Two years since BK, no credit card offers?

[Bobbi123]

I have been reading some posts on this forum. Time after time people discuss receiving offers for credit cards after BK and it sounds like it happens rather quickly. I have never received any offers !
I filed two years ago this month and it will be 2 years since the discharge this coming August.
My BK amount was relatively small, less than 15,000.00
I am employed full time.
Prior to the couple years proceeding BK I had 20 years of good credit.

Since BK I applied for a Capital One card but was turned down.

I am really confused as to why so many seem to be able to get cards and I can't get one. I would like to have one card with about a 500.00 limit for emergencies. I will not go the secured card route and it that is the only way then I will never get another credit card.

I checked my credit report and it appears to me to be properly labeled as far as accounts close by me, accounts included in bankruptcy. I have no open accounts at this time.

It's been about 8 months since I applied for a card but I am afraid to apply due to being turned down last year.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Bobbi

[Bronte]

Bobbi,
I have not received any pre-approved mail credit card offers either. In my case, it was because I had opted out from receiving these. If you have opted out you will not receive any offers.
My first credit card was a secured card from National City Bank and my second (non-secured ) was from Orchard Bank. If you have not applied to Orchard I would try them www.orchardbank.com. You have to supply some information on line to them and then they do a soft pull (inquiry) of your credit report. They will tell you what card they will likely okay you for (Platinum, Gold, Silver or Secured)if you choose to go ahead and apply. Only when you choose to apply do they do a hard pull of you credit report.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

I'm not sure why some of us get tons of offers and some get none. As suggested, try www.orchardbank.com and also www.householdbank.com

[SinkingFast]

We have friends that filed BK 20 years ago. They consciously refused to play the high interest and fees games to get reestablished. Because of that, they had no CC's, or car loans, or any type of Credit for years after BK. As in, like 10 years before they got their first CC.

They had an offer or 2 for a CC come where they'd apply but they got turned down. It wasn't til they finally HAD to buy a car and finance with an auto loan that things started to get better for them. They were 7-8 years post BK when they bought the car. Even then, the car loan was an outrageous interest rate. While everyone else was getting 7% interest on car loans, they had to pay 15% interest. But once they'd paid on the car for a couple of years, then they started getting CC offers. Around that time, or shortly after, is when their BK dropped off their Credit Reports.

It was tough for them to live all Cash for so long. They got lucky to make friends with a mechanic to keep their car running. The Hubby is a Certified Electrician, so he and the mechanic traded favors. Plus, the mechanic would let the guy do some of his own work in his shop. And the mechanic let them pay him on time if they didn't have the cash all up front. They'd have to buy the parts, cash money he would be out of pocket, but he'd let them pay for his labor as they could.

She says today, if it weren't for that mechanic and several other "friends" like him that helped them out, they couldn't have made it.

[aa06a47]

Sinking, your friend was lucky to have those types of friends. Most people don't. I am going to try my best to live on cash. I figure I'll get good practice the next 5 years. I will want to establish credit soon after discharge though, but only (Hopefully i'll controll myself) for emergencies. The last thing in the world I want is to go through this BK process again.

[Bobbi123]

Thanks to everyone who answered and I hope to get some additional responses.
Bronte - I may be hurting myself but I will not have anything to do with Household which is also Orchard. Before BK they were the only company who would not work with me to lower my payments until I could get a better paying job, which I did. I had paid 7000 of the 9000 I owed them and they would not work with me to lower my payment on that final 2000 dollars. I am still furious as this pushed me into BK.It's possible I opted out sometime years ago and don't remember doing it .

Sinkingfast your response scares me especially since there is no way with my income I could buy a car. I hope I do not experience the same fate as your friends and have to wait 10 years.

I did not expect this to be easy and it was the most embarassing thing I ever did when I filed BK. But I had heard from many that in a couple years if I did not create additional negatives on my credit report I would be able to rebuild my credit. Doesn't look like it now.

Thanks to all !

[highNdry]

Bobbi123

Please excuse me beforehand for my comment here, but I think you are being a bit stubborn and you are making it personal. If you do not start to rebuild credit now, it is going to hurt you later. The thing is you can either pay now for these outrageous charges or pay later. The way I see it, I might as well pay now and have good credit so when I really need it I will have all of my options.

Sinking fast's friend waited for 7 to 8 years and what good did it do to them, they had to pay high interest for their car anyway. If you spend couple of 100 now you will save thousands later.

My philosophy is use them don't let them use you, get a secured card charge the necessities and pay them off monthly don't carry any balances. This way in couple of years if you need a car you will get a better interest rate and save a lot more.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Thanks to everyone who answered and I hope to get some additional responses.
Bronte - I may be hurting myself but I will not have anything to do with Household which is also Orchard. Before BK they were the only company who would not work with me to lower my payments until I could get a better paying job, which I did. I had paid 7000 of the 9000 I owed them and they would not work with me to lower my payment on that final 2000 dollars. I am still furious as this pushed me into BK.It's possible I opted out sometime years ago and don't remember doing it .

Sinkingfast your response scares me especially since there is no way with my income I could buy a car. I hope I do not experience the same fate as your friends and have to wait 10 years.

I did not expect this to be easy and it was the most embarassing thing I ever did when I filed BK. But I had heard from many that in a couple years if I did not create additional negatives on my credit report I would be able to rebuild my credit. Doesn't look like it now.

