How Long After A Bankruptcy Discharge Can I Apply For Credit To Rebuild My History?
Posted by Stephen Cline on February 3rd, 2010My bankruptcy is being discharged next week. I want to apply for credit to rebuild my history and hopefully buy another house in 5 – 7 years.
How long do I need to wait to apply? Can anybody recommend any secured credit cards?
Tags: After, Apply, Bankruptcy, Credit, Discharge, History, Long, Rebuild
You can apply for credit as soon as your BK discharges I filed back in late 2000 and had several credit cards a soon as my BK discharged.
I used First Capital, Orchard Bank, H.S.B.C. and Capital One to rebuild my credit.
You can apply for credit one year after filing even with secured credit cards. Secured credit cards are probably the only ones that will accept you, yes you have to pay $300 to get them, but you eventually will get that money back, other “bad credit” credit cards can charge you up to $250 in start-up costs and theirs still annual fees, monthly fees, fees to pay the bill etc.
My parents filed for bankruptcy in March and they couldn’t even get a secured credit card immediately now with banks failing they just don’t want to give someone that files a credit card immediately even if you have a deposit for a secured credit card.
STOP! Before you do anything, order your credit reports again. Make sure that any debt listed says “included in bankruptcy or discharged in bankruptcy”. That way your credit file is accurate as of this minute. Now apply for 1 card so choose wisely. First Premier and Orchard are good starters (there are fees involved). Don’t bother applying for a Chase, Discover or American Express. They are not going to approve you right now. I say to apply for only 1 card because multiple credit applications bring your credit score down and you should be working on getting yours up. Once approved, after about 6 months, call and ask for a credit increase. If they give it to you, great. They may not, it’s hard to tell right now the way the credit crisis is. After 1 year of paying your card on time each month, you may want to search for a card with better terms.
You can apply for new credit the day after your case is filed.
Many creditors may choose to wait until after discharge, but post-petition debts are very clearly not dischargeable.
But please, pay off your balance monthly, these are going to have awful terms.
You may even need to start with a secured card.
You’re probably getting lots of solicitations in the mail.
As far as a secure credit card goes, try where you bank. If they can’t help you they can probably give you some local suggestions.
Your credit will start to slowly rebuild itself after 90 days. If you have no other problems you should be able to apply for a house mortgage.in 2-3 years. They will be also interested in your salary, the amount of money you put down and if you have a stable work history.
You are not alone. They are predicting well over a million BKs this year.
You can begin to rebuild immediately after your discharge. You will have to go with secured credit.
You can go to your bank or credit union and ask them if they have a secured card. Deposit $300-$500 into the account and use the card every month for small purchases, make sure and pay it off in full.
If they do not, there are secured cards online, however I think some will charge you upfront fees.
Take it easy. Don’t rush. Be-careful when applying for secured credit cards because if you default they can sue you for sure.
Go to creditcards.com and there you can find many credit cards for all types of credit histories.
IN YOUR CASE YOU NEED A PREPAID CARD FROM WALMART CALLED THE GREEN DOT CARD U WILL REBUILD UR CREDIT BUT U NEED THAT IF U START GETTING BACK IN DEBT AGAIN IT WILL BE HARD FOR U TO EVER FILE BK AGAIN
in Illinois its 7 years if i remember right