Hi Everyone,
I've been getting advice from all you wonderful people over two years now and thought I'd share my story so maybe I can help others as well. I know BK topics are common, but I do think my situation is somewhat unique from what I've been told. It's a little long but I really just want to help anyone I can just like I was helped out
I graduated with an M.S. during the recession and lived on credit cards for 2 years until I found a job in early 2013. My husband was making $35k at the time (which required an M.A....which is B.S. lol) and I started making $44k. We both changed jobs at the end of 2013 and were making $90k combined at that point. To be honest, we were terrible with our money, but made an aggessive plan to pay off the balances we accrued from 2010-2013. Then 6 months later I was fired, but found a similar paying job 4 months later and a month into that job we were able to buy our first home! Then 5 months after starting that job, I was laid off due to restructuring :-/ I wasn't able to find a job until 10 months later, and at that point it was too late. We liquidated our 401ks to make all our credit card payments and finally just ran out of money. We filed chapter 7 the day before I was to start my new job on 10/5/15 (otherwise we didn't qualify for ch7 if I had income). Our combined income with my new job was slightly over $100k. We also had $175k in student loans at the time (which are now close to $250k) which were not included in bk. Here's my timeline for recovery. Fwiw, I had 100% on-time payments before bankruptcy, no lates and my score was in the low 600s. Post bk I also have 100% payment history. Current average account age is 9 years and 9 months and oldest is 18 years.
-Filed 10/4/2015
-IIB (for both of us):
NFCU: $108,750 (Includes our house (jointly owned, not reaffirmed) and 4 credit cards. We had a car loan through them too before bk, but I paid it off right before so they wouldn't go after my co-signer family member. The payoff ($7,500) was a gift from my grandfather)
DSNB: $2,600 (Macy's)
Synchrony: $21,300 (2 Old Navys, 2 Care Credits, Sam's Club, Morris Home, Gap, Paypal)
Comenity: $3,600 (Newegg, 2 Meijers)
Nordstrom: $900
Ally: $11,900 (car loan, not reaffirmed. We paid on it until June 2017 and then stopped. They repoed in October 2017. Credit report does not relfect the repo since IIB).
Citi: $8,400 (Sears, Home Depot, Citi Simplicity, Citi Diamond)
Bank of AMerica: $4,000 (BoA Platinum and 2 other alumni cards through school)
TD Bank: $2,500 (Target)
Chase: $5,500
Total: Nearly $170k, not including student loans
Discharged: 1/19/2016. TU at this point was around 650
House was not reaffirmed, but continued to make all payments and never missed. NFCU did not have an issue with this. We sold the house on 8/9/2019 and made a $65k profit.
First Credit card Application after discharge on 1/21/2016: Capital One Platinum. SL $4,000. I assumed the high SL since the bk hadn't hit my credit report yet, but all the balances were showing $0 balance.
Since bk (instant approvals only, I don't recon):
Barclay's Jet Blue: Opened 5/2016. $4,900 SL. Currently $7,900
Barclay's Barclaycard Rewards: Opened 12/2016. $2,000 SL. They won't budge on CLI for some reason.
Well's Fargo Home Project Card: Opened 3/2017. $4,400 SL.
Synchrony Care Credit: Let me back in 11/2017! $1,500 SL. Currently $3,600. Applied in early 2017 and was denied.
Capital One Quicksilver: Opened 12/2016. $10,000 SL. They won't budge on CLI.
Capital One car loan, 3.49%: Opened 10/2017 for $27k jointly owned.
Capital One car loan, 3.9%: Opened 8/2018 for $29k jointly owned.
Capital One Kohl's: Opened 12/2018. $400 SL. Now $700 (lol)
PayPal Credit: Opened 3/2018. $2,000 SL. Now $3,100
Ikea Comenity: Let me back in 9/2019! $4,600 SL. Applied in 2018 and was denied.
Discover IT: Opened 9/2019. $18,000 SL!!!
HSBC Cash Rewards: Opened Today. $7,000 SL
Total: $58,400 (authorized user on all husband's cards. Credit report shows $100,900 CLs)
We just bought out first house after bk with 3% down for $279,900 8/2019 and our utilization is about 3% currently. I'm PIF every month now since I got an amazing job last month as well. Current household income is over $140k, and post bk to 9/2019 it was around $115k.
