I've been reading a lot of threads on here trying to get smart on credit while rebuilding post BK7. I have some questions about things that have happened on my credit report that I cannot seem to find threads on.
My circumstances:
Declared CH7 in May '16. I was current on all personal credit lines but my business failed and I was facing a $200,000 SBA loan personal guarantee that I couldn't pay out of pocket. At time of filing I had no negatives at all on my credit report.
Included in bankruptcy were USAA (1 CC for $20,000) and AMEX (2 CC for $4200). I reaffirmed my mortgage and kept a store credit card through the bankruptcy (They sent me a letter that they were going to close it, but I called them and they agreed to leave it open. Their only question was whether they were listed in the BK. When I told them no, they just reinstated the card with no change to the SL).
After everything was concluded, USAA and both AMEX accounts were reporting on all bureaus as derogatory with date of first derogatory showing as the CH7 filing date. My mortgage had a notation "Reaffirmation of Debt".
The anomalies:
1) The reaffirmation of debt notation on my mortgage appeared on my reports for a couple months and then the notation simply disappeared from my reports.
2) Fast forward to some time in 2019 (~3 years post BK7) and one of the AMEX accounts disappeared from my reports. I don't know why. It was just gone.
3) Fast forward to October 2020 (~4 years, 5 months post BK7) and poof: USAA was also gone from my reports. No idea why, just gone.
My reports now only show one AMEX account with a derogatory status (IIB) and the CH7 Public Record.
Is this normal? I know the boilerplate is always "will remain on your report for up to 7 years", but I haven't seen any references to negatives simply disappearing for no obvious reason. Mind, I certainly am not going to call USAA or AMEX and ask for an explanation (or complain, lol). But how abnormal is this? I keep having this very bad thought that I am going to pull my reports one day and they will have returned.
Any thoughts from those of you with more experience and knowledge?
Thanks.
Go play the lottery ASAP! Ive seen some removed even sooner in the BK Sub Forum. Its rare. But it does happen. Where you seeingthis BTW.
Same thing happened with me and AMEX. I burned them for ~$2,400 in BK between two cards and both accounts simply disappeared as if I never openned them on all three reports a few months after discharge.
The accounts dropping off my reports had no effect on not being blacklisted though (not that I thought it would). 😔
@FireMedic1 wrote:Go play the lottery ASAP! Ive seen some removed even sooner in the BK Sub Forum. Its rare. But it does happen. Where you seeingthis BTW.
I do feel very fortunate. Instead of three accounts having derogatory statuses, I have just one. Not that the score effect was massive, but 9 points is 9 points. As I understand the system, when that AMEX account drops (presumably at 7 years post BK filing since that is also my DOFD) I should get a nice jump in scores. Three years more and the BK will drop and I should be at normal scoring again.
I pulled reports through the annual free credit report site and through the bureaus. I kept a watch on accounts through KC and Credit.com as well. Over time I just noticed that the accounts had dropped. I went back and looked at my saved credit reports to get the dates for my OP. Apparently, I was lax about saving reports in 2019 since I can't nail down the month AMEX left the building. Based on my EX8s from Experian it looks like may be Mar '19 as I got a 9 point jump and the rest of the year is very stable with only 2-3 point movements.
Right after I filed I started pulling credit reports to see how things were being reported and to make sure nothing odd came up. I had researched BK very thoroughly before I filed and checking your reports thoroughly and repeatedly for errors was one of the frequently repeated bits of advice.
One thing I did catch was that my closed Chase account suddenly showed on TU as IIB. It had been closed for almost ten years before I declared BK7. I disputed it with TU and it went poof, but it was at the ten year mark anyway. I suspect it was actually an error by TU when they updated my file with my BK7, not Chase deciding they wanted in on my hot BK action.
@Disregard wrote:Same thing happened with me and AMEX. I burned them for ~$2,400 in BK between two cards and both accounts simply disappeared as if I never openned them on all three reports a few months after discharge.
The accounts dropping off my reports had no effect on not being blacklisted though (not that I thought it would). 😔
A rare but welcome gift from AMEX, then.
The idea of paying off the discharged debt to AMEX to get off the blacklist has occurred to me.
I am conflicted because AMEX was my first card. Karl Malden told me as a child that I needed to have American Express and I got a green card at 19. I was a grown up: I had American Express. That account has been the bedrock of my credit history for three decades. But.
When I look at credit cards as products for my benefit and use, I cannot see a use case for an annual fee card. Let alone an annual fee card with rewards focused on travel. I never could figure out what to do with the rewards points. I almost never fly or stay in hotels, I don't buy the things that they had in their buy with points store and I am not anywhere near any of the establishments that they had deals with (And I have no interest in what those stores sell).
Worse, when I do decide to spend the money on a trip I want to do what I want to do. I do not want to get out the Secret Decoder Ring of Super Duper Discount Magic Eight Balls and Point Maximization(tm) to score maximum value by buying one of these things I don't want and going to this restaurant that I have no interest in (but only between 3:53 pm and 4:38 pm on alternating thursdays during Lent or Ramadan) to get the rewards boost. DW loves that kind of thing, I would rather have a root canal.
To be fair, I also have most of those same issues with my current rewards cards, but they are no annual fee and I can take the points as cash or spend it through Amazon or PayPal.
Aside from that feeling of "Man it would be nice to have an AMEX card again." I can't justify the annual fee expense. Especially when the barrier to entry is a few thousand dollars that I don't have to pay. But, man it would be nice to have an AMEX card again.
