I'm not sure if this should be in the BK or Rebuilding forums, please move if its not in the appropriate spot.
I Filed Ch. 7 on 11/2/12; had my 341 on 12/4/12; expect discharge Feb 2013. I had no open cc's and haven't had one since 2003 or so. Quite honestly I kept getting in trouble with them when i was younger and just decided to give up on credit and be a cash-only person since. In some ways I regret this, but mostly I think it was probably a very wise move on my part at the time. I needed to learn to live within my means and on a budget, and I've done that. My bk is 75% medical bills topped with payday loans to cover the medical bills and pay rent and feed the kids, etc. I think if I had kept some credit, I may not have hopped on the payday loan trainwreck and probably could have kept my head above water and never filed bk.
Financed car on 11/16/12 (way too high of interest, but I desperately needed transpo)
- December 2012: GW a paid collections on a parking ticket that I never knew was in collections or on my report; goodwill until they remove or C&D me
- March 2013: App Spree for 1st cc (I'm really gunning for unsecured)
- April 2013: Work on Judgment from Apr 2006 that is already past the 5-year SOL in Kansas anyway. I'm hoping the $0 balance will help.
- May 2013: Start HIPAA'ing anything that didn't delete by itself. (I still don't quite understand this process, but will study it until then)
- June 4, 2013: App spree for 2nd card
- July - Oct 2013 for gardening and following up on anything neg remaining in my report
- Nov 2013: Check scores to see if possible to refi car, if not wait another 6 months
- December 2013: Scores at least 620 across the board.
I'm only planning on two cards the first year (maybe forever). Do you think just two cards and the car loan is enough for mid-600s? Any suggestions to make to my timeline?
Starting Score: 11/29/12 TU 527; EQ 565; EX 564 fako - bk7 dc'd 2/15/13
New goal 675
Absolutely.You have a good plan of action just depending on your situation I didn't wait til discharge to apply. I filed in May 2012 Chpt 7 credit score of 467 and was discharged Aug 2012 credit score 584. I went and got a new car 18.97 interest rate ouch on 08/16/2012 !! Got a Capital One Secured card for $500 in June before discharge. I then got a $500 unsecured Capital One Card in September and Lane Bryant $150 and NY & Company for $250 in the same 2 week period. I have refrained from apping since then. I keep my balances below 10% utiliation and just recently added as AU on Target Red Card with $10,000 credit score is currently 625 and I'm only 4 months post-BK. Definitely paying on time helps and getting a few cards does too. There is a shopping cart trick with companies like Victoria Secret, Roamans, and others. Read the post but what you do is go through a register an account with them just email-sign up. Then add somethings to your cart like you want to shop and then click checkout it will do a soft pull (No inquiry added to credit report) and give you a pre-approved limit if they feel you qualify. Those are the easiest. Main thing with credit card is to keep spending low. Pay in full when statement cuts. Read the post for : HOW TO GO FROM BANKRUPTCY TO 700 FICO SCORE IN 24 MONTHS. Good luck to you and keep us posted. GW'll em to death.
Starting Score: 467Is there is a list of the "shopping cart trick" stores anywhere? I probably won't get one, but I'm interested to see what a soft pull would do right now.
Here is a list of companies through the websites. Follow those directions to the T!!! I did and Good Luck
These websites (and they are others) are all a part of the same network: WFNNB, World Financial Network Bank. They usually pull Experian reports, but some may pull others. They are all retail cards, some are Visa branded, most are not. Mostly clothes, some furniture and other things. I have seen most in the mall or catalogs I get in the mail:
Abercrombie & Fitch
Ann Taylor
Ashley Stewart
Avenue
Bealls
Brylane Home
The Buckle
Catherines
Chadwicks of Boston
Crate and Barrel
Domestications
Dress Barn
Eddie Bauer
Express
Fashion Bug
Friedman’s Jewelers
Goody's Family Clothing
J.Crew
Jessica London
KingSize
La Redoute
Lane Bryant
Lerner New York
Limited Too
MetroStyle
New York & Company
Newport News
Peebles
Pottery Barn
Roamans
Silhouettes
Spiegel
Structure
The Company Store
The Limited
Victoria's Secret
SOME POINTS TO CONSIDER:
SOFT INQUIRIES
Since these are preapprovals by soft inquiries, your credit report does not get hit with a hard inquiry, therefore your credit score is not affected and other creditors do not see soft inquiries, only hard inquiries.
AGE OF ACCOUNTS
If you are rebuilding, you may want to add positive accounts now so that 6 months, a year or two down the road these accounts have aged and helped improve your scores.
CREDIT MIX AND UTILIZATION
These lines would help your credit mix and add to your total credit line. They may be small at first, so to help your score you could either pay in full each bill or only use a small amount. Yes, keep in mind I have heard 35% of your credit line used is ok, but 10% utilization is golden to your FICO scores.
Let’s say you have a $500 credit limit. If you use 35% of that, it is $175 the most you can use. 10% of $500 would be $50, the most you could use.
DO NOT APPLY IF NOT PREAPPROVED
If you are rebuilding and do not see a preapproval offer, I would not apply for the credit b/c then you will have a hard inquiry and we all know hard inquiries do hurt your score, especially after 5 in the last 6 months.
CREDIT LINE INCREASES:
These companies normally give out credit line increases in 9 months provided you have a good credit limit, etc. at the time. I haven’t had mine that long to say if it is true.
AS ALWAYS PLEASE BE RESPONSIBLE!!!!
You want to build credit so that lenders can see an excellent credit history. Getting cards and charging them up to the max can hurt your score really bad!!!
Please note, everyone’s situation is not the same so you may have different outcomes.
HOW TO SEE IF YOU ARE PREAPPROVED
Go to the website: http://www.victoriasecret.com orhttp://www.express.com for example.
Add a few things to your cart, an item or two and go to check out as if you would order normally and register when it asks. I don’t think you have to input any credit card info. After you register with items in your cart, the preapproval should just pop up. At that point you can accept the offer and it will let you know your limit. You don’t have to buy anything to accept the offer.
There are tons of WFNNB stores, but I’m not sure if this works for all. Somehow, their system softs your credit report and all it needs is your address and date of birth, maybe phone number. They may need your ssn to confirm the offer, but that is it.
Absolutely...Forums are a wealth of collective knowledge...Fill your credit coffers and be RICH!!!
>>To be responsible is to harness knowledge and common sense....which ain't so common!
Thanks for that list! Do you know which cra these shopping cards pull from?
Don't get a store card and don't start apping until after your discharge (and clean-up).
Seriously, read my post about how to go from BK7 to 700 in 24 Months (the one DonMzBhavin pointed out). Here's the link: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Bankruptcy/HOW-TO-From-BK7-discharge-to-700-in-24-months-or-less/td-...
The ONLY substitution I'd make to that since I wrote it is to switch it to Credit One from Orchard Bank. They are both cards I hate, but you have to start somewhere, unsecured, and not a store card.
Cheers,
-SM
Oh don't worry, I have zero intention of applying for anything until spring. I just wanted to see if I'd get an offer and shockingly I did. It was terrible though, so no temptation of taking it.