Many years ago, I found this site and in particular, this section. Rebuilder's Anonymous
Coming from a Ch 7 Bk, I wanted to know how to re-establish credit and remove the baddies that remained post-bk.
The bankruptcy came from a myriad of factors, succinctly stated here:
2007: as VP of internal audit of my public company, after several quarters on my watch trying to fix a material issue incurred prior to my arrival, I told the company the best plan of action given the most recent issue was to restate their financials to the SEC. That was a most unwelcome suggestion. I was fired. SEC rules be darned.
It was Christmas time.
During summer of 2007, I had traded in my 2005 Infiniti FX-45 and my 2004 Cad Escalade ESV on a brand new sparkly Escalade ESV.
2008: Called Wells Fargo who had the mortgage on my home that I'd paid on time for the full 8 years I'd had the house and asked them what could be done about my mortgage because apparently, they'd placed an escrow on the house that I was unaware of.
Total lien on house: $330,000
Appraised value of house: $675,000
I'd put down 20% on the home in 2000 when I bought it, never missed a payment, never had escrowed given the 20%, always paid the taxes, and always held insurance.
Wells Fargo could not explain why to my satisfaction but said they would work with me on catching up the late payments. What late payments? Well, they never considered a payment in full because the difference between the payment BEFORE escrow and after escrow was never included in my payments so, partial for August payment went to cover escrow for July, etc.
I asked given my recent job loss if there was something that could be done to modify my mortgage that was at 9.25% and was told that I did not qualify for mortgage modification because I'd never been late (please see above).
You see where this is going ...
Not to be outdone but my Escalade had issues with less than 8,000 miles on it. In July of 2008, the Escalade died on the road: no steering, braking, hazards, On-Star; total and complete electronic failure. At that point, it was declared a lemon by the state I lived in (one occurance of a total braking OR steering loss and manufacturer has to buy the vehicle back).
GM was polite the first time I called and asked to have the issue escalated but eventually, I had to get an attorney involved.
Oh, as the former VP of audit for a public company during the worst recession in modern history, my name was bunk on the street. Job search, despite over 500 resumes sent out, was going no where.
2009: I'm behind on mortgage payments by about 2 months. Wells Fargo says I qualify for mortgage modification now. GM is balking at doing anything for lemon Escalade that sits at the dealership (who's owner was in jail for white-collar crime). Seriously, can't make this up. Attorney against GM is pushing to get me paid out and the vehicle picked up.
Vehicle is taken by Chase who had the lien on it after GM continues to stall. GM finally agrees to pay for lemon vehicle but only if I have possession of it. Chase refuses to turn it over because they want to be paid first, despite all letters were coming from GM and my attorneys.
GM says no, Chase says screw you (to me) and GM files for bankruptcy protection. (Hence why they were stalling all along, in my opinion.)
August 2009 I received a letter from WF about loan modification and that I qualify given the equity in it for a rate reduction as well. I FedEx'd the paperwork to WF to have the loan complete.
Nov 2009 I received the letter re: loan modification that's due on Jan 1, 2010. Woo!
2010: at the Wells Fargo branch to make the payment in January, I'm escorted into the manager's office to be told that the house was actually foreclosed upon in Sept 2009 and that sadly, I have 45 days to move or find my house locked and all belongings insdie the property of WF.
2 weeks later I find an intent to sue me for the lien on the Escalade, and I filed for Ch 7.
I had no credit card debt. The only outstanding debt was the Chase lien, mortgage, a small tax thing related to the 2008 settlement with my former employer (they failed to file the right numbers and I did not check to make sure it got covered), and my student loan taken out in 1993.
Bk is fully discharged in May 2010 but student loans and tax issue are not included. My $2,200 attorney did feel like filing the papers to see if it might be partially discharged.
2011: after rebuilding period my credit score was 687. Woo!
2012: after rebuilding some more my credit score was about the same.
