@Guyatthebeach wrote:
Congratulations on getting the unsecured Visa and the secured loan at Associated CU. You have an excellent foundation for your rebuild. I would definitely follow the 720 in 24 plan to build your credit card payment history. NFCU likes to see lots of card use and solid payment history. They also like to expand on relationships. Think about opening a CD and park some money there. I bet your NFCU secured Visa will be unsecured in a year.
Another to focus on while you are gardening is preventing the events that caused your bankruptcy from happening again. If you lost your job and your source of income, do you have enough to cover your bills? Do you have a system to track when your payments are due (i.e. Setting up reminders on your computer? Do you have a budget? I did all that the first 6 months and it makes life easier.
All good questions, thank you for them Guy. I'll answer them, mostly to provide a data point for anybody else lurking and reading this topic. In my case the BK was mostly the result of about 8 years of medical issues that kept piling on, then an insurance change that toppled over the apple cart. I'm sure if I'd had a better paying job I probably could've staved it off a bit longer, but when I sat down to talk with my attorney and went over everything his comment was telling: "Why the hell didn't I see you 3 or 4 years ago?"
One of the things we opted to do in my bankruptcy -- and I'm grateful to have had a good attorney who mentioned it, because I wasn't even aware it was an option when I first filed, was redeem my car rather than reaffirm the loan. I was in an 11%, 60 month loan with 3 years left, on a 2004 car with, now, 103k miles. The payments really weren't bad, just over $200/mo, as I bought the car when my old one bit the dust, while in the midst of the medical nightmare so my attitude was I'm buying as cheap-but-reliable as I could get away with... but the interest over the next few years was a bear, and the value of the car had, of course, plummeted. So he did some research and figured we should be able to get away with redeeming it at $1,500 -- the pre-BK bal on the note was just under 5k. SCUSA didn't object, so at this point it's just a matter of waiting for the judge to sign the order, or kick it back because we lowballed. Apparently I have a slooooow judge on orders - we filed the motion on 3/29, it's docketed, but he hasn't ruled on it yet. Worst case, we'll resubmit at $2k. I already stuck aside $2,500 for the car, so I'm safe there.
I've also been building up my emergency fund, mostly thanks to a second job I picked up that's giving me a nice paycheck boost for the next couple of months.
The reminder on due dates is a good one -- and I have a couple of apps I've used for that in the past, in addition to sticking them on my calendar on my computer as reminders. I'll pull the names and post them here in a bit for anyone else who may want one.
As for a budget... That's on the to-do list. Really, I've been holding off until the redemption either got approved or didn't, since I won't know where I fall until after I know whether or not I can dump the car payment (and probably a good chunk of my car insurance payment, too).
mrspock08
FYI. I got back into Capital One after the one year mark You can start checking for preapprovals right after the 12th statement. I also got approved for an Amex after the five year mark.
Again, it's awesome to see you on the right track.
Guyatthebeach
