Barclay's Denied Me 1 week + after Discharge

[justbroke]

I have used a PayPal Business Debit MasterCard for 3 years which included the time just before my Chapter 13, my almost 2 years in Chapter 13, my transition through Chapter 7, the discharge, and about 12 months later. In fact, I only just started trusting myself to charge business expenses to a regular credit card (and it's not working quite the way I thought!). I will be back using the PayPal MasterCard within the next month or so, once again.

I travel for business and I travel almost weekly. I spend $1,500-$2,000 a week on travel (on average). I charge my airfare, hotels, cars and even some meals on my PayPal debit MC. It works perfectly and deducts from my linked "expense" checking account (where my reimbursements are deposited).

The only downside is that I have had to carry as much as $6,000 in expenses at a time, and that's a lot of money.

[ccmisery]

Got my refusal letter from Barclay's today, reasons were:

"Insufficient number of credit cards on your credit report"

"Too few accounts with sufficient satisfactory performance"

I do not understand the reasons since several cards I paid off and were not included in my BK were still listed on my credit report.

[RichM]

Got my refusal letter from Barclay's today, reasons were:

"Insufficient number of credit cards on your credit report"

"Too few accounts with sufficient satisfactory performance"

I do not understand the reasons since several cards I paid off and were not included in my BK were still listed on my credit report.

Bankruptcy is like the atom bomb of negative entries on your credit report, and decent issuers want to see some evidence of currently open accounts that are being handled responsibly.

Crappy banks, of course, will issue you a credit card the day your discharge comes through -- if you don't mind effective interest rates of between 200 or 300 percent by the time all is said and done. You know, First Premier and that whole bunch of degenerate Shylocks.

My advice (which I successfully followed myself) has been and remains to get a secured credit card from a decent credit union. Most local CU's offer them, many that don't "officially" offer them will invent one for you by collateralizing a share account or CD.

The CU I used was First Tech Federal Credit Union. I opened a share account online, and did the rest by phone. I had the card in my hand a few days later. About six months later, I started getting approved for unsecured credit cards from respectable issuers. And about a month ago, I needed a short-term loan from my local CU, and it was approved over the phone.

So yeah, you can do it. I did, and I'm an idiot. The best advice I can give you is to avoid the temptation to accept the cards from the Shylocks, and instead open and religiously pay the bill on a secured card from First Tech or some other CU. If you do that, and don't do anything dumb like getting too many hard pulls on you credit report, I guarantee you that six months from now, you'll be able to get an unsecured card from Barclay's or some other reputable institution.

By the way, I still have my First Tech secured card. I could get it graduated, but why bother? It's literally money in the bank... er... credit union.

-Richard

[ccmisery]

Bankruptcy is like the atom bomb of negative entries on your credit report, and decent issuers want to see some evidence of currently open accounts that are being handled responsibly.

Crappy banks, of course, will issue you a credit card the day your discharge comes through -- if you don't mind effective interest rates of between 200 or 300 percent by the time all is said and done. You know, First Premier and that whole bunch of degenerate Shylocks.

My advice (which I successfully followed myself) has been and remains to get a secured credit card from a decent credit union. Most local CU's offer them, many that don't "officially" offer them will invent one for you by collateralizing a share account or CD.

The CU I used was First Tech Federal Credit Union. I opened a share account online, and did the rest by phone. I had the card in my hand a few days later. About six months later, I started getting approved for unsecured credit cards from respectable issuers. And about a month ago, I needed a short-term loan from my local CU, and it was approved over the phone.

So yeah, you can do it. I did, and I'm an idiot. The best advice I can give you is to avoid the temptation to accept the cards from the Shylocks, and instead open and religiously pay the bill on a secured card from First Tech or some other CU. If you do that, and don't do anything dumb like getting too many hard pulls on you credit report, I guarantee you that six months from now, you'll be able to get an unsecured card from Barclay's or some other reputable institution.

By the way, I still have my First Tech secured card. I could get it graduated, but why bother? It's literally money in the bank... er... credit union.

-Richard

Good thoughts, I have considered a secured card but it means I have to have collateral to put into it, which is a little short these days. It's all because of my employer, having to travel. I do not have surplus cash, took a big pay cut and cannot drop $3K or more into a secured cc account.

[Pjmax]

Why does it have to be $3K or more? You can get secured cards for $300-500, sometimes less. Some (not all) secured cards let you add money to your secured account to increase your credit limit, gradually, as you have the extra cash. Even if you were approved for an unsecured card now, it would be a low limit. You have to start somewhere.

[AngelinaCat]

I know that a CC must be used for business now and again, but unless it is a condition of employment, I wouldn't even be thinking about such things, especially less than one month outside of a CH7 Discharge.

I do not remember if your case is Closed or not.

What can you do about a pre-paid debit card?

If all of this does not work for you, have you talked with your employer, face-to-face about your problems regarding this card?

