Credit Report Question

[Carmella]

I haven't looked at my credit report in who knows how long.

Is there one free credit report per year?

I just got a letter (one in my name and one in my husband's) from one of the banks that did NOT approve us for a car loan. The letter states our score with Transunion and mentions we have the right to a Free credit report within 60 days of the letter.

If they are not free it might be nice to get a free one now.

The principal reason for denial of a loan was Bankruptcy.

But then it says key factors are: Serious Delinquency and public record of collection filed, time since delinquency is too recent or unknown, too few accounts currently paid as agreed, number of accounts with deliquency

The accounts I have had been paid on time except for a snafu with Ally Auto. Basically it was two cars and mortgage/HEL paid on time.

How long does delinquency show up on the credit report?

They also checked our credit through LexisNexis Risk Solutions

They report: Insufficient non derogatory reporting history, Value of properties associated with subject is too low or not on file, Property value for input address is too low or not on file, Time at residence is too short

What does that all mean? Our mortgage is paid, but we have just under $8,000 on the HEL. We don't live in a high rent area, but we are not in the inner city. Most houses in the area are selling for $150,000 or higher. And time at residence too short how is 24 yrs too short!

I am wondering is it worth it to check our credit reports just to see what they have documented. I don't know what's allowed or when something can be removed. I know BK will stay on the credit report, but we will also be able to rebuild. Hopefully the car payment on my new car will help as well as keeping up with the HEL. I have heard that the services like After Pay or Klanra will now report. I have used these services and I could always use one if that helps build credit back. I can buy something for $100 and get the 4 payment plan, paying $25 automatically every 2 weeks.

I don't care that much about the Credit Score at this point, but I would like it to be accurate/fair which means I need to learn more about it. After we are out of the BK our Credit Score should start to improve. I don't see a dire need for credit unless we need another car. I don't think we will buy another house.

My daughter has a credit card she uses for a few of her utilities and then pays it off. It's easier for her to only worry about 1 day to pay the credit card than to think about when a few different utilities are due. That is something I might just do once we are out of this BK set up auto pay via the credit card and then pay it off monthly. I really have no desire to get a credit card just to have one except if we would want to travel even short/driving distance trips. Since I used After pay and Klanra this Christmas season it was easy enough and I controlled it and marked the calendar so I would know when to expect the automatic payments. Plus they send a notification that the payment is due soon from XYZ account.

What is the best thing to do at this point with the Credit Reports???

[JellyBeany]

Hi, Carmella. While your 13 is still ongoing I don't know if there is much you can do to handle errors on your credit report. However, after your discharge there are some things. I found a blog I really like that has an article on just this subject:

https://www.bankruptcysoapbox.com/post-discharge-credit-report/

The article suggests waiting 90-180 days post discharge to order new credit reports to check for errors, and then describes how to go about correcting any errors.

If you end up having to sue a creditor to correct faulty info on your credit report, the law now requires the creditor to pay all your attorney fees and court fees. Hopefully it won't come to that!

[shipo]

Until March or April of this year you can still get weekly credit reports from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

I've been using that site for nearly two years now and have a whole series of free credit reports saved from each of the three credit bureaus.

[Carmella]

Thanks for the information.

Is it worth it to do it now? Or should I just focus on other things and worry about it next spring/summer after discharge? I get the credit reports now I think it would be more for my own information than trying to "fix" anything.

I saved the article for future reference.

[shipo]

Using Annual Credit Report now won't hurt anything so it might well be worth a look-see.

[eap82]

Carmella I monitor my credit reports monthly with a service but you can get it for free in some places. When I filed I had accounts reported as late that were not. After I filed they should have stopped reporting the delinquent accounts as continuing not to pay. I had to dispute to get it fixed. That brings down you credit score because the time from your last late payment is important. All you have to do is google dispute and the credit agency name. They will let you view your report for free and dispute any incorrect info. Each of them do this. Your credit score may not be free but the report is. Get it all squared away now so you don't have to worry about it when your discharge comes through. Once you are discharged I would monitor it to make sure all of your accounts are reported correctly as included in bankruptcy and discharged as well. Even if you don't plan on using credit again who knows what will happen, just like your car. It's better to have it as accurate as possible and your score be as good as possible for the time you may need credit.

[Wenzel]

Listen, you should look into this matter more seriously. What one bank considers bankruptcy and a reason to refuse you various types of loans, another bank may interpret quite differently.