had our chapter 7 bankruptcy discharged about 2weeks ago. The only thing I have on my credit report are 3store cards I kept open with no balances. Very low limits. $250-500limit. I’m not really interested in buying stuff I don’t need just to raise my credit & get myself in that cycle all over again. I burned pretty much all of the major companies in the bankruptcy so I can’t imagine they would approve me for even a secured card. I bank with Bank of America and have never had a card with them so I was going to try applying for a secured card with them. Anyone have any luck so soon after bankruptcy with them? My next thought was using our car as collateral & getting a title loan because we do need to buy a car for my husband.


I don’t know really where I’m going with this post but I guess any advice you could give would be appreciated. I’m just scared of applying for secured cards and still being declined.

Thanks for reading!
Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
marty56
Super Contributor

Re: Life after bankruptcy

I was able to get a BofA card with them after having one of theirs in DMP and 120 day lates.  It was years later after my score rebounded.  They did not blacklist me but I would wait until your score rebounded.  No CL is too small and with use they could get bigger and open the door to other CCs down the road.  I tend to like local CUs but don't know what their BK policies are.  Remeber no credit issue is forever and with time your scores and ability to get credit will improve.

1/25/2021: FICO 850 EQ 848 TU 847 EX
Message 2 of 9
shadanat
Frequent Contributor

Re: Life after bankruptcy

I would caution against a title loan. The interest rates on those things are crazy. And one hiccup and they could take your car. Could you save for a car for your husband?

 

Message 3 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Life after bankruptcy

Yes we are anyways. I was just thinking of a title loan in terms of building credit really, and well getting the car faster. But we could do without the second car for longer.
Message 4 of 9
sccredit
Valued Contributor

Re: Life after bankruptcy

You'd be better off just financing a car for your husband. 

Message 5 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Life after bankruptcy


@Anonymous wrote:
Yes we are anyways. I was just thinking of a title loan in terms of building credit really, and well getting the car faster. But we could do without the second car for longer.

Title loans are awful garbage.

 

Manage on one car long enough to scrape together $1500 to buy your husband a car for cash.

 

You can do a share secured loan (look it up here) and build your credit the same way a car loan would without wasting money.

 

Look up bankruptcy friendly credit cards here. BOA is not BK friendly. Nor are most of the major banks. Don't waste inquiries applying for things you have no chance of getting.

 

Get on a budget, get lean with your expenses and SAVE SAVE SAVE. 

Message 6 of 9
HoneyRock
New Contributor

Re: Life after bankruptcy

*** Just posted this in another thread about getting back in with BOA. Definitely hold off for now... try getting a cfna card which covers maintenance for you car to build some credit. It was a nice size credit limit and one of the first cards I received coming out of bankruptcy.  Below my BOA journey...  I must warn you its pretty lengthy.

 

BOA - 3 years post discharge and I'm back baby!!!!!

 

