The First Steps After Georgia Bankruptcy

You successfully filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and you’re ready to save, save, save, avoiding the mistakes which led up to the bankruptcy. Some are ready to spend, spend, spend, learning nothing from bankruptcy. It’s better to be the saver, of course, and good to learn from the experience.

We often get asked, “What do I do after a successful bankruptcy?” Thousands in Georgia are discharged of millions in debt every single year. If you’re one of them, it’s time to start taking steps to avoid filing ever again. This blog guide can help.

Pay Bills Early, Always Pay On-Time
Paying bills early may seem obvious. But many go right back into the old mode of paying bills by credit card the day it’s due, if not forgetting about the bills entirely until problems result. This is quite common, nothing to be ashamed of, but certainly something you want to avoid. Bankruptcy experts always say you should pay bills early after filing. Pay them early as much as possible. If you are running behind one month, it’s okay to pay on-time. However, don’t get in the habit of just paying on-time; pay early to save yourself the headache and start rebuilding your credit.

Going to The Wrong Money Lenders
There are some horror stories of people getting into debt after losing a job. They had been getting advances from loan companies just to pay the bills on time. Then they got fired, couldn’t pay the advance financially company, and got stuck in a debt with a horrible interest rate. Avoid money lending companies for check cashing and advances. They are the worst way to get money.

Avoid Co-Signers
You may think you can easily get a loan or new account by having a co-signer. A mother helping her son, a father for his daughter, a sister for her brother. However, it’s best to protect your friends and family. You do not want to have them owing thousands because you can’t make a payment. It may sound odd, but you want to be the only one affected. Therefore, co-signers after a bankruptcy is a bad idea.

Getting Credit and Loans
After filing bankruptcy, it may be difficult to find a good lender. You will be told no on many applications and in meetings. However, these men and women are just doing their jobs. You can always get new credit lines and loans. How? Simple, ask the lender who might take you on. Don’t just take the refusal and go to the next company on the list. One financial expert points out you should ask open ended questions. You ask the lender, “what would you do?” Or, “who might finance me?” They often enough have some ideas. There are always options.

Rebuilding Your Credit
A checking and saving account are the first steps in rebuilding your credit. You should also consider getting a secured credit card. You pay upfront on these, and the more you pay the more your limit is. You might pay $1,000 and get a balance of $1,000, though you pay that balance outside the initial payment. You do not lose this money; you can get it back easily. You should also consider opening up some store credit cards, though remember to only buy needs, not wants.

There are many other ways to rebuild your credit, get loans, and protect your finances after a bankruptcy. Keep reading Georgia Debt Law for tips before, during, and after bankruptcy.

Filed under: Bankruptcy Information — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — jmalewitz @ 2:36 pm

Credit History, Budgets, And Rebuilding After Bankruptcy

You filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and discharged debts. Or you filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy with the intention of saving your home and assets from foreclosure. Of course, there are many ways to look at these steps, both positive and negative. Your credit history will suffer. You will have trouble getting loans. However, you can rebuild your credit report, get a secured credit card to do so, budget so you can later get loans, and quite often start fresh. This blog guide shows you how.

Reasons to File Chapter 7
The most common reasons to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy are because of credit card and medical debt. Filing can discharge thousands if not tens of thousands of monies owed which you simply cannot afford. Chapter 7 helps give you a fresh start in a matter of months.

Reasons to File Chapter 13
Chapter 13 bankruptcy is very different than Chapter 7, and less common. However, by filing you can maintain your major assets, such as home and car. If you have debts which cannot be discharged in Chapter 7, you can pay on them in manageable amounts with Chapter 13.

Rebuilding Credit History
One of the best ways to rebuild your credit after bankruptcy is by getting a secured credit card. This can prove to creditors that you can maintain credit. It will also improve your credit just like paying on a regular credit card. How do secured credit cards work? You can choose the amount you want the credit to be, and pay it directly to the bank in order to get it. If you paid $1,000, you’d get a $1,000 credit line. This may sound pointless, but you get to keep the money, and then use the card and pay on it as you would a normal credit card.

