BK Friendly Credit Cards Listed

[Anonymous]

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@tommiej7533 wrote:
I have a juniper card with aCLof 5,000 at 8.99%. You have to watch them however. They twice wanted to raise my interest rate the last time to 24.21 percent. It was because they say I missed a payment which was late but not missed.(Did not recieve bill in mail) I wrote corporqate a letter with all the documentation and they reversed.

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That's a lovely card!  Would you be willing to share any of the following? -

Ch 13 or Ch 7 BK?

When filed and when discharged?

Credit scores?

Any other cards at the time?  Any other derogs?

I love this thread - it's SO helpful.  Congratulations on your hard work rebuilding!  Nice job!

[tosha29]

My bankruptcy was discharged 03-2009, I applied for the orchard in May and got approved for 300, in June I applied for Capital One and got approved for 300 and they also sent me the credit steps letter. My scores are Equifax 630  Experian 610  and Transunion 603. I was denied a JC Penny which I applied online in July.

[Anonymous]

My EXP is 561 and I got approved for a Credit One card on 12/21/09

[Anonymous]

Added Juniper to my post-BK cards. 

Received a couple pre-qualified letters.  App'd and received $1200 CL, 8 months after CH 13 BK.  This is a bank card without AF - so I'm likin' it.

Update on other cards (just in case this is helpful): 

--My Macy's (opened 5 months after discharge - started at $1000, six months later at $2400)

--Dillard's (opened 5 months after discharge - started at $700, four months later $950).

--Orchard (received after last payment of Ch. 13 but before official discharge).  Closed before AF hit at 12 months - helped me rebuild, but no longer serves a need.  This bank card was replaced with the Juniper no AF bank card.  (Remember FICO gods like at least one bank/national cc for FICO scores).

Thanks for this thread - it's super!

[tbone74]

Ref your Macy's & Dillards...what were your scores when you were approved?

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody, I've been lurking for a while and thought I would contribute since I've been through a BK in 2001.  Here's the cards I've been approved for and declined since then.  My score was about 580 in January of 2006.  I didn't start building my credit back up until 2005.  I had a business bankruptcy and we were told because of the amount of debt we personally guaranteed for the business that we would need to file personal as well.  Of course, I did everything wrong to start.  But I'm trying to rectify that now before my bk falls off in March 2011.  A quick history is I closed the doors on our business in on Jan 1, 2001.  We filed for bankruptcy in March 2001, my husband went to work a few days later and never came home.  Took me two years to find him so I was basically left to deal with everything.  It took me 5 months to find a job so I had to sell everything we owned to try to keep the house payment going, finally gave up.  Worked for about 5 months and got laid off.  Great!  No unemployment since I had been self employed.  Took a job a Meier & Frank and barely made it for about 9 months (was issued a secured cc by Meier & Frank).  Finally got a job at a bank that lasted for 6 months and got laid off again.   Qualfiied for unemployment ($200 wk) Ha!  This was when unemployment was really high, I was either over qualified or under educated.  Couldn't win.  So, I took a commission only job.  Commission was so unsteady that I was afraid to get into any kind of debt.  By 2005 I finally felt I was doing well enough to apply for a credit card. Not knowing any better went for First Premier.  I needed to start somewhere.  In January received offers from Capital One and Household bank so I took both.  Took a job with Macy's over Christmas in 2007 and they issued me an unsecure $200 Credit card.  You have to put everything on your cc with them as an employee to get a discount.  The nice part was they kept my originally issue date from Meier & Frank of 2001.   Since then I have been approved & declined for the following cards.

Meier & Frank (Now Macys) Issued 2001 Originally $200 Secured - Now $4,000

First Premier:                      Issued 2005 Originally $300                Now $575 (Will be closing this next month)

Capital One Plainum:           Issued 2006 Originally $750                Now Combined with Capital One Rewards

Household Bank                  Issued 2006 Originally $500                Now $2,050 

Capital One Rewards:          Issued 2008  Originally $750               Now $1,500 (Combined with CO Platinum)

WAMU:                              Issued 2007  Orignally $1,000             Now Chase Platinum - $1,000

ESPN:                               Issued 2008  Originally $1,000             Now Chase Rewards - $1,000

