WOW, I Have Some Work To Do

[RedLight]

on DW's and my credit reports. We were both in the low 700s two months ago. Now, I am sitting right at 540 on all three and the wife is at 518. We had our 341 meeting last Monday, and would like to get this cleaned up by our discharge. On our current CR, there are two of our CCs with a total balance of $18,000 and our mortgage that is not showing IIB yet, so I think that is dragging down the score. I know they should switch over to IIB soon, but does anyone have any suggestions for getting this cleaned up? Also, I have looked through the threads, but if anyone has suggestions on things that made an impact on their scores they were able to fix, I may be looking over those. Thanks!!!

[Tbornetun]

I am wondering why you are so worried about credit scores right now in the midst of your bankruptcy. There is nothing you can clean up, your scores are your scores. You filed bankruptcy, your credit score is affected by that. Nothing you can do about it.

[FloridaGuy]

Here's a reason why

I just posted a thread here about our credit scores just prior to filing.

My reason for wanting to make sure scores get better quickly as we will be surrendering our home, and relocating to a new area. We will have to rent, most likely in apartment buildings as opposed to from an individual.

Most apartment complexes especially in a larger city will pull credit scores/history. If scores are acceptable they may not actually pull a report. Of course we won't hide the fact of the BK, but the higher the score the better the chance.

[DM20]

Maybe this information will help. My father owns rental property, a few of them actually. He told me the other day he does not pull credit reports anymore. He says they all have late payments defaults etc. He asks people about their credit and they usually tell him truthfully what he will find. He said he looks at their car, job status and other stuff and makes a judgement call himself. He's had good luck thus far and has not had to evict anyone. With the economic crisis going on I think rental managers are probably used to seeing bad stuff on credit reports and it's only going to get worse as people lose their houses and rent.

[Stilltheone]

Before we filed bankruptcy, our scores were in the mid to low 600's. Now, my husband's is 576 and mine is 596. Not the greatest, but it helps that I made sure NOTHING showed up as late or "charged off".

We have several accounts, US Bank and Chase, that tried listing us as charged off or late. (We weren't late on ANYTHING when we filed bankruptcy)

Make sure all accounts list a zero balance and "included in bankruptcy". If they weren't charged off or late, make sure they say so.

Good luck to you in rebuilding your credit! It's quite a task!

[cool33097]

I disagre with a previous poster. There is a lot to clean up.
Make sure all your cc says IIB. After discharge they should show a zero balance. Give about a month and if they don't show, start to dispute them. You file BK, once discharged you have no bills. Credit Scores are important nowdays for a lot of things not only for credit cards.

[RedLight]

Credit Scores are important nowdays for a lot of things not only for credit cards.

I absolutely agree with you. It seems that everyone wants to know your credit score now. I know that auto insurance companies check your credit when you sign up, so I hope that they don't re-run checks every once in a while...I would hate for the rates to go up.