Would it help my credit score to close my CC accounts b/4 bk?

[Brighterdays]

Just curious if it would be advantageous to my future credit score if I closed my CC accounts before I file ch 7? I am current on all my accounts and would like to maintain something of a decent credit score after BK. Or is this even possible with an outstanding balance?

Having been a mortgage broker, I have seen thousands of credit aps and numerous Bk'd applicants. A few even had 640 credit scores a few months after BK. They claim they kept paying their CC up till the day they BK'd. I know time is the best remedy for improving your score.

Also, What is the better route to go with letting your house go? Is it better to include it in your BK, or does it make a difference? I will be about 90 to 120 days late when I file Bk.

[jessegirl]

Its a waste to continue to pay the cc's if you have intentions of filing a bk. Why would you?? Your credit score is going to drop anyways. Know body is going to extend you credit anyways after a BK, so what does the score matter. If you plan on letting th ehouse go, you have to include it in on the BK.

[Brighterdays]

Its a waste to continue to pay the cc's if you have intentions of filing a bk. Why would you?? Your credit score is going to drop anyways. Know body is going to extend you credit anyways after a BK, so what does the score matter. If you plan on letting th ehouse go, you have to include it in on the BK.

First of all, My heart goes out to you for the Hell you had to go through.

Yes it will help, actually if you have zero late payments on your credit, your score is much easier to repair. As I stated I have seen people with mid 600 scores shortly after BK. Their credit looked perfect except the BK thing(of course). AS for why would I keep paying... I need to put some time between 2 BT's and my 90 day thing. I don't Plan on running out and puting myself in the same situation. Mine is due to job loss. I want to be able to get another house down the road and a cheap nonsecured CC for traveling.

I would love to keep/sell my current house, but both the job and housing market is one of the worse in the nation(Toledo,OH). Unemployment is around 14% and house values are absurd. I was just wondering what was the best way to dispose of the house with minimal damage to my credit. In BK or After BK. I am not looking for a free ride or to stay here any longer than I have to(no Jobs).

As for the CC, I was also curious if closing your account (with balance) makes any difference. I would love to here from anybody with actual knowledge on this subject. I am trying to avoid as many late payments as possible. It is just hard as I have perfect credit and have never missed a payment(yet)

[NoMoreRed]

You can surrender the house in BK or you can reaffirm. If you mark your petition as you intend to reaffirm the house, but do not actually sign a reaffirmation agreement then you can ride through on it as long as your payments are current on the house. If they aren't current then the mortgage company may file to lift the automatic stay so that they can proceed with foreclosure. If you're current on the payments though they usually don't since you are paying them under the terms of your loan agreement.

We marked our petition as we intended to reaffirm the house and are current on our payments, however, our mortgage company (Countrywide-who is the devil, by the way) does not do reaffirmation agreements. Basically, we are doing a ride through and the house will be IIB since we will not have a signed reaffirmation agreement. With that said, we could possibly walk away from the house should we run into a problem down the road after the BK and have no further damage to our credit because of the house. They will still go through a foreclosure process if we were to walk, but it will not reflect because of it already being IIB.

[Logan]

Just curious if it would be advantageous to my future credit score if I closed my CC accounts before I file ch 7? I am current on all my accounts and would like to maintain something of a decent credit score after BK. Or is this even possible with an outstanding balance?

Having been a mortgage broker, I have seen thousands of credit aps and numerous Bk'd applicants. A few even had 640 credit scores a few months after BK. They claim they kept paying their CC up till the day they BK'd. I know time is the best remedy for improving your score.

Also, What is the better route to go with letting your house go? Is it better to include it in your BK, or does it make a difference? I will be about 90 to 120 days late when I file Bk.

I don't think closing your accounts will matter. I was never late before my BK on anything and 1.5 years later my mid FICO is 686. I have one item I'm disputing that may be keeping me from a higher score so I'll see what happens in a couple of months.

good luck

[eddiep]

Are talking about closing cards that do not have a balance? I was wondering that too. I have a few cards that I have not used in a long time but the accounts are still "open". Should I close these so they don't look like they were discharged in the bk or does it not matter?

