Stuck & Confused after Bk 7

[leahslavi]

Hello Everyone!

I filed for chapter 7 bk in Feb 2018 after being sued, and was discharged May 28, 2018. I'm so sorry, I can't report what my scores were then, but I can let you know what they are now, whats on my report. My problem is, my score is at a standstill, and isnt going up. All accounts are in good standing since I've opened them. I'm scared I'm doing something wrong though, and I want to try and buy a house summer of 2020. I did run my cards up around Christmas and currently paying them down. Do I have too many cards? Do I have not enough cards? I have a plan to have them paid off by June. Any advise from anyone is greatly appreciated, because I want to maximize my score as much as possible. Here I go:

Current cards and balances:

Capital One Quicksilver 1 - $1000 limit, owe $985......opened Sep 18

Captial One Mastercard   - $500 limit, owe $479.......opened May 18

Kohls                                   - $300, owe $229......opened Aug 18

Victoria S.                           -$250, owe $62.....opened July 18

Ashley Furniture                -$3000, owe $2451......opened Sep 18

Jared                                   -$400, owe $253......openend Aug 18

Abercrombie & F.               -$250, owe $62.....opened Sep 18

Express                                -$250, owe $62.......opened Sep 18

Schools First Overdraft protection loan - $500, owe $425

I started paying the lowest cards down to get them under 30% utl. My current scores are:

Experian- 615 (per Experian)

Equifax-585 (per Credit Karma

Trans Union-586 (per Credit Karma)

[CGeorge]

For the cards listed, you have an overall utilization at 77%. This is holding your credit score down - in a huge way.

That is your best starting place.

Best of luck to you!

[leahslavi]

Thank you. I'm so eager to get everything paid down to see how much it will go up. 

[Anonymous]

I don't know how many hard inquiries you have, but that may also be impacting your score. 

I didn't see any loans on your list of accounts. Part of your score is the product mix. If you don't have any loans reporting, consider getting a secured loan that won't result in a hard inquiry, such as from SelfLender or Navy Federal.

Edit: I'm used to overdraft protection being something that's not a loan and not on your credit report.

Although you didn't ask, I also reviewed your list of accounts from an underwriting perspective. If you were applying for an auto loan, for example, and I reviewed your credit report showing most of your cards are near the credit limit after obtaining a discharge through bankruptcy, that could be enough for me to decline the application. If possible, try to keep a smaller balance on only one card, and leave the others at a $0 balance. 

[leahslavi]

Yes, the loan is from my credit union, and it reports on my credit. Do you think I should get another one? I have 16 hard pulls ( I was going crazy for a while), and stilled in October. I said I would garden until next year. I will take your advice and pay everything down and use one card. Thank you. 

[Anonymous]

Your utilization looks scary for someone with a recent bankruptcy. 

You have plenty of cards, you do not need another one. After three cards, there really isn't a score boost for more cards. 

For your best score, you should only owe on one card and that amount should be tiny, like 5% of limit. Owing on all of them definitely hurts your score. 

Pay them off, use them occasionally if you want, but, pay them in full before the statement cuts so that they report $0 except for one card which should report a small balance. 

I wouldn't bother to apply for anything else until your score is 700 or above. 

Save up for Christmas so that you aren't paying interest on it next year. If you pay off that Quicksilver by June, you will still have likely paid over $90 in interest on just that card, $45 on the Mastercard, $30 on Kohls, $25 on the combined cards with $62 balance, $232 on the Ashley Furniture (unless you got 0% interest on that) $24 on the Jared card. That's assuming their typical interest rates, you may have a different deal. So, around $446 in interest if you pay it off by June. 

My math may be a bit off here and there and my assumptions aren't perfect either- but, interest on credit cards is no joke when you have a low 600's score. That's not an insult, I'm fresh out of bankruptcy and don't even have a single 600 score yet..lol You cannot carry a balance at all if you are paying 20%+ interest and still get ahead. Even if you got great sale prices on everything you bought, it's still eaten up by interest. 

I've had a problem in the past with black friday shopping. I've gotten great deals, but, if I'm still paying on the credit card 6 months later than all my savings have been eaten up by the credit card company and then it's not even worth doing. 

[FireMedic1]

This one is easy. Pay them down to AZEO. Your looking at 40-50 points lost roughly. Dont use them until you get control of the debts. Dont apply for anything for at least until they are 2yrs old so the inq's fall off. Then you can get some MC/Visa cards out side of Cap1. Good Luck!

[Jnbmom]

With a recent BK and almost maxing out your cards, this will throw HUGE red flags out.

Stop using your cards, freeze them, lock them up etc. Pay down this debt as soon as you can.

[JaseT]

Not gonna sugar coat it. Already having such high utilization and being in debt for $5k not even a year after your BK discharge is the wrong path to be headed down. Don't try and get any more credit as you aren't managing what you have very well IMO. Stop charging, pay those debts down, and only charge in the future what you can pay off each month. You really don't want to be back in another BK! I know I never ever ever want to go through that again! Best of luck to you! 

[leahslavi]

Recent update:

I paid 3 of the smallest cards off a few days before I put this post up, and my scores jumped up 21 points. Thank you everyone for the responses. I'm going to continue to pay off, and just use one card.