How long...

[corrin69]

The first question is a basis one, how long will the Chapter 7 discharge stay on my credit record?

My other question is, based on the experience of people who have been discharged, how long did it take until you established decent-to-good credit?

On the one hand, I just went through a bankruptcy after screwing my creditors over for about two years before that. My credit score is an understandably low 555. On the other hand, I now have no debt, a good income and cannot claim bankruptcy for another 8 years. So, in a sense, I am less of a credit risk today than I was when my credit score was in the high 600's a few years ago.

[egeitz]

ch 7 will stay for 10 yrs from the date you filed. i am two yrs post bk and my fici scores is ex 696 eq 687 and tu is 709. many banks will not give you any type of credit as long you have a bk on your cr. when you get credit they are going to give you small limits like 200 to 500 dollars and the cc well have fees. my advice is dont applied for to many credit products in a short amt of time applied ony after you clean up your cr. appled only if the company is bk friendly like some cu and cap one. there are others. dont applied if the company is not bk friendly like amer. express and chase for ex.

as for the less risk many dont care if you are less risk on one side there are companies want to take advanage of you because of you bk and on the other side they dont want to do bussiness with you there are a few in the middle that will give you an second chance.

[Amy26]

I received decent cards about 2 months after discharge and "good" cards about a year after. My limits were usually at least 1k. Your scores post bk and what types of credit you're gonna get also depend on what your credit looked like before you filed for bk. If you had a lot of charge offs and late payments before you filed, you might not get very good offers after BK. Its not impossible to get the credit you want after BK you just have to know where to look for it that you won't get denied right off the bat.

[bkdone]

Another thing to remember is that you should try to get a good mix of credit types, and not just have credit cards. I think another big help is to be as stable as you can in your residence and employment. Things happen- I get that, but it looks better on credit applications if you have been at the same address and same job for some time.