[Brighterdays]

Are talking about closing cards that do not have a balance? I was wondering that too. I have a few cards that I have not used in a long time but the accounts are still "open". Should I close these so they don't look like they were discharged in the bk or does it not matter?

actually I was talking about cards with balances. I do have a couple without balances so an answer to that question would be appreciated. I have a lowes, Home depot, Elderbeerman and some misc visa card I don't even think I ever activated.

Second question... Anybody have any experience with Best buy(yellow store card not visa). I have about 2200 on that. I was wondering if they ask for the tv back?

[eddiep]

how are you going to close accounts with balances? you can't pay them off that is preferential payments and the court will order them to give the money back to split evenly amongst the other creditors.

[jeb]

As I understand it, it does not make any difference if you have a credit score of 800 after your BK - for 2 years or so, with BK on your credit report, what credit you can get will cost you dearly.

After a couple of years, if your slowly build back new credit things will start to get a little better. - jb

[TEW]

First of all, My heart goes out to you for the Hell you had to go through.

Yes it will help, actually if you have zero late payments on your credit, your score is much easier to repair. As I stated I have seen people with mid 600 scores shortly after BK. Their credit looked perfect except the BK thing(of course). AS for why would I keep paying... I need to put some time between 2 BT's and my 90 day thing. I don't Plan on running out and puting myself in the same situation. Mine is due to job loss. I want to be able to get another house down the road and a cheap nonsecured CC for traveling.

I would love to keep/sell my current house, but both the job and housing market is one of the worse in the nation(Toledo,OH). Unemployment is around 14% and house values are absurd. I was just wondering what was the best way to dispose of the house with minimal damage to my credit. In BK or After BK. I am not looking for a free ride or to stay here any longer than I have to(no Jobs).

As for the CC, I was also curious if closing your account (with balance) makes any difference. I would love to here from anybody with actual knowledge on this subject. I am trying to avoid as many late payments as possible. It is just hard as I have perfect credit and have never missed a payment(yet)

If you really want to waste your money for the sake of a credit score. Please pm me and I will give you my address so you can send me the money.
NO it doesn't help. my wife stopped paying her CC's a year before we filed I stopped 3 months I had BTs and guess what we have the same score.
Stop looking to see how fast you can get back into debt and learn to live with in your means..............

[Brighterdays]

I understand that in some cases it won't help. Ie best buy. But I was able to get the lady done on a mortgage shortly after Bk. Yes she did have to jump through some extra hoops and had a higher interest rate.

As to the closing my accounts. I didn't know if you could close them or not if you still owed a balance. I would just rather it say on my credit report closed by borrower rather than credit granter.

Long story short, we use to clean up peoples credit in the mortage business, so in a couple of years they could come back. We used a credit repair company(cant remember which one) they charged about $300 to us and we kept what we chargeed the customer. They were actually pretty effective at taking stuff off the credit report. Even Bk's. I have a call into my old boss to see who they were. And yes I said they had Bk's erased off all 3(trans,equi,exp).

That is why I would like to keep my credit report as neat and tidy as I can. It is easier to repair, unlike some of the trainwrecks I have read about on here(no offense)

Life is like a chess game, the farther you plan your move ahead, the better you will be prepared for what happens next.

[Logan]

I understand that in some cases it won't help. Ie best buy. But I was able to get the lady done on a mortgage shortly after Bk. Yes she did have to jump through some extra hoops and had a higher interest rate.

As to the closing my accounts. I didn't know if you could close them or not if you still owed a balance. I would just rather it say on my credit report closed by borrower rather than credit granter.

Long story short, we use to clean up peoples credit in the mortage business, so in a couple of years they could come back. We used a credit repair company(cant remember which one) they charged about $300 to us and we kept what we chargeed the customer. They were actually pretty effective at taking stuff off the credit report. Even Bk's. I have a call into my old boss to see who they were. And yes I said they had Bk's erased off all 3(trans,equi,exp).

