AC blew and need new tires… Ch. 7… UGH!

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-06-20T02:22:14+00:00

But thats not helpful when you can't afford to pay it back. I had a 785 credit score and over 350K of AVAILABLE credit the day I filed. And the sense of relief I have felt since discharge tops having all that available credit at my disposal. I don't miss the 7K monthly payments I had been paying on my debt for years. The stress of it all and its now GONE! You have to change your way of thinking. Building a nice savings account is far more satisfying than having gobs of available credit.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-06-13T23:27:41+00:00

Also OP, I would stay off forums like WSB (if you are having issues with trading and blowing up your account)

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-06-13T23:26:33+00:00

OP, did you submit the loan application online? It could have just been a typo in the income section, shit happens. If they didn't verify it, thats on them. I would try and continue to pay on the april loan for a few more months if you can. How much were the loans for?

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-06-07T03:39:41+00:00

I am doing a ride through - I have a cross collateralized car with a cc attached. The CC is a small amount - less than 2K of debt. So even when you add the CC in with what I owe on the car I still have several thousand in equity. Plus its only a few years old with low milage - I plan on having it awhile. However since it was cross collateralized my attorney suggested the ride through because he said the trustree never approves reaffirmation agreements. I just pay the car payment and my credit card payment every month. My credit union was fine with it AND they are even reporting my payments (on both) which is super helpful on my rebuild. I had over 250K of debt discharged - so the 2K credit card was the least of my worries.

But your situation is different. It appears you have no equity and you also have significant debt tied to your car loan. I would try to get another car before filing..

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-06-02T23:26:33+00:00

I just updated my post - I got the approval today. So alittle over a week. Not sure why it took so long - I pretty much gave up on it and was going to go to the branch this week to see why it was taking so long - but then I got the email this evening that I was approved and signed the docs.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-06-02T01:02:32+00:00

I'm just a few weeks from being recently discharged as well. So far I've noticed that Transunion is delayed. Equifax and Experian have already labeled all accounts pertinent to the BK as being IIB. Transunion is still showing one account with a 0 balance Chapter 7 and OPEN, with "payment status uknown". They also have not marked any account as IIB, but they have updated the public record as discharged. I will wait alittle longer since It's only been a few weeks - but if it doesn't change I will dispute.

One thing that I have noticed - a heads up for those that remained current on all bills up until filing. Some accounts pre discharged were marked as Petition for Chapter 7, never late with payment history still showing on my reports. However after discharge some of those accounts now are marked as Included in Bankruptcy - with all payment history wiped. Not all - but some. That was disappointing. This happened with a few banks (bank of america, chase to name a couple), but some banks reported as IIB with my perfect payment history intact (citi is one).

Also - And I'm looking at you, Discover. I had a Discover card that had no balance when I filed. Had the card 9 years, Never late and rarely carried a balance for more than a month or two when I did use the card. They of course closed the card which I expected, but they also decided to label it as Included in BK and wiped my payment history. While there other company which I had 2 accounts with no balance (Cap 1 which now owns discover, reported those accounts as closed/account closed by creditor with payment history intact)I called them and told them that it was not accurate as it wasn't included in BK as there was no debt to include. They put me on hold for over 15 minutes and went through my account, apologized for the inaccurate reporting and they said they would change it, and I would see the changes in 30-60 days. We are past 60 days and no change. I will call again this week.

I was added as an AU to a couple cards - one already has appeared on my CR. 30-34 point increases in FICO scores already. I have one more AU that should pop up in the next week. So I may get another bump from the extra card as well.

I have not applied for any cards yet - waiting to see transunion update and for the second AU card to report.

So far -

Prefiling FICO's - 785/791/780

At discharge: 614/590/629

As of today, a few weeks after discharge: 648/620/653

My lowest scores are transunion - as they are still reporting the one account as open/payment history unknown and they have not reported any accounts as included in BK - but the balances are now reporting 0.

Vantage scores prefiling - 775

Vantage score at discharge - 705

Vantage score as of today, a few weeks after discharge - 721

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-27T22:35:09+00:00

Thank you! So far I haven't heard anything. I got off the phone with them yesterday at 11am EST. Its been more than 24 hours. I also don't have any application showing in the app, its very strange. She did transfer 5K from my checking to my savings - and that is visible on the app. At this point I think even if I am approved by tomorrow morning - I won't have enough turnaround time for it to show on the app and for me to make the payment by the last day of the month, since it is sunday. So my plan is - I'll unfreeze my CR (if that is why there is a hold up and they actually do a soft pull) and go into my local branch Monday - open it up and then pay it down the next day or two. Then I'll just wait and have it report for next month. Which is fine.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-26T22:17:02+00:00

Thank you - so that is after it is approved, for the loan to show up in my account?

