38k in cc debt. Cheap car and cheap house. I’m in the Midwest. Paid a great lawyer 999$ to file. Only interviewed one but he had many great reviews. It went very smooth.
Very nervous for the 341 but it was just like everyone here said it would be. 5 minutes and I was out of there. It’s ok to be nervous. Bankruptcy is not a fun process.
Ch 7 filed 8-29-2019, discharged 12-11-2019. Case closed January 14, 2020.
Burned;
USAA
Capital One
Citibank
Bank of America
All of my checking and savings etc was w USAA. Took a chance and did not open new accts elsewhere. I had been a member about 20 years and had a dozen separate products. Fortunately they did not freeze my accounts. My cc just disappeared. I’ve since opened more checking accts and my auto policy just renewed w no increases. I feel very fortunate at this point. Thank you USAA.
Scores near discharge;
579 experian
594 equifax
522 transunion
I had no lates prior to filing but all agencies reported each acct late the month I filed. I reaffirmed my mortgage and my car.
After some disputes I got my car to report and experian reports my mortgage, lates gone from transunion and experian. Equifax reports “first delinquency” for each acct in August but says no lates, not sure what to think of this, I disputed them twice as lates, provided proof but nothing changed. I’ve let it go. Others still report lates on their free monitoring services sites like creditwise from capital one and the free experian site but in my reports from annualcreditreport.com they show no lates. They say they’ll catch up but it still hasn’t happened but my scores have risen.
Current scores two months from discharge are;
616 Experian
616 equifax
581 Transunion.
Last week when my scores hit this level I decided to try for my first card.
I joined NFCU in person, no hard pull to join so that’s good. I got the secured Visa for 200$. I wanted to apply for the MasterCard also but she said you can only have one secured card. I also asked to add my son as an authorized user and she said not on secured cards. She wanted to give me a self lender loan. I declined as I have my car and home already. Excited to get approved!
Thinking of a second card. Maybe I'll get another NFCU secured when this one graduates or try for a Discover secured. I try the preapproval a few times w no luck. No luck w capital one prequal either.
Yesterday I got a letter from IKEA saying I could see if I would prequalify for their project card without hurting my credit, y’all know the drill. I do some research and see they also have an IKEA Visa. I do love the store and go monthly so I think this would be a good card but I want the visa, not store only card. I see they pull from experian and use Comenity as their bank, interesting as I know that’s a “lesser quality” bank. They don’t have a prequal for the visa but it’s the same bank as their project card so I “apply”. I’m approved for 6,000. Nice but yuck so I decide to do a real hard pull for the Visa and get approved for 550$. Woohoo! Card number two is done.
Now I think I should wait but I was still curious if I could get two secured cards from NFCU. I had gone in months ago to ask about membership and the secured cards, told then two would fine. So I go in today and put more money in my savings account then in my car I apply for the secured MasterCard for 200$. Approved!
Here’s where I’m at now;
House reaffirmed, reporting to experian only. Mortgage was just resold to a new company so I’m betting it’ll report to all three soon. Will be interesting to see this play out.
Car reaffirmed, reporting to all.
NFCU secured Visa, 200$ limit, pulled from transunion.
IKEA visa, 550$, pulled from experian.
NFCU secured MasterCard, 200$ limit. Pulled from transunion
Cc’s haven’t shown up yet, 1 is from last week, other two the last 24 hours.
No annual fees, don’t care if the IKEA visa gives increases but they probably will. NFCU will graduate and I only have 400$ on hold for two cards. I’ll be staying under 8.9% utilization and let only one report a balance.
I’m only interested in a mortgage in a couple years so I’m officially done. I’ll be locking my reports here soon. Paying off my reliable 5 year old Toyota this year and saving cash for the next car long down the road. Fancy cars aren’t me.
About NFCU. The lady was wrong about a few things. Obviously I got both secured cards. When I got home and online I was able to add my son as an authorized user. He has a blank file so this will help. Received the cards yesterday and a letter to him stated the acct will report to all the bureaus. Good for him. We did go in today and get his own membership and secured visa and I’ll be adding him to my IKEA visa. It’ll interesting to see how his file grows. She also said they don’t reevaluate for a full year. I’ve seen otherwise here but a year is fine too.
A few more things. Y’all are great. Thank you for all the great info here and how nice everyone is to each other. I’m writing this breakdown hoping it’ll be helpful to others.
There are credit and bankruptcy forums on Reddit that are helpful too. A lot matches up to the advice here but they advise against the self lender loans as you’re paying interest to rebuild. Most say it’s unnecessary and rebuild successfully w cc’s alone. A lot of them start their rebuilds right after the 341. Works for some people.
I’m betting I’ll be at 700 in two years and that’s all I need. Hoping to get a FHA loan and put 20% down. I’ve read that should give me a great rate. If not I’ll wait two more and go conventional.
I tried for two years to pay off my debt from a divorce but all I did was get by and make no progress. This has been a huge relief. Like others say I wish I did it sooner. I have cash again and no stress about debt. It’s great. The law is for people like me and I’m so grateful to get this fresh start.
