One Year Post BK

[aljohnson007]

Hi everyone, just an update on one year post bk. What a relief this past year has been. No annoying calls, no debt and enjoying life. I have a Visa with $5k limit and M/C with $3k limit, both of which have a zero balance at the beginning of each month. Credit score last month was 697. I hope all of you have as good an outcome and best wishes for the future. We are off to Puerto Rico on the 28th for two weeks.

[Flamingo]

That is marvelous for you but please remember you will still have that Chapter 7 on your credit reports for another 9 years and it will affect your life during that time still in many ways. Until it is off your reports, you will still have issues to deal with as we found out. Ours came off April 2009 and since that time it is as if nothing ever happened but we know our BK is on permenant file as to public records and permanent with the creditors listed on our filing.

Also, not everyone will be able to get credit as it appears you have obtained over the past year.

If you are careful and prudent with your credit as it seems you are, you should be fine.

[backtoschool]

I am one year post discharge in a couple of weeks and the last year has been a really good one for me. I have a job I like, money in the bank, and a life that makes me much happier than the life I had in nyc before I moved to the midwest and declared bk. For those just starting out on this path, it does get better, I promise.

[mommi2many]

Al, thanks for coming back and giving us hope.

[drowning123]

Yes, al, thanks for sharing your good experience.

[tobee43]

Hi everyone, just an update on one year post bk. What a relief this past year has been. No annoying calls, no debt and enjoying life. I have a Visa with $5k limit and M/C with $3k limit, both of which have a zero balance at the beginning of each month. Credit score last month was 697. I hope all of you have as good an outcome and best wishes for the future. We are off to Puerto Rico on the 28th for two weeks.

so glad to hear about "life" after bk....sounds like you are doing just wonderful...congrats to you and have a wondrous time in pr!!!

[2manybills]

Thanks Al for the post. We are a year post bk also. We have a $5K credit card, that is always paid off. Paying bills every month is a "non-event" for me. I don't spend hours trying to figure out how to steal from Peter to pay Paul. Our credit score is 692.

As BTS said, for all of you folks that are just beginning this process, life does get better.

[jenbow]

Can you guys share how your credit score is so high? I am about to file next week.. and could use any tips!

[tobee43]

Can you guys share how your credit score is so high? I am about to file next week.. and could use any tips!

well i not exacly certain but we were in the 800's when we filed....after filing and were discharged we are at 690 and 685...however, prior to the the filing and discharge approx 8 weeks ago we were never late on our bills...so we did not have a horrible credit history.

we actually went from about perfect to bk...in a ny minute...so no time for the credit report companies to bang us...i am guessing???

i'm not certain if that mattered, but i do think it does...8 weeks out we have two cc's to re-establish our credit...one has a 0 fee one 39 dollars a year...one 1500 limit and one 1300 limit both under 13%...not that we plan on using them much, but we would like to buy this house we are in and need to get our credit together to be able to do that in the future...as well as we have an 11 year paid for car...which we know most likely doesn't have another 11 years to go...LOL!!

don't know if that helped any..i'm certain people have different experiences to share.

[2manybills]

We were pretty much the same as the above poster. Although our credit score started to sink because we had so much outstanding debt. All of our credit lines at the time we filed were nearly tapped out.

We had a $50K line of credit with Citi and I remember thinking, that's good to have in case of emergency. I now see that was such distorted thinking. A $50K credit line is not a savings account to be used for emergencies.

We actually have a savings account now that we use for emergencies and the occasional vacation.

[jenbow]

very cool. THANK YOU!

[aljohnson007]

The only thing I have been doing is use my credit cards and pay them off completely the first of each month. The big difference between "now" and "then" is I make certain on a daily basis my checking account balance is sufficient to cover all charges. My Visa is a no fee with 8.24% and the M/C is 22.99%, also no fee. The interest amount is irrevelant if paid in full when due.

[tobee43]

We were pretty much the same as the above poster. Although our credit score started to sink because we had so much outstanding debt. All of our credit lines at the time we filed were nearly tapped out.

We had a $50K line of credit with Citi and I remember thinking, that's good to have in case of emergency. I now see that was such distorted thinking. A $50K credit line is not a savings account to be used for emergencies.

We actually have a savings account now that we use for emergencies and the occasional vacation.

great news about the savings account...congrats!!!!!