Although credit is highly touted as an important asset in today's society, you need to keep in perspective what credit/debt is, it is the spending of money you don't really have.
From much personal experience, the last thing anyone should be worrying about when they are coming out of BK is their credit rating. Although I understand that in many bankruptcies, the cause of the bankruptcy is unforeseen circumstances; but aside from major medical problems, a modicum of quality financial planning or swallowing of pride, could have prevented most people from ending up in BK. Regardless of your excuse for having to file bankruptcy, the painful truth is, that somewhere along the line, you made some poor financial decisions that led you too this path. One of the general purposes of this website is to try to give advice so that history does not repeat itself.
What I mean by keeping perspective is that you need to keep your priorities. The first priority is meeting your basic needs without incurring debt. The fact of the matter is, the most important factor in improving your credit will be TIME. The more time that passes from when you filed BK, the better your credit will become. This doesn't mean you shouldn't "clean-up" your credit report to remove inaccuracies, but at the same time, you should not be rushing out to get these horrible high interest rate credit cards or secured credit cards. The benefit of doing so is so incremental its really not worth it. And for that matter, you're just out of BK, you really should not be using credit cards. And making major, long term purchases within a year or two of BK, is, for the most part, just plain dumb. Why make a bad deal now, when you can make a much better deal in the near future. If you knew that the car you wanted to buy was going to be $5000 cheaper in 2 months, why would you buy it now?
The same basic principal applies, why purchase a car at a 15% APR interest rate, when you can buy one at 7% in a year or two (and note, a refi of a car almost NEVER saves you money in the long run...sure, it may reduce your payment, but you ultimately end up paying much more for the car over the long run).
Despite what some of you may think, I am not some wealthy guy, I was not able to take a trip around the world because I have money to burn, that trip was paid for with cash...with careful planning and some luck. It may seem implausible, but I am like many of you.
In short, credit is not a bad thing, but it exist ONLY as a convenience...but with debit cards now, the convenience of credit is practically nil. The only real use for credit is for major purchases, house and car (but just coming out of BK, you should really think twice before financing a car). Your credit will heal with TIME, more than anything else you can do, TIME really does heal all wounds. So instead of worrying about which shitty secured credit card to get, or high interest rate loan shark card to get, put yourself on a budget, save some money, and go forth and sin no more.
From much personal experience, the last thing anyone should be worrying about when they are coming out of BK is their credit rating. Although I understand that in many bankruptcies, the cause of the bankruptcy is unforeseen circumstances; but aside from major medical problems, a modicum of quality financial planning or swallowing of pride, could have prevented most people from ending up in BK. Regardless of your excuse for having to file bankruptcy, the painful truth is, that somewhere along the line, you made some poor financial decisions that led you too this path. One of the general purposes of this website is to try to give advice so that history does not repeat itself.
What I mean by keeping perspective is that you need to keep your priorities. The first priority is meeting your basic needs without incurring debt. The fact of the matter is, the most important factor in improving your credit will be TIME. The more time that passes from when you filed BK, the better your credit will become. This doesn't mean you shouldn't "clean-up" your credit report to remove inaccuracies, but at the same time, you should not be rushing out to get these horrible high interest rate credit cards or secured credit cards. The benefit of doing so is so incremental its really not worth it. And for that matter, you're just out of BK, you really should not be using credit cards. And making major, long term purchases within a year or two of BK, is, for the most part, just plain dumb. Why make a bad deal now, when you can make a much better deal in the near future. If you knew that the car you wanted to buy was going to be $5000 cheaper in 2 months, why would you buy it now?
The same basic principal applies, why purchase a car at a 15% APR interest rate, when you can buy one at 7% in a year or two (and note, a refi of a car almost NEVER saves you money in the long run...sure, it may reduce your payment, but you ultimately end up paying much more for the car over the long run).
Despite what some of you may think, I am not some wealthy guy, I was not able to take a trip around the world because I have money to burn, that trip was paid for with cash...with careful planning and some luck. It may seem implausible, but I am like many of you.
In short, credit is not a bad thing, but it exist ONLY as a convenience...but with debit cards now, the convenience of credit is practically nil. The only real use for credit is for major purchases, house and car (but just coming out of BK, you should really think twice before financing a car). Your credit will heal with TIME, more than anything else you can do, TIME really does heal all wounds. So instead of worrying about which shitty secured credit card to get, or high interest rate loan shark card to get, put yourself on a budget, save some money, and go forth and sin no more.
) Stopped paying creditors: Aug 2010 Filed Chap 7: Apr 29, 2011 341: Jun 1, 2011 Report of no distribution: Jun 1, 2011 Discharged Aug 2, 2011 
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