[RichM]

Good thoughts, I have considered a secured card but it means I have to have collateral to put into it, which is a little short these days. It's all because of my employer, having to travel. I do not have surplus cash, took a big pay cut and cannot drop $3K or more into a secured cc account.

I understand that.

For what it's worth, $600.00 did it for me. That was what I could afford. I later added to my deposit to raise the limit, but the limit on the secured card was still at $600.00 when I started getting approved for unsecured cards.

-Richard

[ccmisery]

Travelling domestically is not too bad, my employer will cover everything up front aside from incidentals, food, gas, tolls, bag check in fees and the big one car rentals. In some instances I may be asked to go someplace for a week or longer, even renting a sub-compact can be expensive and require a balance over $1K or more to pay when the car is turned in. Internationally is even worse, as things are more expensive and much is not covered up front.

I have told them about the fact I no longer have any credit cards, I did not and do not think I have to state I filed bankruptcy recently and lost them, I just say I use debit cards only. The travel is pending, that is it will be sooner or later. All I can do is ask for cash advances prior to cover the expenses.

I also was not told I need to travel during my interview and having a credit card was a requirement. I had two jobs in the past year, the last one I had to travel one time and it was painful getting a rental car, only Alamo or National was willing to give me a car with my limited funds at the time. I am sure if I have a lot of cash in my debit account, this will not be an issue but like I said I took a serious pay cut and even with my debt being discharged, I am still scraping by and do not have high surplus at the end of each month. Things won't change until next year.

[ccmisery]

Also, just tried getting a Capital One Secured Mastercard for poor credit, they denied me. I am probably on their blacklist, since one of my cards in the BK was Cap One.

[Pjmax]

They'll probably take you back down the road, say 6 months or so.

What does it say on your credit reports about your BK status, since you are discharged, but not closed? Just wondering if that is having any effect on your apps. I honestly don't know, just curious.

[ccmisery]

They'll probably take you back down the road, say 6 months or so.

What does it say on your credit reports about your BK status, since you are discharged, but not closed? Just wondering if that is having any effect on your apps. I honestly don't know, just curious.

Say's "Discharged" but not closed, I do not think my case will be closed for a while, reasons being is some real property that is up in the air and I have no clue on the status? My lawyer said I won't know till after a year on whether or not they abandoned it which it will then come back to me.

I am going to look at a Paypal Debit card next, in reality a Secured card only has the benefit of it reporting positive to my credit report and rebuilding credit.

[ccmisery]

I have used a PayPal Business Debit MasterCard for 3 years which included the time just before my Chapter 13, my almost 2 years in Chapter 13, my transition through Chapter 7, the discharge, and about 12 months later. In fact, I only just started trusting myself to charge business expenses to a regular credit card (and it's not working quite the way I thought!). I will be back using the PayPal MasterCard within the next month or so, once again.

I travel for business and I travel almost weekly. I spend $1,500-$2,000 a week on travel (on average). I charge my airfare, hotels, cars and even some meals on my PayPal debit MC. It works perfectly and deducts from my linked "expense" checking account (where my reimbursements are deposited).

The only downside is that I have had to carry as much as $6,000 in expenses at a time, and that's a lot of money.

I guess the only negative is no rebuilding of your credit using the Paypal Debit Card correct? I do not understand why places like Hertz and etc look at it differently than a typical bank provided Debit card in terms of checking your credit?

[RichM]

Say's "Discharged" but not closed, I do not think my case will be closed for a while, reasons being is some real property that is up in the air and I have no clue on the status? My lawyer said I won't know till after a year on whether or not they abandoned it which it will then come back to me.

I am going to look at a Paypal Debit card next, in reality a Secured card only has the benefit of it reporting positive to my credit report and rebuilding credit.

Well... I have the PayPal business debit card and I am absolutely happy with it. But secured credit cards do offer some other advantages.

Firstly, if you choose almost any secured card, it has the advantage of guaranteeing that you don't get back in trouble with that particular debt. If your income takes a turn for the worse (G-d forbid), then you can call the issuer and ask them to close the card and use the collateral to pay off the balance. The only time this may be a problem is if they collateralize it with a CD, in which case there might be a penalty for early withdrawal. (With a credit union, this would be very unlikely. With a bank, it's a crap shoot.)

In addition, if you choose the right secured card, you can get a lower interest rate because, after all, you're putting up cash as collateral. You have to shop around, though: Most secured cards offered by banks have interest rates as high as unsecured cards, which is ridiculous in my opinion.

Finally, with the right institution, you'll get interest on your deposit, which won't exactly be big bucks, but it's something.

I'm just sharing what worked for me, which may not be what's best for you. But it does seem to me that if you're going to carry a high enough balance on a debit card to use it for travel, then you might as well put that cash in a secured credit card and start rebuilding credit while you're at it. But you know your situation best; so good luck with your job and with whatever option you choose.

-Richard