Thanks to all !

That really sucks, sorry to hear that. I also paid off over half of my debts before filing bankruptcy, and wasted 5 years of my life doing so. It really makes you a bitter person, I'm still trying to heal from it. I totally understand your view, as I too would no longer have anything to do with my old creditors even if I was offered sweet deals again. When you applyed for that capital one card, which one did you apply for? They have around 10 different cards they offer, each one with different criteria, interest rates and fees. If you goto their website and look at them, the card just above the secured card is the one I got one month after discharge. It has a $19 annual fee (no other fees), 15.45% interest but a low credit limit. You may want to try for that one specifically, it can be done online.

[Bronte]

Bobbi123,
I understand what your saying about not doing business with Orchard. I feel the same way about MBNA.

Creditors are looking how you've handled your accounts since bankruptcy and since you have no open accounts they cannot tell. The credit reporting system is not fair to people who are using cash and not going into debt.

Even though you don't want to I would really look into getting a secured card. National City Bank okays everyone who applies for it. The deposit can be as little as $250.00. They report to all three bureaus as an unsecured card. As for unsecured cards I've heard that department store and gas cards are easier to get than visa/mastercards.

Another suggested is to check if you opted in. My Transunion report stated that I was opted out. If you want to opt in you can sign up at www.optoutprescreen.com.

I have also read of people taking out a passbook loan from their bank to help increase their credit score and show an open line of credit. You take a loan from the bank with your savings account as collateral(your savings account is frozen until the loan is paid). The bank reports the loan on you credit report. You pay off the loan in a few months. I'm not sure if you can get this loan at all banks.

I'm sure others on this board will have some suggestions for you.

[edwards2]

bobbi123 - dont give up...did you opt out? that is the only reason I can think of as to why you have not been inundated with offers. Not suggesting you rack up debt from a bunch of credit cards but for us post-BK I applied for Orchard Bank(understand why you dont want to) and received cards for myself and my husband - $300 limit. We also have the Target red card which has upped my limit to $500, Cap One, Juniper and Hooters. None of these cards have a high limit with the exception of Cap One if you consider $1500 a high limit. I had Cap One prior to BK but had paid it off long before I even considered BK. That may be the reason they approved me. We also got a truck financed through Ford Motor Credit for my son 2 months out of BK. I think applying too soon is not a good idea but I was so anxious to start rebuilding...frankly I am surprised Orchard gave us one because we filed on Household Bank. We intend to keep our limits low whether they raise them or not because we want to be able to pay them off monthly. If I were you I would maybe try Target or Juniper. I had never heard of them until I read Creditboards.com...try that website too they have a lot of information and suggestions about rebuilding credit. I had heard of Hooters - the ....place of course but didnt realize they had a credit card until I read creditboards so I applied and got one. There are people on that website who got one with a $5000 limit; ours was $500...so you never know. I think sometimes it just depends who pulls your app and if you get turned down call and ask why - maybe it has something to do with your credit report even though you have checked...did you check all 3 because they dont all report the same although they claim they do. Good luck..

[SinkingFast]

I should have posted the final portion of what my friend told me.

The Moral of the Story,..........

We didn't know our friends had filed BK. They never told anyone. We just thought they were thrifty not using CC's when other people would have. Saying they'd have to wait til payday to get something. That type of thing.

I told my GF that we were getting ready to file and she said she figured as much. She knows what we've been going thru the last few years. She knew we couldn't carry it all forever. And that's when she told me their story.

GF said they didn't know about the post BK games people played to get reestablished. Take a high interest rate, low credit limit card. Take a high interest rate car loan. That type of thing. She thought other people fared better than they did because they owned their own homes when they filed. That the mortgages helped the people get back on their feet quickly.

GF told me her story so we'd know what we needed to do after BK. Coming out the other side. I told her I'd found this Forum and had learned a lot of the things she was telling me already.

GF said she wished there'd been someone to tell them these things. Woulda made their lives so much easier in the long run.

[Bobbi123]

HighNDry . I had to laugh at your post Yes I am stubborn and no offense taken.

Filing on my own. Cap one refused me because they were one of the people I filed on. My attorney had told me before BK I could ask them to keep my account open and not include them. I wanted to do this as I had paid on time and my balance was less than 500 but they said no. I would be afraid to try them again since they turned me down last year.

Edwards2 Thanks for all of the information. I am printing everything I am reading about to try to make an informed decision.


I will check my reports to see if I opted out. It sounds like something I may have done because in the past before my life took a down turn I was always careful not to overdo the use of credit.

Thanks to all. I really do appreciate your time.

Bobbi

[Bobbi123]

Opting in?

Wouldn't opting in to receive offers cause a lot of pulls on my credit?
If so I thought that was something I should avoid.

If anyone knows, please let me know.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Opting in to pre-screened offers has no effect on your score.

[down&out]

Wouldn't opting in to receive offers cause a lot of pulls on my credit?
If so I thought that was something I should avoid.

If anyone knows, please let me know.

THey do "soft" pulls so there is no affect on the reports.

Also - Im just curious. Did you go through the trouble of correcting your credit report? It could be that all the companies are still reporting you owe and thats why you get no offers. (but I bet you just need to opt in)

Just a thought