FINALLY! Discharged! Impact on FICO?

[chinup]

Well, after 5 years of payments, most on time ;) , I noticed a status change last night on both my Attorneys site and Pacer to discharged. Yeah! I also noticed on CreditKarma this morning the comment 'Bankruptcy Completed' was added to a few of my accounts though no impact on my score yet. The official discharge isn't noted yet on my credit report. Curious, what if any increase can I expect from my report updating to Chapter 13 discharge? I realize my big bump will come in 1.5 years when it drops off my report all together.

FYI, my experience: Los Angeles County, while my Trustee was decent, and from what read apparently lenient compared to others, my attorney was not, as my initial quote of $3000 went to $7000 after 2 years into it and every call to them was a money request for more. They are a BK Mill. The court took a while to discharge. My last payment was in June, and discharge just yesterday. I only provided tax refunds in excess of $1500 last year, they never requested it prior. I also paid using money orders the entire 60 months. I tried twice to get on an automatic deduction but the trustee never followed through with it. I also got behind on my mortgage midway and had to rewrite the loan to get caught up. So I did have a few bumps, much my fault, but made it through. While a no-no I did start to reestablish my credit early on so my FICO hovers around 660-670.

Of course, I got laid-off last week also! Though with a great severance money is not an issue at this time. Life and it's bumps in the road.

[sophieanne]

Congratulations..what a wonderful time! My credit score went up about 60 points once the discharge was reported (not too long after discharge). Give it a bit of time and hopefully you'll see a change. Enjoy your new debt-free life!!!

[justbroke]

Congratulations!

Chapter 13s do come with their own bumps in the road, but you weathered through them all. I'm sure others will like to know how much of a bump you get with your credit score after the discharge. That will be interesting itself. I wonder if you'll be the first person that I know to exit a Chapter 13 with a 700+ credit score. That would be sweet!

[chinup]

Well, I checked both Experian and Equifax, both state discharged, Bankruptcy 13, both, no change in credit score. Zilch. Disappointing. Now I have to track down a creditor for my vehicle as I still do not have the title. My attorney said to call them. My attorney also said I need to get a stamped copy of the discharge, go to the court, and file it to remove my 2nd. Does that sound correct? What do I tell them, here is my discharge, remove it? Or it the paperwork I need specific for the 2nd lien? Thank you

[justbroke]

In some jurisdictions, you take an "official" ("stamped") copy of your discharge order (and you may even need a copy of the order granting the lien trip) and file it with your Town/City/County's recorder of deeds (or Official Records) to have the 2nd lien satisfied. It may be more complex depending on your town/city/county and how they record lien (mortgage) satisfactions. You may want to call the office of the recorder of deeds for your town/city/county.

I don't know how easy of difficult it would be in California.

[chinup]

In some jurisdictions, you take an "official" ("stamped") copy of your discharge order (and you may even need a copy of the order granting the lien trip) and file it with your Town/City/County's recorder of deeds (or Official Records) to have the 2nd lien satisfied. It may be more complex depending on your town/city/county and how they record lien (mortgage) satisfactions. You may want to call the office of the recorder of deeds for your town/city/county.

I don't know how easy of difficult it would be in California.

Thanks, I sent my attorney a follow-up email requesting clarification on the lien strip process. Hopefully they will respond within a few days.