Under Credit After Bankruptcy+ Life After Bankruptcy
What do you do now that it’s all over? There’s an anticlimactic feeling to being done discharging your debts. It’s supposed to be all over, you’re supposed to be free, but how to live after bankruptcy? What do you do now to move on and get your life going again? There are a number of things you can do to move forward.
The first thing to start working on is letting go of your feelings about everything and coming to terms with all that has happened. Often, there was some big event (like a divorce, medical issue, natural disaster, etc) that happened before you wound up in your bad financial situation and then had to go through the process of discharging your debts. This hasn’t given you much time to deal with your emotions. If you are feeling guilty, ashamed, or embarrassed it can keep you feeling scared to make any financial moves. If you’re too scared to do anything financial you’ll never rebuild your credit and be free of all of this.
The next thing to do is start setting up an emergency fund. Set up an initial one of about fifteen hundred dollars so that if anything comes up (flat tire, broken water heater, emergency vet bill) you don’t need to do something like charge up a credit card or get a loan—otherwise known as go into debt. Whenever you have to borrow from this fund, replenish it.
Whenever you have to apply for anything there is one good rule that’s good enough to repeat: shop around, shop around, shop around. Always shop around and read through the terms and conditions anything so that you thoroughly understand anything you are signing up for. A lot of companies that are willing to work with people who have risky credit histories hide large fees in the terms and conditions. This goes for pretty much anything from loans, cards, insurance, and rentals (cars or apartments).
Always have money ready to go for deposits. There is usually a large deposit or collateral associated with any new accounts you open in your life after bankruptcy.
Use some of that deposit money to get secured cards and loans to rebuild your credit. You should work on building up your credit as soon as possible. In the first two years it is important to build a plan and do what you can so that in the years following things will be easier for you. In just a few years you can have an acceptable rating and be able to do things more easily—it doesn’t have to be until your bankruptcy falls off that things get easier for you.
Check your credit report often. This is something everyone should do really, but it’s more important when you have a bad rating and are working on improving your situation. A month or so after things are settled make sure that things were actually marked as included in bankruptcy and not late—and if they’re not marked correctly call companies and keep on them until they do it.
Just because things have changed doesn’t mean you can hide. Adjust, figure out how to live after bankruptcy, and get on with your life.
By Jennifer
Under Credit After Bankruptcy+ Life After Bankruptcy+ Mortgage After Bankruptcy
In order to get your credit problems behind you quickly and move forward with your life build a thorough two year after bankruptcy plan. With a thorough plan you can move forward much sooner than before it actually falls off your credit report. Rebuilding your credit is going to take a lot of persistence, but as long as you stay on top of it, you can make some big improvements with some simple credit building tips.
The first thing you need to do, about a month after you’ve finally discharged your debts, is get a copy of your credit report. You need to make sure that all of your past debts have been marked as “included in bankruptcy” and not open, late, etc. This is very important. Many companies will fail to fix this because they have no real motivation to take care of it, but with it still on there it looks as though you had a bankruptcy AND still more debt. You need to call the companies and if they are not on top of things you need to ask to speak to managers, send a written request, and possibly just keep calling until it’s done. This is unpleasant, but very important.
Put together an emergency savings account with at least $1,500, and keep it replenished over time. This will keep you out of trouble when life’s unexpected problems come up, especially because of how hard it will be for you to get any kind of outside financing now.
Once you have the funds to do so, get a secured credit card. You can get these at most financial institutions. This will take some money, as you have to put some funds into a savings account that you can’t touch for between 12 to 18 months, but is a wise financial move that will really get the ball rolling for your two year after bankruptcy plan. This is one of the fastest, easiest, best things you’ll do to improve your credit.
Eventually, possibly a year later, get a small loan. It will be easiest to get a secured one, but you’ll have to go with what you’re able to do. It doesn’t really matter what it’s for (school, a car, etc) just that you’ve gotten a small amount of financing and pay it back with all of your payments on time. If you have a difficult time doing this, look into CD secured loans–this will require you to have some money available to buy a CD (certificate of deposit) but when all else fails, this is an easy option for getting loan approval.
During all of this keep an eye on your credit report and always keep working on building up a history of healthy financial accounts. The more on time payments, the more healthy activity over time, the higher your score will be and more willing people will be to work with you. In as little as two years after bankruptcy, with a good plan, you can have a good score and have an easier time financially.
By Jennifer
Under Credit After Bankruptcy+ Life After Bankruptcy
As with everything else involving your finances, renting after bankruptcy is going to be very different than it was before.
The first thing that you need to be aware of is that you are most definitely going to have to pay a very large deposit. You will probably be asked to pay enough to cover last months rent plus an additional security deposit amount. You’ll want to know this ahead of time so you can make sure you have that much saved. This money should be refundable at the time you move out. Despite this large deposit, you are still going to have a hard time finding a rental, particularly depending on how recent your bankruptcy was. The more recent your discharges, the harder it will be. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible though (even though that’s sometimes how it will feel).
