Life after Bankruptcy????

[jblair]

Hello everyone.....Newbie here, glad to have run across such a useful site. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Obviously i filed for Bankruptcy, went to court around the first of March, now i guess i'm waiting on discharge papers. Is this correct? How long does it take to be discharged from your court date? What's next? Secondly I received some credit card offers in the mail prior to me going to court, trashed them of course(they were the crappy ones)Do i have to wait til after i'm discharged to try and rebuild my credit again? How many days after i receive the discharge papers before i can apply for credit? Now moving right along here, my last question would be to ask if anyone knows of any good credit monitoring companies i should try. There's so many out there, anyone know of one with a good reputation? I've heard of some that email you regularly to notify of any adverse info being reported on the three major credit bureau files. Waiting patiently for your replies!

[HopeinHorizon]

I can tell you my experiences...

I was discharged at the end of February... approximately 60 days after the 341 meeting, and the case was closed about a week after discharge..

I applied for a Target card about 2 weeks after discharge, I waited until the case was closed and everything... and was approved!

I have been using TrueCredit.Com to pull my reports. The reason is, you can update the report every 24 hours and you pay 9.95/monthly. I disputed some things right after discharge and just pulled the reports again yesterday and some of the things are already fixed. It is nice to see that instead of taking the credit bureau's word that they have corrected it...

After Experian gets their act together, I will be appying for Household Bank's (they pull Experian, and they have A LOT of inaccuracies on my report) card also, so that I have two revolving along with my installment loans (student loan and car) that lasted through the bankruptcy. I also have a cell phone with Verizon that reports, so I will have a good mix of accounts reporting current.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Your discharge should be within 60 days of your 341, but it may take longer for you to receive the letter through the mail. You do not have to wait to apply for credit although it is better to wait until your discharge. Many of us got new cards before we were discharged, although you really aren't supposed to.

[HopeinHorizon]

I waited, because you risk dismissal if you take on new debt before the discharge.... I wasn't willing to risk the fresh start on a few more months of good credit reporting...

[Minnymouth]

Hope is right about that,
You can risk getting your case dismissed by trying to get more credit while in bankruptcy....
In 7 you can a chance and in 13 your required to have the Trustee's permission to acquire any new debt.

[jblair]

Thank you to everyone who has replied so quickly! I'm glad to view other's opinions and thoughts! In that case i think i'll wait until i get my discharge papers just to be on the safe side. I hope and pray i've learned my lesson and will make better life choices in the future regarding my financial status! Only 26 and hopefully have a long life ahead with much better credit, it's rough getting through life without a credit card or getting discriminated against from an employer because of your credit, which i think absolutely has nothing to do with my work ethics! Their should be a law against that! Thanks again everyone, i'll continue to read the replies!