Post-Bankruptcy credit report cleanup

[Anonymous]

I have just read an article on Bankrate.com under the "ask the experts" page for their Bankruptcy advisor about accounts showing IIB on credit reports after discharge,  and he says to request that each creditor listed as derogatory or IIB that was included in petition  should be removed from your credit report, and follow through to make sure the objectionable items are removed. If not, hire an attorney, as you are in the right and the law is on your side. You do not have to wait 7 years for the accounts to drop off. The Public Record report of Bankruptcy will stay for 10 years after Chapter 7 filing date. Is this correct? I have not seen any posts regarding the above.

[Anonymous]

I filed Ch. 7 and was discharged in 2004.  Shortly after, I stumbled upon ficoforums and began looking into my credit report.  Found lots and lots of errors on all 3 of my reports -- things that were included in my bankruptcy, but still being reported as lates, missed payments, bk not showing up, etc. 

To my knowledge, nothing gets "removed" from your credit report just because you file bankruptcy.  However, amounts owed and discharged through bankruptcy should all zero out and then will be noted with "included in bankruptcy". 

I have found that as time goes on, my bankruptcy/negative accounts have been dropping and out of probably 25 original accounts/debts included in that bankruptcy, I now have only 4 that actually show up and most of those drop off this year and next.  The bankruptcy notation, however, will not come off until 2014.

One by one, I sent letters to the reporting agencies and one by one they got taken  care of, marked as zero, and noted "incl in bk".  My bankruptcy is still being reported with the 2004 date, however, I was able to quickly obtain credit within months of my dishcarge and have kept my credit squeaky clean since.  My credit has gone from mid 400's right after BK to 680 today.  I have no problem getting credit when I need it now. 

Recently, however, one of my creditors, Capital 1, began marking one of my dishcarged debts as missed payment.  I have sent a letter and hope it has been taken care of or will be soon. 

As long as you monitor your reports carefully, from all 3 CR agencies, and send letters on all errors you see, you will be able to clean your credit up.

Hope that answers your questions!

[Anonymous]

Noneya,

Thanks for info on your BK7. I filed 10/09 and was discharged promptly beginning of 1/10. I have 15 negatives all IIB, but almost everyone of them shows errors like 30 day late 12/09 (after filing in October 09) and some also indicate charge off in Dec 09/Jan 10, just before discharge. All do show $0 balance and IIB, so does it make any difference if they are showing the negatives past due, charge off after filing date that are incorrect, except the Included in Bankruptcy notation?

A little over 2 month's now since discharge and latest FICO's yesterday were EQ=620 & TU=625. Before BK7 I had 34 years history with no negatives and 40 positive accounts and FICO's averaged 780-805. Guess it will be awhile before I get back to those numbers if ever.

[Anonymous]

I need help too, do a hire an attorney to dispute my lates with the creditor?

I called the creditor and they are not helpful at all!

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

We just notified the CRA's that the account was IIB, along with the date the BK was filed, and that the accounts IIB should not be reporting lates or a balance due.

They cleaned up pretty easily - but the first time we saw the reports we were pretty distressed.

If I remember correctly, it's even an option you can select on the drop down menu on the online disputes.

The accounts themselves, of course, will continue to report.  And remember that any account IIB is a derogatory account.

[Anonymous]

After my BK discharge 9/09 I found a lot of errors on my CR's. Most were resolved with a simple online dispute, but I had one account that was included in BK that kept reporting CO. My solution was to send a nice letter requesting my information be updated via registered mail including copies of my Discharge, Meeting of creditors, the stubborn account's listing in schedule F of my BK petition and a copy of the notification matrix ( showing they had been notified ). I only included the info for that account (blocked out all other accounts on the list). They quickly corrected the account info on all 3 CRA's rather than face legal action.

[Anonymous]

The clean up process is huge.  My Ch7 was discharged 8/09 and my FICO bottomed out at 527.  I started cleaning up the reports in March of this year and by late April was up to a 657.  Since the public record is so fresh getting new lines is still a bit painful but with proof of income and no lates since filing, I haven't been denied.  TU today is at 682 FICO; EQ 667.

[wednesdayaddamsd]

Mojoch,

I just filed for BK myself, and I am wondering what you did to raise your score so quickly? May I ask what kind of accounts you opened, with whom, and when? I am in a crunch to reach 660 so I can get a USDA mortgage next year (hopefully). So I need all of the advice I can get.

)

Thank you!

[scrubs]

most like government housing loans reqiure at least two years of clean trade lines  like cc payments car payments etc and at least two to four  trade lines.

[wednesdayaddamsd]

Scrubs,

USDA waives all of that stuff if your score (mid score) is 660 or higher. This straight from the lender's mouth. It's written on all of their requirement documentation as well.