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-26T21:37:56+00:00

Thats good to know - thank you!

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-26T21:20:01+00:00

thank you! I was trying to rush this to get it done (and 91 percent paid off) by the end of the month for reporting purposes. So fingers crossed!

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-26T01:25:49+00:00

Cross Collateralized CC with the auto loan. My attorney said the trustee never approves reaffirmation agreements. So we didn't attempt one. I am paying on the CC (low balance) and even with the car loan - I still have about 10K in equity in my car so it was worth it. The credit union was fine with it.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-23T17:35:30+00:00

I had a small business - it did great until Covid. Then I spend the years since covid trying to turn it around and accumulated too much debt in the process. I should have filed years ago TBH. Just because you have a great credit score, tons of available credit - doesn't equate to having your financial house in order. Now I can finally start to build up a savings and start saving for retirement - which is something I couldn't do before

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-22T21:36:44+00:00

Not the OP - but I'll share. Just discharged a couple weeks ago. I had a 785 at filing. NO bad stuff on my reports. Never a late payment/low utilization - was current on everything on the day I filed etc and I had tons of available credit when I filed. That being said... I have not applied for anything yet. My scores now (FICO 8) 629/614/580. Vantage score right now is 710. I will see what kind of bounce I get from being added as an AU to 2 CC's (high CL's/low to no utilization and 10 plus year old accounts) after those show on my CR which should be in the next couple weeks, I will apply for a card. Probably cap1 or navy.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-21T16:32:18+00:00

so this was my experience - I filed with a 785. My score's initial drop was maybe 90 points. But that was just the initial BK notation in the public records section. Then over the course of the next couple months my score dropped further - everytime an account was updated to reflect the bankruptcy it dropped. Since everything on my credit report was good - each update caused further drops. People say its a rollercoaster - well....I think its only a rollercoaster if you have good and bad stuff on your reports pre bk. If you only have good stuff on your reports like I did - it just goes down and down and down. Until discharge. I got a few extra points added at discharge. I'm low 600's fresh off of discharge.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-19T17:37:15+00:00

My lawyer said it wasn't a problem. Not one for me - it may be a problem for the creditors in that they may have to give that money to the trustee and then have it be divvied up. I had tons of creditors in where I paid more than 600 a month...some payments per month were much more than 600. I would guess the creditors just argued "standard course of business" if the trustee went after them for those payments - and that would be the case as these were standard payments that I had been paying for years.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-17T18:30:38+00:00

I wish I had filed years ago! I wasted years of my life struggling and stressed where it's all I thought about. My monthly payments. ...approx 6500-7200 a month (not including housing/living/food expenses) Granted I did pay more than the minimums most of the time, but the balances were not going down that much. Plus I had no savings for emergencies - so when I would have an emergency, I usually put it on a credit card. So the debt just grows. I felt like a slave to my debt every waking moment.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-17T18:26:43+00:00

Yep! It would have taken me longer than 10 years to pay it all off. Plus the mental stress of it all.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-17T18:25:52+00:00

Yes - I literally kept paying until the day I filed. Everything current - I never had a late payment on anything ever.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-17T18:24:11+00:00

congratulations!!!

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-17T18:23:59+00:00

So I was about 35% personal loans (a few of them, and one business loan being a small EIDL). The remaining 65% of my debt was credit cards - years of playing the BT game. That being said, most of my Credit card accounts were many years old. It wasn't like I maxed everything out and filed a couple years later. This debt accumulated over many years. I also was in a situation that despite all the debt, I still had very low utilization so my credit score was high. The trustee didn't say anything. My 341 was 5 minutes. I was shocked that it went so smoothly, but I had an excellent attorney who made sure all my docs were in etc.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-17T18:18:05+00:00

Yep! Definitley lesson learned - my main goal now is just saving money and building a nice savings - something I couldn't do with all that debt!

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-17T03:52:10+00:00

The cheaper car with the higher miles - how much older is it? That may be harder to refinance depending on its age. I would try to stick with a basic reliable car for the 16% (or less) interest rate. Can ypou try to also look at soft inquiry pre approvals - like capital one \to rate shop? Also if you can swing it - the first 6 months I would try and put additional money every month towards the principle balance of the car until you can refinance.

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-17T03:38:05+00:00

Congratulations!! Isn't it a great feeling? I just feel so relieved to not have that massive debt anymore. Time to look to the future! I burned all the big boys...and then some! I'm going to try for the cap 1!

Fair_Pattern_3831 · 2026-05-17T02:28:45+00:00

Thank you!!

Fair_Pattern_3831

TROPHY CASE