keeping open credit cards after chapter 7

[corum]

I filled bk chapter 7 back on february 26th and discharged june 3rd. Now i checked my credit report and noticed some of my credit accounts are still open (amx, citi, macys, bill me later)..
my question is can i use them and what happens if i use them? would that be some kind of fraud?
i applied secured credit card (capone and such) got denied. my credit score (based on creditkarma and credit.com) are 684 transuninon and 654 expr.... i want to rebuild my credit basically...
any advice help would be appericated.

[LadyInTheRed]

If the account are open, using them would not be fraudulent. Some accounts do survive BK, but having that many accounts survive seems against the odds. So, be prepared for charges to be rejected.

I am still in Chap 13 and my AmX card is still open. They even send me account disclosures now and then. I had no balance on the card when I filed BK. It seems that they don't close your account if you did not have debt with them discharged.

ETA: Your discharge is recent enough that the creditors may not have updated their reports to show the accounts closed.

[corum]

If the account are open, using them would not be fraudulent. Some accounts do survive BK, but having that many accounts survive seems against the odds. So, be prepared for charges to be rejected.

I am still in Chap 13 and my AmX card is still open. They even send me account disclosures now and then. I had no balance on the card when I filed BK. It seems that they don't close your account if you did not have debt with them discharged.

ETA: Your discharge is recent enough that the creditors may not have updated their reports to show the accounts closed.

I called amx asked them if my account was going to be closed or reaffirmed or can I use due to my bankruptcy situation? So he puts me on hold for a few minutes. ..then he says my account is good to use... i repeat again my recent bankruptcy situation. .. he said your account is still good. . I might need to speak with bankruptcy department huh?

[Logan]

I wouldn't call and tell them you declared BK. I'd just use the card and if it works great if not then oh well. I used a card that survived shortly after discharge and the account was still eventually closed.

[LadyInTheRed]

I agree with Logan. No point in kicking a sleeping dog.

[IBroke]

I wouldn't call and tell them you declared BK.

Yeah, that's like asking "when are you finally going to close my account?".

[justbroke]

Just don't depend on the card! They can close it at any time without any notice. If it works, it works. I wonder if it is still reporting as open with your payments on-time! That would be a plus since it would help your score recover.

[TXskyblue]

I had two cards survive BK. Both were zero balance cards from different credit unions that I did not owe any money to whatsoever. They were notified of the BK like all creditors were but they didn't do anything.

I didn't call or anything. Just went and used them after I was discharged. I used them for gas because I didn't want some cashier to tell me they were declined and give me a dirty look

Go try to fill up your car and see if they work.

[IBroke]

Go try to fill up your car and see if they work.

...or simply call the number on the back and ask the nice automated computer-lady what your available credit is..

[corum]

...or simply call the number on the back and ask the nice automated computer-lady what your available credit is..

well i actually used it yesterday twice and works like a charm. my goal is to build my credit history as long as it will let me, once its closed then will try to get a secured credit card and move on.

[IBroke]

well i actually used it yesterday twice and works like a charm. my goal is to build my credit history as long as it will let me, once its closed then will try to get a secured credit card and move on.

Good to hear, corum!

BTW, any chance you are user "keem99" on myfico.com? I'm ScoreBooster so I was wondering...

[corum]

Good to hear, corum!

BTW, any chance you are user "keem99" on myfico.com? I'm ScoreBooster so I was wondering...

thank you, what is scorebooster? i joint both of these forums just because to get some help, opinons etc..
you could have ask this by sending a pm but i dont care. yeap its me. when i posted my question i didnt get much response.

[AngelinaCat]

In our case, about a couple of weeks after we filed, 'Hub went to RadioShack and put it on their store card; then he went to Lowe's and made about 1K in purchase of new housing material. (We have been rebuilding this house since Florida enjoyed all those four hurricanes in 2004, and 'Hub had prostate cancer surgery also in 2004.

We knew and understood that these credit lines were NEW credit--not covered under our BK filing. As soon as we were paid for the month, we went to the stores to try to pay our bills. We had the money in the bank and wanted to pay them off totally. At each place, we were told that there was no record of our purchases--in fact, no purchase history at all at either store. We had the receipts with us and showed them to the clerks. NOPE, they could do nothing; there was no record of us at all.

We stood there, flummoxed, looking at our receipts, and each store's clerks and then their managers--with them telling us, that there was no record at all of our purchases.

Later, we found out that Lowe's and RadioShack's card vendors (I can't think of the right word) were owned by the same parent company that we had filed our BK against, namely Sears & Roebuck, and whatever our CU used.

Once the 'Suggestion of Bankruptcy' went out to all of our creditors, I guess it took at least two or more weeks for the information to filter down from the parent company to the children companies. So we got about 2k of goods for free--even though we tried our best to PAY IT.

When we told our attorney about this, her jaw hit the floor--she had never heard of this happening. We were later to find out she truly did not know much about BK law. She was very inept. That is all I will say about that. There are plenty of anguished post from the both of us starting in April 2008, if someone is interested in pursuing it.

Meanwhile, I will caution AGAINST TRYING THIS YOURSELF!! Don't do it--and really, you should not plan on having any cards survive once you file. Those of you that have had them survive are lucky.

[IBroke]

thank you, what is scorebooster? i joint both of these forums just because to get some help, opinons etc..
you could have ask this by sending a pm but i dont care. yeap its me. when i posted my question i didnt get much response.

ScoreBooster is my user-name on myfico.com and I asked because I also posted in your thread over there. Being active on several forums is nothing out of the ordinary so I just went ahead and asked.

[LadyInTheRed]

you could have ask this by sending a pm

You cannot receive or send PMs until you have more posts.