rebuilding credit

[sutton680]

I need some help, i am one month out of bankruptcy and my credit scores are in the tank, tu:497 eq:513 ex:547 help, how can I get these raised, i read on here about everyone getting offers for credit, but I have none, also disputed with experian and got a judgement deleted and one other item deleted, and all other accounts updated when will my score reflect that...

[Never_Again]

You should have no problem getting those raised. Here is the magic formula:

1. Make sure that you pay all of your bills on time. Never have a late payment again!
2. Use credit wisely! Preferably no more than 30% of your available balance.
3. This is better than number 2. Do not use consumer credit ever again! There is nothing out there that needs to be bought on consumer credit that can't be purchased by saving up cash and paying a lower price.
4. The only possible exception to rule number 3 is POSSIBLY a home mortgage.
5. If you are required to rent a car regularly, and need a credit card for this, get a secured credit card. I believe that Bank of America offers one of the better ones, with reasonable fees.
6. Did I say pay all of your bills on time?
7. Make sure that your credit report is ACCURATE. That means that everything is listed correctly. Yes, there will be a bankruptcy on there. It is true. You can not change that!
8. Go forward from here. If you give it time, your credit will re-build just fine!

I am not trying to be sarcastic here, just realistic. A banker that I have done business with for over 15 years told me a story of two couples. Both had large amounts of debt. One couple worked along at their bills, trying to pay them down. The other, filed for bankruptcy, and got on with it. In a year, the couple filing for bankruptcy was able to get a prime mortgage in a year, and the other couple could not.

Truthfully, your credit is what it is. Make sure the report is accurate, and do what I said, and time will rebuild your credit.

[wellspring]

You need to give it time. It took me 5 months before I got an offer for credit after my discharge. It wasn't the best offer,300 line of credit, 39.00 fee plus 19 percent interest, but I took the offer, made some small purchases and paid it off as soon as the bill came in. A couple months later, I got another offer, from WaMu, 750 line of credit still kind of crappy, but again I took it and did the same thing as the last one. One year to the day of my discharge I got a mail offer from Capital One, 3,000 line of credit, 0 percent interest, no annual fee and 9.9 percent after that. Try Merrick Bank, that's where my first offer came from. Good Luck.

[Keebler]

I got things started by trying to apply for an auto loan right after I filed. It was no surprise I got turned down, but I made sure I requested the credit reports the turn-down was based on. By requesting the reports on-line, I was also able to dispute a dozen or so inaccuracies.

Now I'm waiting to be discharged and virtually all accounts are reporting properly. I've applied for auto loans at a couple more places and still get denied because I haven't been discharged. I'll use these turn-downs within the next month or so to dispute whatever I find that's still wrong.

I don't think it hurts anything to get an early start cleaning up your credit report as long as you have a realistic expectation. The reality is that it'll take a few months for the dust to settle. In that time, things will pop up again and need correcting. It's even common for things you've disputed and corrected to get reported wrong again. If you dispute now, you can fix the bulk of the problem and maybe improve your credit score somewhat.


I've been using a credit monitoring service and I get daily alerts to any changes. The bankruptcy got reported by the first credit bureau within days and the slowest of the three took three weeks. When I submitted my first disputes, some changed the next day and others took a week. By the time three weeks had passed, virtually everything was reporting correctly. As soon as anything changed on my report, my score changed. The process isn't lightning fast but it does respond fairly quickly.

[sutton680]

thanks guys,
I am waiting for my credit reports now, I am with credit keeper and checked myu reports and some things still show a balance owed, and I even have one account that says sold to another lender, and one that says i renegotiated the debt with the lender, ,and that is a flat out lie and i am mad as hell