2013: still 687; protecting that score with all my heart to try and buy a home in near future; my father falls gravely ill at end of year which starts the cycle of poop (he lived which is a miracle... he really should not be with us)
Those student loans... I took out $23,000 in 1993 and 1994 to pay for my MBA program that I left with one class to finish (I'm a single mom - have been his entire life). I'd paid on them when I could be during the terrible years, I deferred or put into forebearance. In 2013, they were listed as having accrued to $135,000 (despite having paid on them in the early '00's to the tune of about $50,000)
I'd rented an apartment when we moved from that state to where we currently reside. The complex manager had said my son and I were model citizens. Rent was never considered late but when my father became so ill, I did not pay the rent on time. We'd lived there for over 18 months, and I explained that I was waiting for the docs in the home state to let me know what his situation was. My mother is very dramatic so was unsure how sick he was or if I'd need to go home. Eventually, 2 days after admission to the hospital, the docs told me to come home. Again, I let the complex know what was happening and said I'd pay the rent when I returned home but that I need to get to that state apparently, to plan a funeral.
It's 1500 miles away... I drove in shorts and flip-flops... arriving in my former state, I pulled up email to find that the complex was giving me a 3-day notice and that if I did not pay it in the 3 days, they would move to evict. I again explained what was happening and said that I would pay when I returned. It was ugly. That's being kind.
Dad was being taken off life support - the pump for his kidneys was taken off slowly to monitor his BP, the removed the butterfly pump for his heart, the removed the BP machine and dialysis... and we waited, expecting the end.
Well, Dad is now 87. Two days after that, he walked out of the hospital and went home. So did my son and I - driving the 1500 miles back, arriving at 11:30 on a Tues night to find our eviction notice.
We found a place to move to and still live here.
2014: things are getting better but that complex decided that rent for december wasn't enough and charged me $3200 in cleaning fees and other miscellaneous charges (of course, that's after they wouldn't allow us to take pictures and the sheriff had to be called to remove the rest of our belongings). I hear from Hunter Warfield.
It shows up on my credit. I refuse to pay for anything outside of December 2013 rent; they had the place rented and filled by Jan 3, 2014 but were charging me the rent for Jan as well.
My credit score dropped to 625.
Student loans are now about $800/month so I ask for IBR. ACS is the next corp to be sued by CFPB, I think given the numerous complaints against them. The lose paperwork, payments, statements, send my information to people in states I've never resided who have no business getting my information (SS#, full birthdate, loan info, etc).
Given I was thinking about closing the credit cards I never used, I closed FP, Synchronicity, Care Credit, Cap One (low CL), and a few others, keeping open my higher FL C1 and TiresPlus cards. Made sure my util was never more than 5%, made sure my car loan was paid on time and above the required amount.
2015: ACS is still an issue - despite confirmation of fax'd documents and the manager of the area talking with me on the phone while filling out said documents, I get a rejection for IBR and then I'm told the student loan is close to default.
Told the consolidate the loan to get it out of that status, I tried but the screen indicated "Already in progress - cannot have more than one at a time" ... say what?! I had no other student loan.
Student loan enters default status.
Score drops. Oh, and that old tax issue that I'd hired an attorney to help me get an OIC? Yeah, still not done so there is a tax lien put on my credit report.
2016: 2nd worst year of my life... 2nd only to year my 1st son died (1986). I thought the year WF stole my house was bad but nope, 2016. Score tanks to 599. And it gets worse
2017: The intent for all of the above is for people who might come here thinking their situation is hopeless, read my life and think, if she can do it, so can I.
There is always hope as long as you have a job, there is always hope.
Last night I pulled my score: 443 (TU), 457 (EQ)
Yep! From VP of public company with 780+ score to worse than what it was immediately post bk. 443. I almost laughed but didn't. I got angry looking at what's on it.
I knew about the tax lien and student loan. I knew about the apt complex. What I didn't know is a few collections had re-aged themselves to be within last 2 years.
So, here's a list of the baddies, amount, and tracking of what I'm doing about them. Each month, I'm going to pay to repull my score and track the progress, relate that back here. I hope someday it helps others to not give up.
