Discharged. Please offer ways to start cleaning up credit

[CoachK]

Now that I am discharged, I would like to start making my credit score better. Can you please offer some ideas for this. Is there a certain service, etc. that are beneficial? Please share your thoughts.

[brokentex]

Get a secured credit card and use it for monthly expenses but always pay it off each month in full.

[thelitman]

Unsecured Credit Cards

I think the true way to re-build a credit card would be through an unsecured credit card. Why tie up your money. There are a couple of cards that you can get even with BK, those cards are

Orchard Bank---- good card, but pay yearly fee, can be high APR at 16% but you get a grace period, so if you pay it off in full at end of month which is what you should then you have nothing to worry about.

Aspire Card--- Ok card, HIGH HIGH anual fee's, but report every month and on time to credit agency, and have credit limit increase frequently.

Discover Card from Purpose Advantage---- One of my favorite cards, that not many people know about... No APR, you only get a $50 credit limit, but garunteed approval, reason there is 0% APR, is that is because they charge you $2.00 for every transaction you make, and they force you to pay it off at the end of the month. Every 2 months you make ontime payment your credit limit increase. Now the $2 charge a transaction can be alot unless you use this card to get things like gas, buy $40 in gass 1 month on it, and at the end of the month you pay the $42. Not bad, and WILL HELP CREDIT IMPROVE ALOT! anyone interested in applying go to http://www.thepurposeadvantagecard.com/

Hope this helps

[SinkingFast]

Start out by checking your Credit Reports. Get copies from all 3 CRA's. Go over them thoroughly and check for errors. Address and correct any errors you find to get those cleaned up.

Go to the Creditor first. Write a letter explaining the error you found and ask them to correct it. Accurate reporting is the responsibility of the Creditor. If the Creditor doesn't, then dispute the reporting to the CRAs. Just tell the CRA's that the info is not correct. The CRA's will investigate with the Creditors.

As an absolute last resort, you may have to submit copies of your Discharge papers to the CRA's to get issues resolved. But only as a last resort. Don't give the CRA's your BK paperwork if you don't have to. And you shouldn't have to if the Creditors will do their job. Report correctly.

Cleaning up your Credit Reports is the first step, and usually very important in reestablishing yourself in the world of credit.

Then as others have suggested, start small. With a clean Credit Report, and a good payment history, other offers will come along. It will just take a bit of time.