How I got back in with BOA … While my journey here took many years, I will try my best to not take many years to explain Smiley Happy  So I had my first BOA card back in 2003 or 2004, I was super excited to own one because at the time it was considered an MBNA credit card.  Anyways, I messed that card up pretty badly and it ended up being charged off, about $10k charged off and was a constant blemish on my credit report (but that was not the only blemish I must add).  Anyways, it was on my credit report for so long it finally just ‘fell off’… YAY to falling off.  At which point my overall profile was not too shabby.  Problem is I had to file for bankruptcy not to long after having decent credit… ugh!!!  Well… about one year post bankruptcy I applied for a card and was countered with the 500/99$ deal, so I jumped at it.  Had the card for a year, deposit was returned and I went completely unsecured WITHOUT a hard pull, YAAAAAY!  I requested a credit limit increase but it required a hard pull so I declined initially.  But then, I was feeling pretty confident with some other approvals at the time so I pulled the trigger on a hard pull as was declined Smiley Sad… needless to say I was pissed!  This all occurred within the same month or there abouts.  I then requested for a product change or a lower interest rate, I wanted Something out of the deal, all No Go’s… just UGH!!  So because of all the other approvals I received and with this card being so low in limit, it made my credit profile look bad so I decided to cancel it all together as well as Any other accounts I had with BOA, can you say scorned!  So here we are about a year after closing all accounts with BOA I applied online for the 123Cash Rewards card and was declined due to bankruptcy on my file.  I was offered the secured one and thought… I already been down that road with them and I think it would only be right to apply and again and request a recon, so I did.  I waited entire week for the response and nothing, application sat in the In Review status.  I called back again and explained how I already had a card that graduated with them and along with my current credit profile over a year ago with bankruptcy on it and my profile is better than it was over a year ago AND I am further away from my bankruptcy now than I was then… The recon analyst spoke with her boss and still came back declined!  I just couldn’t understand, I should be approved because I was already able to show that I was able to handle a credit card with them for over 1 year, it graduated to unsecured, and if I was approved to graduate with a bankruptcy why would I not be approved for a card now … I protested more!  So I requested to rep to explain to me how they could decline me now with a better profile than before she then mentioned that she doesn’t know if it was better than before and I requested she compare the two and let me know what the differences were.  After one hour of being on the call, she finally says that they pulled transunion last time I was approved and they pulled Experian this time.  And I said, ok well all of my files are almost identical so that can’t be the issue.  She further states that on my Experian report that there are four tradelines that don’t have the markers that they were included in bankruptcy and because of those tradeline showing charge off and they were not included in bankruptcy they were unable to approve me!  I like are YOU kidding me… I knew for certain they were included in bankruptcy as I pulled up my file while we were on the phone and sure enough I was able to explain to her and confirm that all four of those accounts were included in bankruptcy but that they all had the SAME exact close date (which was the date of my bankruptcy) AND that I have reestablished account with the two banks that the four accounts were held by.  I requested her to check and see that I have accounts with those banks and larger limits than I previously had, therefore with all of these indicators pointing to them being in bankruptcy why would she Not believe me.  Anyway, the call ended and I was still in denied status.  I then called back and requested to speak with another manager for there had to be someone there that logically understood where I was coming from.  Well, after getting another manager in the recon department I wanted answers and someone to explain how they could make a decision to decline based off accounts included in my bankruptcy.  Well, the manager did another review and decided it could potentially be over turned BUT after speaking with his manager, for the same reason, those accounts not being labeling as being in bankruptcy they would have to decline me.  I was flabbergasted!!!  I was looking at my credit report and those accounts clearly stated that they were in bankruptcy but the one they pulled didn’t say they were… just how could this be.  I pressed him to pull the transunion report since that was the one they approved me with and since I was sure it would verify that those accounts were labeled correctly.  After unfreezing my account, he pulled it and surely they were labeled as being included in bankruptcy….  After placing me on hold again (total phone call so far about another hour), he came back and he stated that with this new information, he/they were able to overturn the decision.  Finally, I thought and YAY!!!! Credit limit was trash (lowest cc limit yet) BUT I was back in with a card that I like, a bank that I like, no annual fee, and the bonus of $150 for spending $500 in three months.  The application status remained In Review status for over almost two weeks and was updated about three days following a verbal approval over the phone… to Approved!  So there you have it… Back in with BOA and while I am excited I haven’t gotten the card in the mail yet so I’m typically a skeptic until I have the card in hand and make my first purchase Smiley Wink…  Just my story to give someone else out there hope.  Oh… and there is a PS to this…

After getting the approval I call Experian and pulled a fresh report, they told me all was well and exactly what I thought it was, those accounts had in fact been labelled IIB and they were willing to send BOA a copy of my report… I instead three wayed them with BOA so that they understood why my file had those four accounts labeled the way they did, and the Experian rep explained that they were charged off prior to bankruptcy and even though they were IIB the Charged Off label will not change.  I thought to myself how could a professional credit analyst and its entire department (managers and all) not know this? Its what they do every day.  Anywho, everyone learned a lesson here and I just excited to say that I am indeed back in with BOA even with all the hassle!  The End Smiley Happy (told you I would ‘try’ to make this short 
Smiley Very Happy)!!!  (Please excuse any typos and grammatical errors... rushing)

Discharged Chp7: 1/15
CreditKarmaFako 1/18: TU745 EQ744
FICOSCORE8 8/17: EX640 EQ621 TU642
CardsInWallet: 10 Credit Cards | 14 Store Cards | 100k Club as of 1/22/2018
Opened then Closed ~20 Store cards Jan 2016 totaling ~4k (I know SMH) | Boatload of INQ's | Last HP 03/22/18
**** Focused On The Garden for 24 months (Working towards a mortgage & continuous Free Flowing SP CLI's)****
Message 7 of 9
Kasuito39
Frequent Contributor

Re: Life after bankruptcy

I would recommend opening a CU like Alliant, SDFCU or LMFCU and putting down a deposit for a secured card.
As for the auto loan, now that you have been discharged (congrats by the way) you should start seeing car loan offers trickling in shortly.
Your welcome to check with your local auto mall if they have specialized auto BK programs. It wouldn't hurt to ask, just dont let them pull your credit if they are not certain as this could hurt your scores further.
Best of luck!!
Message 8 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Life after bankruptcy

I have hada title loan and it never reported on my credit. It only reported that I applied to them. 

Message 9 of 9
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