So, um, hello there... *shy wave
I'm new here and thought I'd share my story (it's long, fair warning! Back out now!) and seek out some next step advice from anyone willing to chime in.
Let's go back a moment to 2014, when my husband at the time (now Ex husband) started on his expensive mid-life crisis journey - making financial decisions without involving me, yet ones that directly affected me. At that time, I enjoyed a solid credit score across all three bureaus in the mid to upper 700s, I was able to get credit easily, manage credit well, and easily afford the bills we owed. We didn't pay off credit cards every month, but we had balances that never exceeded 20% of the total $100k in credit we had. We had a mortgage on our main home, and an 4 flat investment property that wasn't making us rich, but was easily breaking even each year, but losing equity. Still we held it knowing that in real estate one must be patient. Most of this was a result of my long history of responsible credit use (not student loan use however, but we will get to that later) and knowing and following the general rules of responsible credit. Everything was grand.
And then, he took out a $50k HELOC (all of the equity) against the main property to purchase "fun things" without my knowledge (I didn't even know you could do that, take out a loan against property without the signature of the other leinholder, but I digress).
I filed for divorce that spring after I found out about the motorcycle, loan, etc. In the months that followed he blew out his 401k (spending all of it before I could get a judgment for my portion) to pay his attorney (extremely expensive one he didn't really need and who dumped him when he could no longer pay), had a major accident on the motorcycle (totaled), and destroyed his leg in the accident (disabled for over a year at zero income because he didn't file his paperwork with his employer on time).
During this, the household income was slashed by 3/4 (his income) and I was unable to keep afloat. When I realized credit cards were a sinking ship, the apartment had no equity, and the house was now underwater (due to HELOC), I used what I had left in savings to pay off my car, stopped struggling to pay either mortgage and the cards, told my divorce attorney to dump the real estate pigs in his lap and called a BK attorney.
I filed Chapter 7 a few months after my divorce was final, on 7/26/16, and was discharged 10/26/16, meaning I am currently only about 3 months post discharge. At the time the attorney ran my report he said my score was only 507 (yikes, from a 780 only 2 years prior), and that it was estimated I would only be a 565 after a year. This sucked. Hard. But I figured I better start rebuilding ASAP if I wanted to buy a new home and get a new car. (I should mention I also got remarried in this time - I know, I move fast, but hey, life is short and he's a major upgrade, LOL)
Unfortunately, I did NOT see SM's guide until yesterday, or I'd have followed that pretty closely, but I think I have deviated too much from it to make it work now.
The first thing I did was apply for a Cap One card. I was approved for a QS with a $3k line. My new husband (his credit also sucks from a recent divorce, but he didn't do a BK, going through his would make this novel a series) decided to apply too and got one with a $1k line. We added each other to each card to increase available credit. We have used these very sparingly, and I've paid off the balance each month except this month ONLY because we had an unexpected purchase to make that exceeded what I could afford to pay off. We're building savings, but it's not quite there yet. It still didn't exceed 30%, and I did pay half of it. It will be paid off next month however.
I recently clicked for a CLI out of curiosity (I figured, might as well now) and got an extra $300, for a new line of $3300.
In December, the car needed to be replaced (seriously, needed to. I had racked up miles on it due to a crazy long commute years earlier), so we attempted to purchase one, and it was ugly. I wasn't going for anything fancy or even brand new, but I was either flat out denied or offered interest rates that would mean a car payment around $850. I nursed the vehicle a little longer until I had no choice and we decided to go someplace else and try again. This time (just last week), we fared much better and scored a 3 year lease at 2.75%. That has not hit my credit report yet - we sign everything tonight because we were waiting for an auto show rebate that wasn't available until today.
Then, just last night, I tried the soft pull Discover credit app - the one that doesn't give you a hard inquiry. It said I was approved, so I went through with it and got a Discover IT card with a CL of $2000.
Some other things to note....
I have a huge student loan balance. We're talking $99k. From a Bachelor's and two Master's degrees. It has never been late (even during that dark divorce era - I knew it couldn't be d/c in BK, so I made sure to make the payments or at least call to defer if I had a rough month). The good thing here is that it is installment and it ages my report after having everything else d/c'd (oldest one is 12 years old).
In November, I applied for a Barclay's card, and was denied. But it wasn't for BK. I cannot find the letter now, (grrr) but it was for something about having opened a new credit card too close to my app.
Last week, I applied for a Amazon Store Card and was denied. This was recent enough I didn't get the letter yet so I don't know exactly why, but I can guess.
Inquiries: HIGH. Between the two attempts at getting a needed car (2 occasions, multiple credit hits each time), the cards I applied for (Cap One, Barclay, Amazon, and Discover), and the BK counseling pull, I have between 7 and 12 depending on which one you look at. Almost all will drop off by October of 2018 - prior to one of my goals below.
In my BK I burned Chase, Citi/CBNA (Citi Plat I had for 21 years, and two store cards), BoA, Comenity (store cards), Capital One (store card).
No collections on my credit.
However, Experian has many of the burned cards above marked Collection in the Worst Delinquency section. They do say "Debt included in or discharged through Bankruptcy Chapter 7, 11, or 12" under status, and $0 balance though. Experian also reports all of the lates in the history section, where the other bureaus changed to say 0 times late under everything since the BK. This confuses me, and I am unsure if this matter or not.
GOALS
To eventually reach 700 (and beyond) again
To increase available credit without too many hits on my report.
Buy a home in 2 1/2 years if possible, when my daughter is 18 and I no longer have to stay in this school district. (per divorce. I don't want to even think about buying sooner because I do not want to buy here and want to move away, so renting is fine for now)
So, advice? What would YOU do now? Is there someone I should apply with over others? Am I missing something? Should I sit a while and wait?
