Credit Score

[aces67]

We are a few weeks post discharge. The discharge is already listed on our credit reports and our scores are 650, 677 and 580.

[bxphae]

We are a few weeks post discharge. The discharge is already listed on our credit reports and our scores are 650, 677 and 580.

Do you remember what it was right after you were discharged?

It seems to me that the lowest point is right after filing, then it seems to bounce back to "poor" to almost "average" months after discharge.

Myfico had a simulation for my EQ, 651 is where I stand with them, I would be near 477 if I filed according to that simul. I don't have any late payments on record at that moment with EQ.

[shabam]

The only thing I am looking to do is get a car. I will be letting a leased 2008 Acura MDX go in the chapter 7. I have another vehicle under 60 month financing through Capital 1 that I am keeping, never been late, and only have 8 payments left! I'm hoping to get a loan from them for a $10K or so vehicle for my wife. I realize that I will be "damaged goods" for many years due to the BK. That is fine. I really don't want to go into debt with credit cards, mortgage, etc anymore. I really don't want a car loan, but my wife drives 20K per year hauling my 3 kids and really needs a safe/reliable vehicle.

Yep I see, this is a good reason to rebuild credit.

For a second I thought you were simply keen on getting credit again. Definitely do not want to see anyone in this mess again.

[shabam]

This whole talk of credit and getting credit and keeping credit is what put me where I am today! For so long I paid my credit cards BEFORE I paid my mortgage and cars. How stupid was that? Always so fearful of keeping my score high.

Be it good credit or poor credit, I believe a credit score is a scam to suck money out people. It allows (promotes) those with good credit to spend more and pay it off faster, all in the name of 'keeping their good credit'.

The system discriminates against people with bad credit, people who can least afford it, and keeps them in an endless and infinite debt bondage. An example of this is our insurance skyrocketing and jumping as our credit score worsens. Apparently a low credit score equates to bad driving. I have not had one accident in 15 years but this does not seem to mean much, unlike my poor credit. The funniest thing about the insurance example is that most people I know of (or their kids) that have totaled their vehicle are usually from wealthy families.

[RainMoM]

I could care less about getting any credit cards any time soon.. My reason for wanting to rebuild our credit is, A: I'm currently renting my house, and I'd like to move one day an be able to rent a nice place without having to fork out a lot of extra money to do it ! B: I may need to buy a car again someday, I really would like to get a decent % rate.. That's my reason for wanting a better fico score! as for CC nope.. not for me

[IBroke]

I've been living WITHOUT credit cards for 3 years now (OK, I still have a $300 and a secured $200 card to have some positive credit reported) and yes, it's possible and comfortable (say good buy to "due dates"..)...

I only have a loan on an old car which I'm planning on paying off by the end of the year.

But to the OP: If you are looking for a car after your CH7 discharge, I wouldn't be too concerned. I heard of others who purchased a brand new car the first week after their discharge with 0% financing through Ford Credit.

So if you have a good history in car-financing (no recent repos), I wouldn't be too concerned.

[backtoschool]

I just filed chapter 7 last week, and checked my credit reports today and my credit score is showing the bankruptcy on two out of three of the reports already. My score actually went up 50 points to the mid 500's since filing. Go figure. I had stopped paying all my credit cards before I filed, so my credit score had already tanked before filing.

I have been living for a year without using credit cards, and its actually much better for me to budget than when I was using the cards. Granted, I am unemployed now, and have a much smaller budget, but I found that no matter how hard I tried to not spend more when I had credit cards, I always spent a bit more each month (or a lot more sometimes) than I had budgeted for. Now I can't do that and it makes it all easier.

I was really surprised that my score went UP after filing. Credit scores are so weird....

[FS09]

I've been living WITHOUT credit cards for 3 years now (OK, I still have a $300 and a secured $200 card to have some positive credit reported) and yes, it's possible and comfortable (say good buy to "due dates"..)...

I only have a loan on an old car which I'm planning on paying off by the end of the year.

But to the OP: If you are looking for a car after your CH7 discharge, I wouldn't be too concerned. I heard of others who purchased a brand new car the first week after their discharge with 0% financing through Ford Credit.

So if you have a good history in car-financing (no recent repos), I wouldn't be too concerned.

I will be letting a car go back to Honda Financial in the BK. However, I have had impeccable credit for the last 20 years, always gotten great rates on car loans and mortgages. Not that any of that will help after BK since my finances imploded 6 months ago...

[Chuck]

I used to be a finance Manager at a car dealer.

Back then we loved customers with recent (within the last 2 years) bankrupcies. It was easier to get them a loan than it was people with 650 credit scores. It didn't really matter what their score was so long as it was over 520 in one of the bureaus and tey could prove their income (not self employed) take their check stubs multiply income by 15% thats the payment they could have at about 12.5% interest and they left in a car. It was very easy.

It is not like that at all anymore. Hell the reason I had to file was because the business got sooo bad I couldn't make a living. It wasn't that there were no customers, there were no customers that had 700 scores or higher. That was all the banks wanted to deal with, everyone else was usually turned down or atleast had to be in a very good LTV position.

My friends in the business say that now it is somewhere in the middle of those two scenarios. Not nearly as easy as 3 years ago, but not nearly as tough as 2 years ago.

