Got the coveted credit card #3

[EmmaPeel007]

Never thought it would be this soon, but I'm at #3 now as well. When I filed, the card with my credit union was at a $0 balance so I never included them in the Ch13 and was able to keep it open the entire 5 years through discharge (super lucky, I know) so that's #1 at $1.8k.

The day after discharge I didn't listen to Shipo's sage advice and tried for a Capital One and was declined due to a non-discharged bankruptcy on my credit report. Dumb me!

A week later I got a pre-approved offer from Mission Lane so I took it and they granted me $1k. So that's #2.

This week I went back to Capital One and checked to see if I was pre-approved for anything and I was! I took a chance and went through the process this morning and was granted the Quicksilver for $3k. Card #3 done and dusted.

We have a mortgage that has been on-time from day one, so with that and the 3 cards I am now, as Ship says, in the proverbial garden. Can't really believe that it's been 3 weeks and I am now rebuilding. Thanks for all the great advice here.

[Zombie13]

Congratulations!

[Zombie13]

I think I mentioned recently my daughter had been furloughed/laid off recently. She has started a new job about 3 maybe 4 weeks ago. She and fiance had no income for several weeks. He just finished school and was waiting for his job which started a week before my daughter's. Now they are paying off credit that they ran up. They have a good plan to get it paid off within less than 6 months.

Furlough ugh.... yknow, I worked at a company where that was under consideration. I talked with a friendly manager about it; I said I had another phrase starting with 'f' and ending with 'them' if they "offered" that to me.

[Zombie13]

That's when your credit scores will skyrocket. The prevailing wisdom is by then you should have three credit cards (with only one reporting a trivial balance) and one installment type of loan (car, mortgage...) for the maximum score boost. The other thing you can do now to boost your scores then is to arrange for those additional lines of credit now so they'll be well aged come 2025 as the age of your accounts also plays into your scores.

We have been doing this 'touch and go' thing (ok, maybe:hit and run? LOL) : use one card, pay it off. Use the next, pay it off... rotate, repeat. That way we usually have one, sometimes two, in use, but we ensure we pay in full. We do have one monthly car loan payment as well. Current credit score: 760 plus. Doin alright.

[Zombie13]

Barbisi, household income is the typical metric used for credit approvals; I was able to successfully beg my wife to quit working a semi-toxic job three years ago, and even without her own personal income, she has landed several credit cards since then.

Hm food for thought shipo. Barbisi we should talk about this as we go. Now that we have 3 cards, it may be worth considering getting one in your name as primary at some point in the next several months. February 2024 of course is our 7 year BK13 anniversary so maybe we could try one application before then, and one sometime after.

[Zombie13]

We already have two cars loans! We have the HELOC which will be paid off. I can go with two more credit cards and car loan and that's it. I don't think we will have a mortgage which is fine with me.

Carmella niiiice!

[Carmella]

Zombie13 my daughter did find another remote job so she's good for now even though she isn't crazy about the job. She really wants to go back in person. She's started to work on a Master's Degree, also remotely from a well known college in CA.

I wasn't too concerned about credit cards, but now my one and only daughter has thrown a wrench in the plans. I always thought since we have one kid and no real ties to anything in Ohio if she would move, career related, we would probably follow. I always thought about it in the sense we would be retired or at least husband will be. Other news. my daughter and her fiancé eloped so they are now married. We will still have the "celebration" in May as they put money down on a venue. Her husband is a medical resident, brand new doctor and after the residency they might move out of state.

Great! we need to think about the credit score in case we end up moving and renting and/or buying a home. This wouldn't happen until at least 2+ years so we have time and the BK 13 will be off of our record! My husband plans to retire around that time, but wants to work part time. I would miss Ohio because it's a great diverse cultural and has a lot of amenities. They are thinking about the Chicago area and that is some place I never thought about living. In the suburbs/not city. I think the weather/seasons are pretty much the same. Time will tell because I would move for my only kid because I want to be around the grandchildren when they arrive. There's no plans for kids at this point in time, until after the residency, but who knows there can be surprises.

[Zombie13]

Carmella - yes family connection is important. With today's real estate market, it's worth thinking about selling the home - but I am not a real estate agent of course. From my layman's perspective, in today's market, you could sell your home at maximum profit. Soooo glad we don't have home ownershi*p/t issues to deal with; renting is high but owning in WA would be at least 2X our rental payment which is unachievable/crazy/ludicrous/really-bad-idea-for-us. Congratz to your daughter and son in law! justbroke has replied in a few threads about renting and credit scores. And hey justbroke , how ya doin? Hard to believe we have all spoken over a 5+ year / 60+ month period - glad the mud-suckin is over with.

[justbroke]

Zombie13 I am still here and doing well.

[Carmella]

Zombie13 our current house needs repairs or we will do the zombie/barbisi technique to sell/get what we can and let someone else fix it.

Right now we are staying put. The more I think about it I want to stay in a house since we are older and don't have much savings or retirement. When one of us goes the surviving spouse will have even less of an income. If we can own a house outright then there's just the taxes to pay. In an apartment you are subject to rent increases and if you rent a house it could be sold at some point.

If we move out of state we would likely rent initially and try to find house. But this won't be for a few years. We have time to save money, build up the credit report and do some repairs we put off doing to the house which will help if we sell and be great for us if we don't sell and at the same time won't break the bank!

[Zombie13]

Carmella, sounds like a good plan!