BK Discharged - Credit Cards still work!

[hnhlvr]

Hi Everyone,

I sort of posted about this before. My husband and I quit using our credit cards YEARS AGO! We've been paying cash for everything for the entire time and during this time four of our credit cards had zero balances and we didn't use them.

Our chapter 7 discharged a couple days ago (I checked pacer) and now it seems three of the four credit cards still work and I was able to charge on them. No need to lecture me on the "learning to live off of cash," because we've done so for years already.

We need to apply for a car loan and are wanting to rebuild our credit and we charged on two of the cards and the transactions went through.

I had wondered if the companies would cancel our cards, but now we have balances and charged an appropriate amount and are going to be making the payments...

Has anyone had an account canceled after BK with a balance on it if payments are made?

[justbroke]

I did not have any card that was not automatically cancelled. There is one moderator, I want to say Mrs. Cat, that had one card survive for some time. However, it eventually was closed. It is truly up to the creditor whether they want to continue to extend credit. Since you did not discharge any debt with those creditors that had a $0 balance, they would probably be more likely to keep the account open.

However, you should not depend on them or expect them to stay open.

[AngelinaCat]

Hi JB. No, that wasn't me. We were the ones that about two weeks after we filed, 'Hub went and opened up an account at Radio Shack, and another at Lowe's. These for for fairly small purchases, nothing out of the ordinary. We knew and understood that this was 'new debt' and that it wouldn't be covered by our BK filing.

When our check came in, we went straight to RS and Lowe's to pay these charges off in full. Neither store had any record of our purchases at all. Period. Zip, zero, nada. We even produced the stores' own receipts! Nope.

It turned out that both of these accounts were owned by the parent company of one of the two cards we filed against. Once they got the news of our filings, they cut everything.

This was a fluke that happened, but it doesn't happen often. At least our attorney said she had never heard of this happening before.

[Pizza]

Our one zero balance credit card (Target Visa) has shown no sign of acknowledgement of our bankruptcy filing. Not yet. You never know when they are planning to run your credit again and make administrative decisions to keep or discard you.

[IBroke]

Well, I still have both CCs that had a $0 Balance when I filed. My Mid-America (formerly known as PLAINS) VISA actually increased my CL from $300 to $350. Not much but that's their policy. They increase the CL by $50 every 90 days upon request. Heck, I have this account for 10 years now but I had no clue about this CL-increase until I asked 3 months ago...

My other card which survived, New Millennium, is a secured card so that was not such of a big surprise that it remained open.

[anderson238]

I had 2 cards survive, Kohl's and Lane Bryant, the citibank I was hoping would make it through had $0 balance was cancelled the month of discharge.

[TXskyblue]

I'm still in the 60-day club, but two of my cards that were zero balance are still showing as open and with available credit on the credit union websites. I suspect they may survive since neither credit union is losing any money on me. One credit union owns the mortgage on my house which I am not reaffirming, but I've always paid on time and have equity in my house so even if I stopped paying, they wouldn't lose money.

We'll see if they really do survive.

[hnhlvr]

Thanks, everyone! Sounds like there is a chance. I'll post an update if anything comes up...hopefully the bill just arrives and I pay it and they are cool about it all

[mknolan]

I had a Neiman Marcus, Macy's and a very old Visa card that my husband and I had years ago (husband deceased since 1994). this Visa has a 49K credit limit....yikes!! Needless to say, I don't have this card and will definitely "let sleeping dogs lie"!!

[ccmisery]

I have $500 of overdraft protection on my ING Direct (Capital One 360) checking account and they have not yet removed it or closed my account. One of my creditors is Capital One too, the bank account is in good standing.

[LadyInTheRed]

I had a Discover card that remained open for over a year after I filed before they finally closed it. My Costco American Express account is still open and I still get notices about changes in account terms. I still have almost 2 years in my Chap 13. We'll see if the AmX stays open. The card did not have a balance when I filed and I had no debt with AmX that will be discharged.