That is why I would like to keep my credit report as neat and tidy as I can. It is easier to repair, unlike some of the trainwrecks I have read about on here(no offense)

Life is like a chess game, the farther you plan your move ahead, the better you will be prepared for what happens next.

I'm going to back you on this one. I think not being late on any card will get your credit back faster and I had the same comments that you're getting when I posted a similar question. I have been approved for every credit card I've applied for and 2 separate car loans both with interest rates around 8. My FICO score dropped to the high 500's right after BK and bounced back quickly and are slowly rising.

I used to be a full time mortgage broker but I am part time now and I worked with quite a few Bankruptcies. I once had a Lady who had a Mid FICO of 730 less than 3 years out of BK and she never had a late. I had other clients who were also perfect out of BK but were 'trainwrecks' before and their credit still sucked.

When I went into BK I had a goal to be completely reestablished and to be able to buy a house as soon as possible. I am easily on that track and I feel it's because of never missing any payments.

Good Luck,

Logan

[jeb]

I guess I am missing something but why would I even care what my score is? Having too much credit and using it is what got me into the position I am in to start with - I think I am smart enough to learn from that and not be interested in starting down the same road again - at lease for a period of time, and then very, very carefully. - jb

[Brighterdays]

Logan sounds like my twin seperated at birth. LOL
Loss of job(industry) is what got me into this mess, and my stubborness of thinking I can rebound back with another job paying the same. I was making stupid money as a mortgage broker. $10k or 20k in a month income was to be expected. Well not any more. Its like the bottom fell out. I went back to school to finish my degree in Bus Admin in the mean time.

As for credit score and re-establishing credit. I am not looking to go out and charge up my CC. But with good credit comes opportuinities. I would rather live on the grid than lurk in the shadows. I would like another house, a new/newer car. I don't want to settle for some 10yr old POS that takes constant $$ to keep it running. Plus most the Jobs in the financial industry require a credit check. yes a BK will count against me, but if my credit looks orderly and neat(not a train wreck) it will tell a better story to potential employers. If he has 2 applications in front of him with the same experience, who do you think he would chose? So a few thousand wisely spent now, will reap 10 times that amount in the long run.

So, to some yes it may seem like a waste of money. To me it may mean the difference of getting a job, or a decent interest rate on a house or a car.

Remeber, this is called a FRESH START. not live in a cave and never enjoy life again.

[Logan]

Logan sounds like my twin seperated at birth. LOL
Loss of job(industry) is what got me into this mess, and my stubborness of thinking I can rebound back with another job paying the same. I was making stupid money as a mortgage broker. $10k or 20k in a month income was to be expected. Well not any more. Its like the bottom fell out. I went back to school to finish my degree in Bus Admin in the mean time.

As for credit score and re-establishing credit. I am not looking to go out and charge up my CC. But with good credit comes opportuinities. I would rather live on the grid than lurk in the shadows. I would like another house, a new/newer car. I don't want to settle for some 10yr old POS that takes constant $$ to keep it running. Plus most the Jobs in the financial industry require a credit check. yes a BK will count against me, but if my credit looks orderly and neat(not a train wreck) it will tell a better story to potential employers. If he has 2 applications in front of him with the same experience, who do you think he would chose? So a few thousand wisely spent now, will reap 10 times that amount in the long run.

So, to some yes it may seem like a waste of money. To me it may mean the difference of getting a job, or a decent interest rate on a house or a car.

Remeber, this is called a FRESH START. not live in a cave and never enjoy life again.

I agree. I discharged about 100K and I continued to pay my bills up until the end. I was given a new start and I hardly even feel like I had a BK since I haven't had any issues getting credit. I basically won the lottery when I went BK so I didn't consider paying the minimum payments on my credit a waste of money.

There are many here who have trouble getting credit cards and car loans and what makes them different than you and I when it comes to new trade lines?

Logan