Credit Score

[Exinobel102]

Just filed on 07/22/09

I just filed on 07/22/09 and my score actually bumped up 47 point. It was a 553 prior to filing now a 600 even. Don't know how but I guess I'll leave it up to the brilliant minds at Fair Isaac's. Im a little curious as to what my score will do at discharge.

[Amy26]

Credit is so stupid... you have to have credit to get credit... inquiring on your credit is bad...having too little credit is bad and having too much credit is bad...

The only thing I liked about living in Denmark was their method. There was NO credit. You went to your bank for everything... they looked at your budget...if you can afford it, they give you a loan... they work closely with you. If one month things are tight and you need to go negative...they let you go negative...no fees... they handle all your bills. You have a budget account and the bank actually pays all your bills for you when they are due. It was so nice... only thing I liked there.

[RainMoM]

But pay cash for it...

That's the only way i can.. No more credit cards for me..

[IBroke]

If your score is already that low, then of course it will not drop 100-200 pts.

350 is the lowest a score can be other than 0. if you have a legit credit file you cannot have a 0.

When you scores are that bad it is probably because you have multiple accounts showing that they are presently past due. Once these account fall into the discharged under bankruptcy category they no long hit your score as past due. This is a good reason the one posters score may have actually went up after filing.

My scores are currently that low because I recently discovered that a few collection-agencies "decided" to list their claim against me as open installment accounts (Factoring Account). One of them is LVNV Funding. As a remark, they report "collection account" but still report as a regular creditor.

The bad thing about this reporting is that the FICO-systems reads those accounts as CURRENTLY past due (since they are reported "open") and not as closed 2 1/2 years ago - which they actually were. The negative impact is renewed every month and does NOT age off - which stinks and is a clear FCRA-violation. I have to get that fixed. I can only urge you to check your credit-reports for these accounts. If you see a collection-company reporting like that, your losing points.

[IBroke]

All this talk of credit score's makes me want to go out and buy myself an ice cream.. Can't get a beer, I gotta drive home

But pay cash for it...

[RainMoM]

All this talk of credit score's makes me want to go out and buy myself an ice cream.. Can't get a beer, I gotta drive home

[Chuck]

If your score is already that low, then of course it will not drop 100-200 pts.

350 is the lowest a score can be other than 0. if you have a legit credit file you cannot have a 0.

When you scores are that bad it is probably because you have multiple accounts showing that they are presently past due. Once these account fall into the discharged under bankruptcy category they no long hit your score as past due. This is a good reason the one posters score may have actually went up after filing.

[backtoschool]

That's correct. People with a BK on file are considered to be in a different "league" than those without BK.

And one side note: Unless you build up new credit after your discharge, your credit score might even go DOWN when your BK dropps OFF your credit report after 10 years because you will be back in the "tougher" league and don't have much to "compete" with..

I'm currently at 496 with TU and 536 with EQ and have many collections and charge-offs on file. My score is going up again. Slowly, but constantly.

Since I don't have a garnishable income or assets, I decided to sit it out and not to file BK. All delinquent accounts should be gone in 5 years and even if the latest judgment would be filed against me one day prior to the SOL, it wouldn't stay on file as long as a Chapter 7.

If I hadn't been going back to school I probably would not have filed chap 7 and would have done what you did. I was worried about having my checking account seized every five minutes. Two of my credit cards had gone to judgement in the last couple of months and that would have left my bank account at risk, which would have affected my financial aid, etc.....

I wanted to go back to school with a clean slate, so I filed, but I totally thought about doing what you did.

[IBroke]

The best I can figure, is that declaring bankruptcy put me in a different fico "bucket" which raised my score. Fico has buckets and the bucket for people who have negatives but no bankruptcy is different than the bankruptcy bucket. Of course I am just guessing.....

That's correct. People with a BK on file are considered to be in a different "league" than those without BK.

And one side note: Unless you build up new credit after your discharge, your credit score might even go DOWN when your BK dropps OFF your credit report after 10 years because you will be back in the "tougher" league and don't have much to "compete" with..

I'm currently at 496 with TU and 536 with EQ and have many collections and charge-offs on file. My score is going up again. Slowly, but constantly.

Since I don't have a garnishable income or assets, I decided to sit it out and not to file BK. All delinquent accounts should be gone in 5 years and even if the latest judgment would be filed against me one day prior to the SOL, it wouldn't stay on file as long as a Chapter 7.

