Are you seeking debt relief and have questions about how long bankruptcy stays on credit reports? Watch this video by our Jamestown Bankruptcy Attorney Scott Humble to learn more about your credit report after bankruptcy.
I was having a conversation with a client the other day and they were concerned about their credit. They wanted to know how long bankruptcy stays on credit reports. This is a tricky question. In the old days, it was a big deal because it stays on your credit report it says not ten years but up to ten years. I don’t know what they mean by that but that’s what it says. Keep in mind that any of your late payments, your judgments, whatever the case, basically bad stuff that is on your financial history is going to stay on your credit report for seven years, so there’s now a big difference.
When the banks and the credit card people learned in early 2000s that over a million people were filing for bankruptcy a year, and they considered how many of those people were potential customers that they were going to lose over a ten year period. That’s ten million people, over ten million people that they were going to go and discriminate against and not give credit to for ten years. They’re a little bit greedy so they decided that they weren’t going to discriminate against people like that anymore, and they were going to go and give you credit in the future, and actually quite near future.
After one year of discharge on a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13, your credit score is going to go up approximately 100 points, if it’s down because of problems. You’re going to be able to go and get credit cards in the near future, in less than a year. I would start off with the easy ones like your gasoline cards, Sears or something like that and then work up to a MasterCard, Visa or whatever.
Then there’s the vehicle, and it’s really pretty easy now to go and get a vehicle loan after you’ve filed a bankruptcy, for a couple of different reasons. I think number one is that the vehicle loans are going five maybe six years; you can’t file another Chapter 7 bankruptcy for eight. They know that you’ve got to have a vehicle to go back and forth to work and take care of your family, so they consider that you’re going to go and have a five-year term of making payments and you can’t follow Chapter 7 for another eight years, so it’s a pretty good risk. Also, you’ve worked out all that unsecured debt so they don’t have to worry about your paying down instead of your vehicle. That’s why they approve those pretty easily.
Mortgages, however, I’ve talked to the banks, the local banks, which I recommend or the credit unions, and they were looking at somewhere between two and a half and three years to be considered for a mortgage. Actually, after bankruptcy the future is pretty bright.
If you or someone you love is seeking debt relief and has questions about their credit report after bankruptcy, contact us today to arrange a free confidential consultation with dedicated Jamestown bankruptcy lawyer Scott F. Humble. Let his 30+ years of experience work for you.
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