@BKelly96 wrote:Hi All,
Long time reader of the community and just today 3/23/24 got notice from my attorney that at 2:30 pm yesterday he received the Discharge of my debts from the Judge, as earlier this week the Trustee signed off. I've read different processes of people waiting months to establish new lines of credit, etc. I filed 11/30/2018, so just over 18 months to go before it completely falls off my report. I do get some solicitation for the Apple Card or the Capital One entry card. However not approved yet due to no discharge. Only banks burned in Ch 13 were Citi, BoA & Capital One but low limit cards that were all secured cards.
Currently I have Ally Everyday Cashback Card with a $2,300 limit unsecured, OpenSky Gold Card $700 unsecured, Credit One Platinum $1,500 unsecured, Credit One Amex $750 unsecured, Amazon Store Card $800, Target Red Card $900. With approval I was able to get these cards during my 5 years.
My Equifax Fico is 664, CreditKarma TransUnioni 617, CreditKarma Equifax 665, Experian website 636, Equifax website 665.
Do you recommend I close some of the subprime cards before applying or should I wait till I land a few new cards before closing out the old ones? Do you typically see a bump in your score when the dischage hits your credit reports? Or is that only when the full 7 years has eclipsed?
My attorney is enrolling me as part of his service the 720 credit score program in about a month, is there anything else I should do?
Thanks again!!
Lots to unpack here; my thoughts in no particular order:
- Congratulations on your Chapter 13 discharge; been there, done that, got the freakin' tee-shirt. It is a rough haul.
- Ignore all credit scores from CreditKarma, TransUnion, Equifax, and any other site which provides you with a Vantage credit score, such scores are ignored by underwriters and are irrelevant.
- In your shoes I would close any credit cards with an annual fee; you don't need them.
- I would also be inclined to close the OpenSky and CreditOne Platinum cards; they are bottom feeders and you no longer need them either.
- One thing I attribute to my relatively rapid rebuild after my discharge (I wasn't allowed to have even a secured card during my Chapter 13), was starting out with a secured card with a $5,000 limit; with absolutely no hard data to back this up, my gut tells me I was able to obtain some pretty decent cards fairly early on due to that single card. I told you that to tell you this; consider opening up a high(ish) limit secured card and nothing else until your Chapter 13 falls off of your reports.
- Once your reports are clean, you should either be under Chase's 5/24 rule, or very near to that point, and then I'd recommend you apply to Chase for the card of theirs which fits your spending patterns the best.
- Once you have a Chase card open, then I'd be looking to AMEX next.
Good luck and keep us posted.
@BKelly96 wrote:Appreciate the response! Took a few steps as you've outlined below. Going in tomorrow as i'm conditionally approved for the TD Secured Card, just need to meet with a local banker.
- Closed the OpenSky Credit Card, Amazon Store Card & CreditOne Cards
- Approved for US Bank Cash+ $500 SL
- Approved for Capital One Quicksilver $1000 SL
Going to run with the Ally, US Bank, Capital One & TD cards and let them grow.
I'll take any further advice as I keep providing updates. Thanks!
I started with a secured TD Cash card after my Chapter 13 discharge, I plunked down the 5-grand into a locked savings account, had direct deposit set up into my checking account, and almost six-months to the day from when it arrived in the mail, my card graduated to an unsecured Signature Visa. The graduation took place in January of 2021 and it has since grown to $11,500.
Long story short, TD Bank has been very good to me. 