My suggestions for rebuilding credit with purchasing a car in mind is this.

1. Pay the remaining 8 payments on your current loan perfectly.
2. Do not aquire any new credit. New accounts almost always initially lower your score.
3. Your score will take betweem 100 and 200 pt hit for a bankruptcy depending on your previous credit history. Remember that the formulas that add up to your score compound negative items. The more negative you have the more it lowers your score. Also the date of the negative items have a huge effect. If your score in January is 600, and you do not have any new negatives, no new accounts, and no increases in balances, in Feb your score will be at least 601. I know that doesn't sound like much, but each day that passes without a negative figures into the formulas that keep your score down. The longer it has been since the negative item, the less affect it has on your score.


I will shut up now. Sorry so long.

[RainMoM]

I used to be a finance Manager at a car dealer.

Back then we loved customers with recent (within the last 2 years) bankrupcies. It was easier to get them a loan than it was people with 650 credit scores. It didn't really matter what their score was so long as it was over 520 in one of the bureaus and tey could prove their income (not self employed) take their check stubs multiply income by 15% thats the payment they could have at about 12.5% interest and they left in a car. It was very easy.

It is not like that at all anymore. Hell the reason I had to file was because the business got sooo bad I couldn't make a living. It wasn't that there were no customers, there were no customers that had 700 scores or higher. That was all the banks wanted to deal with, everyone else was usually turned down or atleast had to be in a very good LTV position.

My friends in the business say that now it is somewhere in the middle of those two scenarios. Not nearly as easy as 3 years ago, but not nearly as tough as 2 years ago.

My suggestions for rebuilding credit with purchasing a car in mind is this.

1. Pay the remaining 8 payments on your current loan perfectly.
2. Do not aquire any new credit. New accounts almost always initially lower your score.
3. Your score will take betweem 100 and 200 pt hit for a bankruptcy depending on your previous credit history. Remember that the formulas that add up to your score compound negative items. The more negative you have the more it lowers your score. Also the date of the negative items have a huge effect. If your score in January is 600, and you do not have any new negatives, no new accounts, and no increases in balances, in Feb your score will be at least 601. I know that doesn't sound like much, but each day that passes without a negative figures into the formulas that keep your score down. The longer it has been since the negative item, the less affect it has on your score.


I will shut up now. Sorry so long.

I happen to like your response, excect for the fact, when you said "a 100 to 200 point hit for a bankruptcy", hell if thats the case, then I'm down to nothing !

[killinstinct]

Yeah! Screw credit. Buy yourself a nice older Corolla or something. You'll have the title and those things run FOREVER. You'll be fine. We don't need those shiny new things...

[IBroke]

I happen to like your response, excect for the fact, when you said "a 100 to 200 point hit for a bankruptcy", hell if thats the case, then I'm down to nothing !

Look at post #22...

[backtoschool]

Look at post #22...

I am post 22 and I swear I was shocked when my scores went UP 50 points! I had stopped paying on some of my credit cards almost a year ago and the rest of them six months ago, so when I filed last week my scores had gone about as far down as they were going to go. (around 500 on all 3 reports). Now my scores are all in the mid 500's as I stated on post 22. What is really weird is that my bankruptcy isn't even reporting yet on Transunion, yet my fico went UP on Transunion as well. If that is not strange I don't know what is.

From my experience, if you were already in collections on your cards then the bankruptcy is not going to lower your score that much. (and may raise it like it did to me). I would have thought that if my score was going to go up at all it would have been on discharge, not when I filed.....

[RainMoM]

I am post 22 and I swear I was shocked when my scores went UP 50 points! I had stopped paying on some of my credit cards almost a year ago and the rest of them six months ago, so when I filed last week my scores had gone about as far down as they were going to go. (around 500 on all 3 reports). Now my scores are all in the mid 500's as I stated on post 22. What is really weird is that my bankruptcy isn't even reporting yet on Transunion, yet my fico went UP on Transunion as well. If that is not strange I don't know what is.

From my experience, if you were already in collections on your cards then the bankruptcy is not going to lower your score that much. (and may raise it like it did to me). I would have thought that if my score was going to go up at all it would have been on discharge, not when I filed.....

My DH score is like 496 I was scared to even check mine and i just read a post where someone said it will drop 100-200 point after my bk
where do i go from here ??

[backtoschool]

My DH score is like 496 I was scared to even check mine and i just read a post where someone said it will drop 100-200 point after my bk
where do i go from here ??

The best I can figure, is that declaring bankruptcy put me in a different fico "bucket" which raised my score. Fico has buckets and the bucket for people who have negatives but no bankruptcy is different than the bankruptcy bucket. Of course I am just guessing....

I am not even concerned about my fico since I have no intention of obtaining new credit any time soon. At some point I will buy a house but that is some years down the road.....

This is how I feel about my scores: I worked so hard for years to clean my credit and get a good score and get a lot of credit with it. Then I lost my job and couldn't pay off that credit and now my score has tanked. What do I need the score for? Good credit scores are for obtaining new credit, and I do not want any new credit for a long while.

I will clean my reports, just as a matter of course, but will never use credit cards in any real way again.