Hello. This is Roger Ghai. I wanted to talk today a little bit about some of the options that you can do in order to rebuild your credit after filing a bankruptcy case. If you file a chapter seven bankruptcy case, that information, that is the fact of your filing, is going to remain on your credit report for a total of 10 years. If you file a chapter 13 bankruptcy case, the fact of your filing that type of a bankruptcy case will remain on your credit report for a total of seven years. Now, all of that information, the fact that that information that you filed is going to remain on your credit reports, does that mean that you’re forever tarnished from being able to buy certain items in your life?
No. What’s going to happen is that usually if you pay your bills on time after you filed the bankruptcy case, especially like a chapter seven bankruptcy case, you can, in most instances, so long as you’re employed, qualify for a mortgage within about two years of the filing of your bankruptcy case. Sometimes it’s a lot sooner.
In addition, a lot of times the credit card companies are going to go ahead and start to solicit you all over again from the credit card offers and things of that nature. Car companies are going to go ahead and want to have you take out a car loan for car loans.
Some of the things that you can do post-bankruptcy, post-chapter seven, and get your credit score up there very quickly would be, number one, make sure that you pay all of your bills on time after you’re out of the bankruptcy. The second thing that you can do is to go ahead and maybe get a secured credit card. That’s another thing that can do to rebuild your credit after you get out of the bankruptcy. Make sure that you pay your just fundamental, necessary living expenses on a timely basis. Examples of those would be, for example, your light bill, your gas bill, all of those sorts of things. Make sure that you pay those on time. Over time, if you can get it, like I said before, a secured credit card and work toward steady employment, consistent employment, then you should be able to rebuild your credit and go on with your financial life, even though all of that information will remain on the credit report for approximately between seven and 10 years after you file the case.
If you have any questions or need any tips on rebuilding your credit after you filed for chapter seven, please call my office at (770) 792-1000. Thanks.