The problem is that most big companies will have policies that are going to rule you out, and they aren’t going to be willing to consider going around them. They simply aren’t interested in working with you. To get around this, you want to look elsewhere–look for an individual renting out their property who is going to be okay renting after bankruptcy. Be up front with this person from the get go so that you don’t waste your time or theirs. Tell them you have a bankruptcy in your past. If you have a good rental history (clear of evictions) tell them that. If you can, get some letters of reference from past landlords. You probably won’t be accepted at every individual landlord (and they are getting harder to find these days) but eventually someone should look at your situation and be willing to work with you.
To find individual landlords, look both online on websites like craigslist and your online local newspapers classifieds. Also look in print on your local newspapers classifieds, as often these ads are different. A lot of individual owned rentals are run by people who do things the old fashioned way, so print papers are a good resource. You can also drive around your town and look for some “for rent” signs yourself. Another way to find a place is to ask around, ask your friends, post on your social networks–these people may have rented from a great guy before and be able to send a lead your way, and you could then use your friend as a possible reference to get in the door with your prospective landlord.
As with all experiences after bankruptcy, keep in mind that the more you do to improve your credit in the years following the discharge, the easier renting will become for you.
By Jennifer
Under Life After Bankruptcy
Your life after bankruptcy is going to be different than your life before. What it’s going to be like is entirely dependent on how you handle it, though. You can become one of those people who lets the shame of the whole experience overcome them and try and hide away for the rest of your life, or move forward, fight, and work on rebuilding.
The first thing to really understand is that your life is that while bankruptcy is just a mark on your credit report, it’s going to have an effect on your life that is much bigger than that. This won’t just be coming up when you go to apply for loans or credit cards, this is going to come up on a much more regular basis than that. When you go to apply for any kind of insurance, when you go to apply for a nice job, when you go to rent a car or an apartment or anything else this will come up, and you will have to deal with the stigma that the word has around it. Accepting now that these things will be difficult, and going forward knowing that, will make things a lot easier for you.
This isn’t just going to affect your finances, it’s going to take a toll on you emotionally as well. It’s the emotional part that really stops people from moving on–both emotionally and financially. If you’re too scared and ashamed to do anything, your life will simply stop. To move forward and really have a life after bankruptcy you need to build a plan to get your credit back on track and implement it. Once you start making some moves, you’ll become more confident and get the hang of what you’re doing.
While this isn’t going to come off your credit report for many years, you can have a decent score again in as little as two years with a lot of careful financial planning. Look at financial things you CAN do easily to get things started. There are financial products out there built just for people in your situation, because there are so many other people who are. Look at joining a support group to help you with tips, and to just meet some people who are going through the same things. To get started, look into secured credit cards, secured loans, and save up money for financial emergencies, because things come up.
Your life after bankruptcy will be different. It will take longer to make things happen, you’ll have to fight harder, and things in general will have to be more calculated–more thoroughly planned. The key to moving forward is to not let this get you down and give up, stay active and move forward.
By Jennifer
Under Credit After Bankruptcy+ Life After Bankruptcy
If you’ve started looking at your life after bankruptcy you’ve probably noticed a ton of people saying you should get secured credit cards, but why? And how? It’s actually really important that you understand how all of this works if you’re going to make it work for you.
In your new life you are free of your old debts and this should be a new start for you. The big downside however being your credit report. That big black mark on it is making it difficult for you to do much of anything. When you have a bad rating it can really put a hold on your whole life, and that’s no way to live. But that mark won’t come off of your report for ten years, so there’s nothing to do about it, right? While it’s true that it won’t be coming off anytime soon, you can still have an improved rating in as little as two to three years with a lot of hard work and planning. The older your discharge is, and the more positive history you’ve built up on top of it, the less heavily that is going to weigh down your rating.
So how do secured credit cards after bankruptcy come into play? They help you build up a positive payment history on a new account. In order to improve your score you’re going to need to build up a lot of positive payment history, and this is just one big step in that direction, and something you can do easily even with your history. What are these accounts, exactly? Well, first of all, security means collateral. In the beginning of your new life it’s going to be difficult to get any companies to work with you. It’s a lot easier to get approval on new accounts if you have some kind of collateral, however. So, while getting the unsecured cards of your past would be very difficult if not impossible, this is a way for you to get back into the game.
Now, how exactly do you get a secured credit card after bankruptcy? Well, you can get these types of cards from your bank. You’ll need at least a few hundred dollars to put into a savings account, which will work as the collateral and also set your limit on the card. Then you use the card like you would an unsecured one, which, for good credit building practices, would be using under thirty percent of the limit and paying off your balance at the end of every month. When you sign up for the card, make sure that they report to the three major bureau or you’re not doing yourself any good. Also, the card should have the option of switching to an unsecured account after twelve to eighteen months assuming that you have made all your payments on time and are in good standing.
The accounts themselves are very straightforward and the reason for getting a secured credit after bankruptcy is pretty straight forward as well. It’s just about moving on with your life, rebuilding, and not letting any of your past issues rule your present.
By Jennifer