Budget After Bankruptcy
If you want to avoid filing bankruptcy again, it’s time to start budgeting. This means looking over both income and expenses. If you’ve been spending more than you’re making, for example, you can see clearly where you need to tighten up. You may opt to buy the lower priced car, less items you really don’t need, eat out less, and only charge with a secured credit card with the goal of buying once your credit is better.

Save Money
You should also look for other ways to save money. A penny saved is a penny earned, and though that’s a cliché it’s true. The best way to stop a future bankruptcy is to keep money in your account, not spending it all your paycheck. Many file Chapter 7 bankruptcy because of a loss of job. If you prepare for losing a job by keeping several months to half a year in income saved, you can avoid future trouble. Yes, saving six months of salary may seem impossible, but it’s the best safety net you have. And it’s a goal worth having.

Life After
This may all sound like leading a money-tight life. You can’t buy items beyond your means, you only use money you have, you budget, you save months in salary, and so on. However, if you look to the reasons you had to file bankruptcy, you can make plans to avoid it ever happening again. And there’s good news: you can soon enough buy the more expensive car, the better home, the more expensive entertainment items. These are good goals to have.

Filed under: Bankruptcy Information — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — jmalewitz @ 12:52 pm

6 Tips for Atlanta Residents to Improve Credit Report Scores

What is a credit report? A credit report shows your financial history, as created by credit bureaus. If you’ve ever fallen into debt, filed bankruptcy,and/or lost your home in foreclosure, your credit report may look like a battlefield. No worries–you can improve it. And this guide shows you precisely how to do that.

1- Get Your Credit Report
How do you get your credit report? Simple. You can get it by going to the three major credit bureaus, who have websites at Equifax.com, Experian.com, and Transunion.com. This is where your credit score is created. You can expect your scores to reflect: your payment history, how much you owe, length of your credit history, types of credit used, and your new credit.

2-Improve Your Payment History
You can improve your credit score in a variety of ways. No matter how bad you think it is, there is always a solution to improving credit scores and rebuilding your life after bankruptcy, home foreclosure, or job loss. To improve your credit report, improve your payment history. This means paying bills on time, getting current on past due bills, contacting creditors if you think you’ll not be able to pay a bill on time, and if you run into trouble working with a non profit credit  counselor (be thorough in researching them and making sure they’re legit).

3-Avoid Debts
One major problem people in debt face is high credit card balances. You want to keep these low. Why? They lower your scores, so keep them low and you can improve your score. Next, you want to avoid moving debt around; just pay it off. The more open  balances you have the lower your score gets.

You just have to be logical when it comes to debts. Here again there is professional help, just as there is for home owners facing foreclosure or bankruptcy.

4-Time and Credit History
Time is on your side if you follow these tips, but it’s something you obviously cannot “rush.” However, what you can do is not opening multiple accounts in a short period. If you have little credit history, this could hurt you.

5-Managing Credit
There are many other ways your credit score can do now that you may be unaware of, such as searching for a single loan. If you search for a single loan, perhaps for a home, multiple queries can surprisingly hurt your credit score. Also, if you make many credit queries in quickly, that can sometimes lower your credit score. If you have to do either, do them in as short a window as possible.

6-Improve Credit, Avoid Debt, Delay Problems
There are many other ways you can improve your credit, but if you run into problems with debt on a regular basis, or if you are simply out of reach of paying back all your debt, you may want to consult with non-profit counselor. If things look bad, perhaps you fear a home foreclosure, you could contact a bankruptcy lawyer and see your options. Chapter 13 bankruptcy can be advantageous, including delaying any foreclosures for years. Chapter 7 bankruptcy can eliminate credit card debt. If you do want bankruptcy and a fresh start, hire a good bankruptcy lawyer, and when you’re done, work on rebuilding your credit with the above tips.

Filed under: Bankruptcy Information — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — jmalewitz @ 12:22 pm


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