Hello from Wisconsin

[jeepnut]

My wife and I completed a chapter 7 a little over a year a ago, (May of 2008). We have 0 debt at this time. We've been trying to get credit re-established and so far only one credit union was able to work with us, giving us a loan for $1,000. This loan was re-paid within 3 months, never late, now the same c.u. had denied us for the same $1,000. Crazy, but it is what it is.

I'm going to hang out here and learn from you guys and gals, and also share what I went through as we try to rebuild our credit. We owned a business for 11 years and had 10 employees. We where actually very successful until the last 2 years. When we filed, we had $1.2 million in debt, mostly business. We also lost our personal house, 3 rental/investment properties, and one vehicle.

We where lucky to each find great jobs after our business crashed, rent a small house and have 0 debt. From this point on my life is going to be considered simplified. From the way it looks, it'll remain simple as getting things started again has taken much more than we thought.

[hamburgervol]

My wife and I completed a chapter 7 a little over a year a ago, (May of 2008). We have 0 debt at this time. We've been trying to get credit re-established and so far only one credit union was able to work with us, giving us a loan for $1,000. This loan was re-paid within 3 months, never late, now the same c.u. had denied us for the same $1,000. Crazy, but it is what it is.

I'm going to hang out here and learn from you guys and gals, and also share what I went through as we try to rebuild our credit. We owned a business for 11 years and had 10 employees. We where actually very successful until the last 2 years. When we filed, we had $1.2 million in debt, mostly business. We also lost our personal house, 3 rental/investment properties, and one vehicle.

We where lucky to each find great jobs after our business crashed, rent a small house and have 0 debt. From this point on my life is going to be considered simplified. From the way it looks, it'll remain simple as getting things started again has taken much more than we thought.

How was your BK experience from the time you filed until you were discharged and closed?

[Ann]

My wife and I completed a chapter 7 a little over a year a ago, (May of 2008). We have 0 debt at this time. We've been trying to get credit re-established and so far only one credit union was able to work with us, giving us a loan for $1,000. This loan was re-paid within 3 months, never late, now the same c.u. had denied us for the same $1,000. Crazy, but it is what it is.

I'm going to hang out here and learn from you guys and gals, and also share what I went through as we try to rebuild our credit. We owned a business for 11 years and had 10 employees. We where actually very successful until the last 2 years. When we filed, we had $1.2 million in debt, mostly business. We also lost our personal house, 3 rental/investment properties, and one vehicle.

We where lucky to each find great jobs after our business crashed, rent a small house and have 0 debt. From this point on my life is going to be considered simplified. From the way it looks, it'll remain simple as getting things started again has taken much more than we thought.

Congratulations on being debt free. What a great feeling you must have. I heard that credit unions were much more easier to work with other than banks when it came time to rebuild. However from what your saying that is not necessarily the case. If you don't mind me asking what business did you own?

[jeepnut]

During the time of filing, to discharge my phone just about stopped ringing. We where behind on mortgages, credit cards, etc. and reached the point we couldn't weather it anymore. About 4-5 days after we filed, the phone stopped for the most part, the letters stopped and we finally had a feeling we'd survive this whole ordeal. Our phone was ringing almost non stop from 8am or so in the morning until about 9pm at night.

The business we owned, well..I'm a Real Estate Broker, Appraiser and General Contractor. I still hold a license in Wisconsin for all three. At one point we had a full-time expediter managing construction projects and 10 Realtors. My new homes where higher quality, usually starting in the lower 300's. At one point we couldn't build and sell fast enough, at the end, I couldn't give anything away. One of my employees was with me for 10 years, he kept saying...don't worry, we'll ride this out. If he didn't have 4 kids, I would have shutdown a year earlier and called an Attorney six months before that, but..I honestly thought, we could ride it out. Instead, I dug a bigger hole...refinanced my personal home for another $200,000. I owed $70,000 on a $350,000 home. When they foreclosed on me, I owed $276,000 just on that. I thought the debt would be a temporary thing, not a nail in the coffin. I ended up with a total of 4 foreclosures with my personal home and 3 investment properties. We are currently renting, I'm hoping to own a home again someday, we'll see how things work out as we rebuild credit.

Now...I sell asphalt for one of the largest refineries in the United States. It's a great job, great company, and it's great having a bi-weekly paycheck we can depend on. I'm still amazed I was hired this year considering the economy and I had no experience in the asphalt biz!

[catleg]

I think you may need to do some do it yourself credit repair.
Dispute any accounts showing derogatives not "included in BK".
Also try and clear off the old addresses you used at the time you filed.
Finally once you've got the old addresses cleared and hopefully most of the accounts cleared, dispute the BK itself.
Not sure if it will help, but it definitely can't hurt.

[AngelinaCatHub]

You gave us a wonderful story. I have been there and find that the simper life is a better life.

Have you considered building your house yourself? I have built three and at least 80% I could do excluding foundations. I can plumb, wire, and nail. It was and is fun. I am "enjoying" repairing a 25 foot wall that rotted when I was too sick to repair hurricane dmage. 'Hub

[OhioFiler]

You gave us a wonderful story. I have been there and find that the simper life is a better life.

Have you considered building your house yourself? I have built three and at least 80% I could do excluding foundations. I can plumb, wire, and nail. It was and is fun. I am "enjoying" repairing a 25 foot wall that rotted when I was too sick to repair hurricane damage. 'Hub

That's one tall wall! I hope you have a good ladder!

[StartingOver08]

OP, believe it or not, you may have paid off that $1000 loan too fast! Sounds like the CU did not make any $$ off your loan so they declined to give you another....

Different CU's have different underwriting rules...try another one.

You might do as Catleg suggests first - check your CR's to make sure that everything is being reported correctly. Check the big 3 plus INNOVIS (Lexis Nexus) too. Since you are discharged fairly recently some of the initial items you may have disputed off of your report could have landed back on again.

If you are looking to build your score, you might try a mix of credit: 1 installment type loan; 1 or 2 credit cards with 1% to 10% utilization max. You may need to use those 'starter' cards to get the ball rolling (Applied Card, Credit One Bank or even First Premier). The downside to using those cards is the initial fees, but if you don't actually charge anything then all you are doing is paying the 'annual fee' on a monthly basis. Check first to see if the CU has a secured card they will give you. Sometimes the CU requires two yrs out of BK to issue any sort of credit card, depends upon the CU.

Sounds like you did the right thing in filing - congratulations on your successful discharge.