[backtoschool]

My DH score is like 496 I was scared to even check mine and i just read a post where someone said it will drop 100-200 point after my bk
where do i go from here ??

The best I can figure, is that declaring bankruptcy put me in a different fico "bucket" which raised my score. Fico has buckets and the bucket for people who have negatives but no bankruptcy is different than the bankruptcy bucket. Of course I am just guessing....

I am not even concerned about my fico since I have no intention of obtaining new credit any time soon. At some point I will buy a house but that is some years down the road.....

This is how I feel about my scores: I worked so hard for years to clean my credit and get a good score and get a lot of credit with it. Then I lost my job and couldn't pay off that credit and now my score has tanked. What do I need the score for? Good credit scores are for obtaining new credit, and I do not want any new credit for a long while.

I will clean my reports, just as a matter of course, but will never use credit cards in any real way again.

[RainMoM]

I am post 22 and I swear I was shocked when my scores went UP 50 points! I had stopped paying on some of my credit cards almost a year ago and the rest of them six months ago, so when I filed last week my scores had gone about as far down as they were going to go. (around 500 on all 3 reports). Now my scores are all in the mid 500's as I stated on post 22. What is really weird is that my bankruptcy isn't even reporting yet on Transunion, yet my fico went UP on Transunion as well. If that is not strange I don't know what is.

From my experience, if you were already in collections on your cards then the bankruptcy is not going to lower your score that much. (and may raise it like it did to me). I would have thought that if my score was going to go up at all it would have been on discharge, not when I filed.....

My DH score is like 496 I was scared to even check mine and i just read a post where someone said it will drop 100-200 point after my bk
where do i go from here ??

[backtoschool]

Look at post #22...

I am post 22 and I swear I was shocked when my scores went UP 50 points! I had stopped paying on some of my credit cards almost a year ago and the rest of them six months ago, so when I filed last week my scores had gone about as far down as they were going to go. (around 500 on all 3 reports). Now my scores are all in the mid 500's as I stated on post 22. What is really weird is that my bankruptcy isn't even reporting yet on Transunion, yet my fico went UP on Transunion as well. If that is not strange I don't know what is.

From my experience, if you were already in collections on your cards then the bankruptcy is not going to lower your score that much. (and may raise it like it did to me). I would have thought that if my score was going to go up at all it would have been on discharge, not when I filed.....

[IBroke]

I happen to like your response, excect for the fact, when you said "a 100 to 200 point hit for a bankruptcy", hell if thats the case, then I'm down to nothing !

Look at post #22...

[killinstinct]

Yeah! Screw credit. Buy yourself a nice older Corolla or something. You'll have the title and those things run FOREVER. You'll be fine. We don't need those shiny new things...

[RainMoM]

I used to be a finance Manager at a car dealer.

Back then we loved customers with recent (within the last 2 years) bankrupcies. It was easier to get them a loan than it was people with 650 credit scores. It didn't really matter what their score was so long as it was over 520 in one of the bureaus and tey could prove their income (not self employed) take their check stubs multiply income by 15% thats the payment they could have at about 12.5% interest and they left in a car. It was very easy.

It is not like that at all anymore. Hell the reason I had to file was because the business got sooo bad I couldn't make a living. It wasn't that there were no customers, there were no customers that had 700 scores or higher. That was all the banks wanted to deal with, everyone else was usually turned down or atleast had to be in a very good LTV position.

My friends in the business say that now it is somewhere in the middle of those two scenarios. Not nearly as easy as 3 years ago, but not nearly as tough as 2 years ago.

My suggestions for rebuilding credit with purchasing a car in mind is this.

1. Pay the remaining 8 payments on your current loan perfectly.
2. Do not aquire any new credit. New accounts almost always initially lower your score.
3. Your score will take betweem 100 and 200 pt hit for a bankruptcy depending on your previous credit history. Remember that the formulas that add up to your score compound negative items. The more negative you have the more it lowers your score. Also the date of the negative items have a huge effect. If your score in January is 600, and you do not have any new negatives, no new accounts, and no increases in balances, in Feb your score will be at least 601. I know that doesn't sound like much, but each day that passes without a negative figures into the formulas that keep your score down. The longer it has been since the negative item, the less affect it has on your score.


I will shut up now. Sorry so long.

I happen to like your response, excect for the fact, when you said "a 100 to 200 point hit for a bankruptcy", hell if thats the case, then I'm down to nothing !