I'm not even 4 years post bk and things are really looking up. My score just passed 700 when we sold our house and paid off some debt with the profits and I intend to never, ever, ever be in that situation again. I'm intending to garden now for a long time while we put most of our efforts into growing our savings. I'm open to any questions and thank you for letting me share my story
I've been getting advice from all you wonderful people over two years now and thought I'd share my story so maybe I can help others as well. I know BK topics are common, but I do think my situation is somewhat unique from what I've been told. It's a little long but I really just want to help anyone I can just like I was helped out
I graduated with an M.S. during the recession and lived on credit cards for 2 years until I found a job in early 2013. My husband was making $35k at the time (which required an M.A....which is B.S. lol) and I started making $44k. We both changed jobs at the end of 2013 and were making $90k combined at that point. To be honest, we were terrible with our money, but made an aggessive plan to pay off the balances we accrued from 2010-2013. Then 6 months later I was fired, but found a similar paying job 4 months later and a month into that job we were able to buy our first home! Then 5 months after starting that job, I was laid off due to restructuring :-/ I wasn't able to find a job until 10 months later, and at that point it was too late. We liquidated our 401ks to make all our credit card payments and finally just ran out of money. We filed chapter 7 the day before I was to start my new job on 10/5/15 (otherwise we didn't qualify for ch7 if I had income). Our combined income with my new job was slightly over $100k. We also had $175k in student loans at the time (which are now close to $250k) which were not included in bk. Here's my timeline for recovery. Fwiw, I had 100% on-time payments before bankruptcy, no lates and my score was in the low 600s. Post bk I also have 100% payment history. Current average account age is 9 years and 9 months and oldest is 18 years.
-Filed 10/4/2015
-IIB (for both of us):
NFCU: $108,750 (Includes our house (jointly owned, not reaffirmed) and 4 credit cards. We had a car loan through them too before bk, but I paid it off right before so they wouldn't go after my co-signer family member. The payoff ($7,500) was a gift from my grandfather)
DSNB: $2,600 (Macy's)
Synchrony: $21,300 (2 Old Navys, 2 Care Credits, Sam's Club, Morris Home, Gap, Paypal)
Comenity: $3,600 (Newegg, 2 Meijers)
Nordstrom: $900
Ally: $11,900 (car loan, not reaffirmed. We paid on it until June 2017 and then stopped. They repoed in October 2017. Credit report does not relfect the repo since IIB).
Citi: $8,400 (Sears, Home Depot, Citi Simplicity, Citi Diamond)
Bank of AMerica: $4,000 (BoA Platinum and 2 other alumni cards through school)
TD Bank: $2,500 (Target)
Chase: $5,500
Total: Nearly $170k, not including student loans
Discharged: 1/19/2016. TU at this point was around 650
House was not reaffirmed, but continued to make all payments and never missed. NFCU did not have an issue with this. We sold the house on 8/9/2019 and made a $65k profit.
First Credit card Application after discharge on 1/21/2016: Capital One Platinum. SL $4,000. I assumed the high SL since the bk hadn't hit my credit report yet, but all the balances were showing $0 balance.
Since bk (instant approvals only, I don't recon):
Barclay's Jet Blue: Opened 5/2016. $4,900 SL. Currently $7,900
Barclay's Barclaycard Rewards: Opened 12/2016. $2,000 SL. They won't budge on CLI for some reason.
Well's Fargo Home Project Card: Opened 3/2017. $4,400 SL.
Synchrony Care Credit: Let me back in 11/2017! $1,500 SL. Currently $3,600. Applied in early 2017 and was denied.
Capital One Quicksilver: Opened 12/2016. $10,000 SL. They won't budge on CLI.
Capital One car loan, 3.49%: Opened 10/2017 for $27k jointly owned.
Capital One car loan, 3.9%: Opened 8/2018 for $29k jointly owned.
Capital One Kohl's: Opened 12/2018. $400 SL. Now $700 (lol)
PayPal Credit: Opened 3/2018. $2,000 SL. Now $3,100
Ikea Comenity: Let me back in 9/2019! $4,600 SL. Applied in 2018 and was denied.
Discover IT: Opened 9/2019. $18,000 SL!!!
HSBC Cash Rewards: Opened Today. $7,000 SL
Total: $58,400 (authorized user on all husband's cards. Credit report shows $100,900 CLs)
We just bought out first house after bk with 3% down for $279,900 8/2019 and our utilization is about 3% currently. I'm PIF every month now since I got an amazing job last month as well. Current household income is over $140k, and post bk to 9/2019 it was around $115k.
I'm not even 4 years post bk and things are really looking up. My score just passed 700 when we sold our house and paid off some debt with the profits and I intend to never, ever, ever be in that situation again. I'm intending to garden now for a long time while we put most of our efforts into growing our savings. I'm open to any questions and thank you for letting me share my story
Congrats on a successful rebuild. You guys did really well and it will be an inspiration to others who lurk and members who join that it can be done.
Thank you so much, that means a lot 
I do think not having any missed/late payments before bankruptcy has helped us out the most. I laughed after seeing our scores after discharge and how they actually increased haha. The student loans probably hurt the most and we're on the IBR plan which doesn't even pay the interest. We're currently just waiting out the 20-25 year period, which we're 10 years into, to have them forgiven. I'm definitely not thrilled about seeing the tax bill for that "income"! Lol.
I've read a lot of your posts and advice and I really appreciate you take time out of your day to help others.
I do think not having any missed/late payments before bankruptcy has helped us out the most. I laughed after seeing our scores after discharge and how they actually increased haha. The student loans probably hurt the most and we're on the IBR plan which doesn't even pay the interest. We're currently just waiting out the 20-25 year period, which we're 10 years into, to have them forgiven. I'm definitely not thrilled about seeing the tax bill for that "income"! Lol.I've read a lot of your posts and advice and I really appreciate you take time out of your day to help others.