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