Discharge received! FINALLY! Five years and three months. Now I'm trying to figure out what my next step is.
First a little back story... My bankruptcy was a bit unique because while I had a large amount of debt, I wasn't delinquent on anything when I began filing. I had an American Express Gold card and an American Express credit card at the same time. I was about 2-3 days late on my Amex gold payment, and they used Universal Default on me for the $10k credit line, which was just about maxed out. Then my other creditors started Universally Defaulting me and whatnot, and the house of cards fell. I was getting sued by Chase bank for some stupidly small amount of money. The ONLY delinquent payments on my credit history were from the time period when I was told to stop paying creditors so that I wouldn't show favor toward them, but all of my accounts ended up in default via Universal Default despite my payments to keep them current (Side note: I really hope that's illegal now).
I noticed sometime around 2010 (2 years into my plan) that some of my former creditors (I'm looking at you, bank of america), despite being notified and filing claims in my case, decided to start reporting my accounts as charge offs instead of wage earner plans. At the time, I disputed them as "part of chapter 13," and my disputes were denied by all three bureaus with no further explanation than "The creditor verified this debt." In addition, the default judgment that Chase received against me, which was supposedly VACATED via the bankruptcy, is still showing up on Experian, and they refuse to remove it. All things considered, my credit score is about 645, which I'm hoping is mostly due to the fact that there are charge offs. Obviously the bankruptcy plays a role, but there's nothing I can do to get that off of there for another few years.
I've just filed a whole slough of new disputes with all three bureaus now that I've received my discharge (Serious disputes with documentation being mailed), and I'm looking toward credit rebuilding now. I currently make about twice as much money per year as I did in the beginning of my bankruptcy. I'm in pretty good financial shape, and I've been living without credit for the last 5 years.
That said, I don't own a home, and I'd like to buy one someday. I have no secured debt left (my car was paid in the plan), and I've got a small amount of student loan debt left that didn't discharge. I have money in savings and a 401(k) that has more money in it than I currently owe in student loan debt.
If you were in my situation, where would you start? I want to get a credit card. If there's anything I've learned over the last 5 years, I've learned that you NEED a credit card for hotels and car rentals in the US. I do a lot of traveling for work, and it's extremely embarrassing to be stuck somewhere unable to rent a car or get a hotel room. That or it's frustrating having a $1000 deposit pending on my debit card. With a 645 base credit score (and it'll probably go higher, as I'm expecting at least some of my disputes to stick), do I really have to go the route of getting a secured card? I'm just looking for some general advice.
I apologize for the WALL OF TEXT, but I'm extremely excited that I made it through, and I know there are chapter 13 people out there who are thinking about voluntary dismissal who would probably benefit from knowing that it's possible to make it through.
First a little back story... My bankruptcy was a bit unique because while I had a large amount of debt, I wasn't delinquent on anything when I began filing. I had an American Express Gold card and an American Express credit card at the same time. I was about 2-3 days late on my Amex gold payment, and they used Universal Default on me for the $10k credit line, which was just about maxed out. Then my other creditors started Universally Defaulting me and whatnot, and the house of cards fell. I was getting sued by Chase bank for some stupidly small amount of money. The ONLY delinquent payments on my credit history were from the time period when I was told to stop paying creditors so that I wouldn't show favor toward them, but all of my accounts ended up in default via Universal Default despite my payments to keep them current (Side note: I really hope that's illegal now).
I noticed sometime around 2010 (2 years into my plan) that some of my former creditors (I'm looking at you, bank of america), despite being notified and filing claims in my case, decided to start reporting my accounts as charge offs instead of wage earner plans. At the time, I disputed them as "part of chapter 13," and my disputes were denied by all three bureaus with no further explanation than "The creditor verified this debt." In addition, the default judgment that Chase received against me, which was supposedly VACATED via the bankruptcy, is still showing up on Experian, and they refuse to remove it. All things considered, my credit score is about 645, which I'm hoping is mostly due to the fact that there are charge offs. Obviously the bankruptcy plays a role, but there's nothing I can do to get that off of there for another few years.
I've just filed a whole slough of new disputes with all three bureaus now that I've received my discharge (Serious disputes with documentation being mailed), and I'm looking toward credit rebuilding now. I currently make about twice as much money per year as I did in the beginning of my bankruptcy. I'm in pretty good financial shape, and I've been living without credit for the last 5 years.
That said, I don't own a home, and I'd like to buy one someday. I have no secured debt left (my car was paid in the plan), and I've got a small amount of student loan debt left that didn't discharge. I have money in savings and a 401(k) that has more money in it than I currently owe in student loan debt.
If you were in my situation, where would you start? I want to get a credit card. If there's anything I've learned over the last 5 years, I've learned that you NEED a credit card for hotels and car rentals in the US. I do a lot of traveling for work, and it's extremely embarrassing to be stuck somewhere unable to rent a car or get a hotel room. That or it's frustrating having a $1000 deposit pending on my debit card. With a 645 base credit score (and it'll probably go higher, as I'm expecting at least some of my disputes to stick), do I really have to go the route of getting a secured card? I'm just looking for some general advice.
I apologize for the WALL OF TEXT, but I'm extremely excited that I made it through, and I know there are chapter 13 people out there who are thinking about voluntary dismissal who would probably benefit from knowing that it's possible to make it through.
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