HSBC:                               Issued 2009  Originally $500                Now $500 (Dumb move)

Nordstrom                          Issued 2008  Orignally $500                 Now $1,500

Target                                Issued 2005  Originally $200                Now $500 - Keep for age

Walmart                             Issued 2008  Originally $300                Now $500

Best Buy                            Issued 2007  Originally $400                Now $400 (Can't get anymore)

Chevron                              Issued 2009  Originally $700                Now $1,100

I'm in a repayment plan right now and all cards will be at $0 by July 2010.  Ya!  I will be closing some of these rebuilder cards once I get all the balances to 0 and will not be doing anything new until my BK falls off next year.  At that time I'm hoping to get a Macy's Visa.  I spoke to Macy's last month and they declined for Visa but said to call back in a couple of months, not sure if that's because the bankruptcy will be over 9 years by then or if it's because it will be over 2 years old.  I'm very careful with it just charging a little bit and then paying it off.  So, the cards that are bankruptcy unfriendly are the following:

Gold Delta - Declined 9/2009 - Letter stated because of BK

US Bank -   Declined 3/2009 - Letter stated because of BK

HSBC Prime Card - Declined

Hope this helps everybody. 

[OptimalFICO]

My boyfriend has a BK discharged Feb 2003

He was approved by Orchard Bank for a MasterCard in March 2006 but with a low CL ($300) and an annual fee. Initially they did automatic reviews and CLI once per year. When the credit crunch hit, they stopped automatic reviews and increases. We were told we could call every 6 months for a review and possible CLI. But be careful the representative is clear that you want an account review and that you do not want them to pull a hard inquiry (they are two different types of reviews and the reps are not always clear on what a account review is). Note that Orchard only increases a few hundred dollars at a time. We were told that with the type of card he has, if he wants a higher CLI they'd have to do a hard credit inquiry. My boyfriend's CL is now $2,300. BUT as of April 2010 we were told that Orchard Bank is no longer doing any CLIs with our without a hard pull. The rep said they've been getting lots of complaints and that we should check back the next couple months to see if the policy has changed. Note that since he's had an excellent credit history since getting this card, we have called several times to see if they'll waive the annual fee -- we have talked to several reps and supervisors -- they will not. They say that would be a different type of card and they'd have to do a hard inquiry to determine creditworthiness for the new card.

More recently in April 2010 my boyfriend was approved for a VISA with Alliant Credit Union.

Experian Inquiry

EX credit score equivalent to approx. high 600's.... 685?

Requested $5,000 CL but was approved at $2,500. After speaking with the rep who talked to the underwriter, it was increased to $3,000. The rep stated they could not go higher because he was new to the credit union (despite a large savings balance that was transferred in).

I would suggest people with BKs first start rebuilding credit by getting at least one if not two secured credit cards. Make sure the creditor reports to all three credit bureaus. Make sure they will convert the card to a regular credit card (unsecured) after a year or two of demonstrated responsible use. Also make sure the credit card will not have an annual fee. My boyfriend is stuck paying the Orchard Bank annual fee as a cost of maintaining his FICO score... since it's now his oldest good account, he can't cancel the card until his credit is completely repaired. Even then, when he can withstand an inquiry I'll probably call to see if they'll convert the card to a no annual fee card while still reporting the old origination date. Any suggestions about this?

[Anonymous]

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@OptimalFICO wrote:

More recently in April 2010 my boyfriend was approved for a VISA with Alliant Credit Union.

Experian Inquiry

EX credit score equivalent to approx. high 600's.... 685?

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Alliant historically pulls EQ for their cc's.  Any chance they pulled Equifax for him, rather than Experian?

Thanks for posting this, it's good to be reminded that Alliant will take older BK's.

[OptimalFICO]

I asked specifically and the rep told me Experian. She could have been wrong but she also told me that the credit score they provide quarterly via Skybranch also comes from Experian, but it's a different scoring model. Hmmm.

[Anonymous]

Wow.  That's a shocker.  I know that they'll pull EXP for mortgages, but this is the first I've heard for a cc.

That Skybranch score has always seemed so random.

That's good to know.  I think we'll stay under their radar for awhile.  DH's EXP is his least happy score.