New to the Group

[Mixman98]

Hi everyone. I'm looking forward to gaining some knowledge from you all. My name is Larry and I'm from New Castle DE. I just made the last payment on my Chapter 13 and am looking for info on what happens and what steps to take next.

[shipo]

Congratulations Mixman98! Welcome to the Chapter 13 Discharge club, I got there last March.

I believe I answered your question regarding mortgages in your other thread; do you have any others, say, regarding rebuilding credit?

[Mixman98]

Yes, I do need info on where to go and what to do from this point forward. How to rebuild credit and such.

[shipo]

There is a topic called "Rebuilding Credit" here: https://www.bkforum.com/forum/after-...uilding-credit

In that discussion group I have created a few threads related to my own experience over the last ten months which may be instructive to you. The first thing I, and many of the other well informed individuals here, would recommend is getting a Secured Credit Card, however, as I learned the hard way, not all secured cards are created equal.

Here is a quick summary of the cards I found and either obtained, or seriously considered:

• CapitalOne has a secured card which is pretty easy to get approved for after waiting three to four weeks after Discharge. The two main drawbacks to this card are, a low maximum credit line of $1,000 (with a security deposit of $849), and no real solid metrics on what it will take to graduate to an unsecured card, or for that matter, any assurance you will ever be graduated. I was approved for this card after about six weeks post-Discharge and immediately ran into issues with the credit limit; I closed it less than two months after getting it.
• Bank of America has a secured card with a maximum $5,000 limit (with an equal deposit), however, they seem to be very reticent to issue this card. I applied for this one on the strength my long-standing banking relationship with BofA and they denied me; I appealed, and they denied me a second time. I immediately closed all of my B0fA account and move them to another bank.
• Wells Fargo has a secured card with an almost unheard of maximum limit of $10,000 (with an equal deposit); I never applied for this card but have heard reasonably good things about it.
• Saving the best for last, TDBank has a $5,000 limit secured card which uses an interest bearing "locked" savings account as the vehicle for the security deposit. Their rules are pretty simple, maintain the card in good standing for seven consecutive billing cycles, and the lock on the savings account is lifted and the card is effectively unsecured. The cool thing about this card is, even in "Secured" mode, it pays cash rewards, and once "Unsecured", the cash rewards accelerate for Grocery (2%) and Dining (3%). I applied at a local branch, was approved, funded the savings account and used the card regularly starting in early July last year, and six months later, almost to the day, they unsecured the card this week.

As a result of my applying (credit rating hit), using (credit rating boost), and closing the Capital One Secured Card (another credit rating hit), I didn't do myself any favors dinking around with the CapOne card. Even still, the additional application to TDBank (yet another credit hit), and the usage of that card, has resulted on a gradually improving credit rating.

[Mixman98]

Thank you sir. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[justbroke]

Welcome to BKForum mixman98. I see that shipo has pointed you to a good area to start. Cleaning up the credit report is an interesting and a daunting task.