Using new cards just before filing.

[Amy26]

Just to chime in on the already great advice here... to quote Yoda: "You must unlearn what you have learned!"

Credit is so stupid and I really hate that the US has adopted this form of slavery. I lived in Europe for a time and there WAS NO CREDIT! And this may be why Europeans are thought to be much happier than us Westerners... They need a loan, they go to the bank and ask for it... if it fits in their budget...they get the loan... the interest is low just so the bank makes a buck but that's it!

Albeit in the US is hard to do anything without credit but if I never see another credit card ever it will be too soon. I have no problems with secured loans for mortgages or autos... as long as you don't allow it to become upside down.

I actually did have one credit card survive... which I don't even think appears on all my credit reports...but its a Fashion Bug card that I got like 10 years ago with a 100 dollar limit that I have no idea why its there or what the hell they are doing reporting it after all these years... hehe...

And the IIB certainly helped me a lot with mortgages... they had remained on my report until I was discharged and were sitting there at 90+ passed due... drove my score down to 530. Then 2 days after my discharge my mortgages were moved to IIB and zero'd out and it raised my score to 598. In 2 days! I was shocked... but I feel so wonderful pulling my credit and there is nothing on it!!!

Course... I still have like 100k in student loans.... luckily I called Sallie Mae the other day and asked if I was still in voluntary forebarance and since I'm still in school for my masters they have me deferred still. I'm not gonna call my private student loan lenders though... I'm just gonna prey that maybe they will forget about me ... lol.

[2manybills]

The card we have is the one that the CU sent us from the account we opened befor filing.

So far so good. Our intent is to charge like $50 and then pay it immediately.

I agree Amy, it is a form of slavery with a great big noose around your neck.

[Chowder]

For example citi issues my sears,exxon, and homedepot cards. So I know even with a 0 balance those will be gone.

Not necessarily. Many here have had major cards survive despite including another from the same creditor in their BK.

I'm a week or so from discharge (knock on wood) and still have a couple of Citi's and a Chase, along with a handful of other smaller dept store cards open/in good standing. They could be closed tomorrow, but who cares.

The LOC's, new car loans, and CC offers come in daily. Some of these credit cards have better rates than those I ditched in the BK.

As you can see, you'll have plenty of opportunity to rebuild/dig deep hole with credit pretty much immediately.

[mike258]

This is great news. I am decidedly NOT into scores, but now that I am back in the Midwest, I will want to buy a house in a couple of years and I would love to have those pre-bankruptcy lates cleaned up at some point.

I love this board, I learn something new every day, and often I learn it from you justbroke.

Creditors are allowed to report you history right up to the bankruptcy. Some of my accounts show 30 days, 60 days 90 days late then IIB. Others have the entire pay history deleted and just show the bankruptcy.

Say you have a 5 year old 30 day late on an account that's not included in your bankruptcy, you might want to leave that account off your petition (remember we are talking about zero balance accounts). The 30 days late will fall off in 2 more years..if you IIB, it will be on there for another 7 years.