- Credit Collection Service (Progressive): disputing - I had coverage through State Farm at the same time, policy was canceled; Progressive failed to update; has been disputed since 2013; will dispute directly to CRAs
- Capio Partners (healthcare place): medical something but I've never been to the healthcare company; disputing with CRA and directly with CA
- Enhanced Recovery (Comcrap): this has been disputed since 2012; bill was paid in full, equipment returned; debt is being re-aged; disputing with CRAs
- The Affiliated Group (don't know - healthcare): disputing with CRAs and CA, don't know what it's for and there's no date or other information avail
- Hunter: this one boils my blood; I'm writing to the CEO of Camden along with the COO and explaining what occurred along with the email exchange; I'm going to offer the full month of Dec rent as PFD. It's a quasi-GW/PFD letter as I do believe I should pay for Dec but the apartment was in now way damaged (as attested to by the sheriff) and the apartment was rented 2 weeks later so not paying for January as well; oh, and in moving in had to pay $600 in pre-cleaning for my move out (they charge you that amount up front with dogs saying it's used upon move out to cover any issues)
- Tax lien: it's being worked on with my attorney; once I have something in writing from IRS about what the agreed upon amount will be, I will set up payments and hopefully, that will come off my credit report (I've asked the atty to make sure we get that up front and it comes off immediately - we'll see how it goes)
- Student loans: now owe about $252,000 on the original $23,000 debt having already paid over $50,000 on it during the late 90's and 00's. It's been consolidated without my consent, the terms were changed to 9.5%. I don't know what I will do about this. TBH, and frank, I kind of don't care. That will rankle some folks but if you look at it from my persepctive:
- The US Government bailed out Chase, GM, Wells Fargo all who screwed me over. Had WF not illegally foreclosed upon my house, I'd have had the equity to pay off my student loan with that equity at a much lesser amount. Had GM paid out the original amount the attorneys agreed to, and not filed their own bk, I'd have had that money to use to pay the student loan down to less than $10,000. But, that didn't happen.
- The student loan company, imo, intentionally misplaced papers, misdirected emails because they make more money if the loan defaults than they do if they are paid (the government pays them anyway if you default and they get that money faster than if on payment plans; also, if you add in the interest above fed rate - in my case, fed rate = 2.25% my loan at 9.5% - the company makes money on that as well; it's called other invested assets and they put the money in derivatives and hedge funds)... collection agencies for student loans make 25% on the loan just by signing up... and all of that is the reason Navient has been sued... I'm somewhat waiting for ACS to be next.
- Kia: with a 3 week late payment for first time, they repossessed the car without contacting me about arrangements; worse, they did not let me know the clauses to which I could either redeem the vehicle nor the date/time/place of the auction; further, they sold the car with less than 4,500 miles on it for 1/3 the current value of it; I had a friend who is a licensed dealer ready to attend the auction, and the funds to pay it; they have been sued by the state of CA for similar issues and have notified the collection agency that the illegal repo and lack of notification invalidates their claim to any funds (CRRR); they signed that, the CA does not appear but Kia is listed as charge-off with the amount; currently, they are not attempting to collect the debt but I am somewhat wanting to reach out to offer settlement on the debt with deletion given their illegal activities (my thought is based upon the research done on the case with the State of CA and that settlement agreement)
- BMW Financial: they repo'd my son's car... like I said, 2016 was @#$ poop. Waiting for them to contact me with settlement offer (hoping, I guess) and then will counter that back and ask them to remove. They were also sued by a different state fo repo + car auction issues; using that as basis for my settlement idea.
- Get my current vehicle current and ask the credit union to remove the baddies on my credit report (praying they will - they know me personally and the situation)
- Keep Cap 1 under 9% utilization
Wait. Just wait. There is nothing after the above is done but to wait. And update when I have responses from the CRAs, CA's and others.
Something smells there... 
and in mulitple places including bank security box... he was almost giddy as he started thinking of the ways to sue both the servicers and the guarantor. Recent litigation (Jan 2019) has appeared that is similar to mine and I'm hopeful.