Re-establishing credit after Ch7...
I'm almost certain that this question has been asked here before but I
tried to Google it (like a good girl) and couldn't find the specifics
I was asking for so here goes:
I live in NC and after looking over the state laws concerning
bankruptcy and sadly, I think we are considering Ch7. We plan on
getting reaffirmation agreements for things like the car, house &
furniture and this is sort of where my question rises. The car is a 3
year lease, say we file bankruptcy and keep the car and when the lease
is up, how hard will it be for me to get another car when the time
comes? Will my good payment history with the leasing co. be at all
taken into consideration or will the fact that there is a bankruptcy
negate all of that?
Same for my house -- if in a few years we decide to sell (we may have
to move because of my husband's job) Will we be ever be able to buy
another one and if so after how long?
Okay...one more question. Which would be better, filing jointly or
separately? Almost all of the debt is in his name. I have really
good credit (so does he except for all the CC debt) and only have a
couple of small credit cards that are only in my name. My thinking is
that we could still have credit cards in may name for *necessary*
reasons only (leasing a car, emergencies etc.) ?
-Almost all loans are granted based on a credit score. Your credit
score will determine how likely or not you will be granted another
loan. You can order your credit report and credit score (two separate
items) from Equifax, TRW or Transunion for $$$. In some states
you're eligible for a free credit report each year (but your score
is not free). A perfect score is 800. So I guess whether or not
you get a loan would be determined by how badly your score is
affected by a chapter 7 and how much time afterwards you work
to rebuild it.
-You'd need to ask an attorney about this. Probably separately if you have
no debt to dispose of, but again, talk to a bankruptcy attorney. Most of
them
.-The bankruptcy exemptions typically (I am writing without checking the exact
rule for NC) allow you to have a few thousand dollars' equity in a car.
As for the credit cards, you will probably lose all your existing cards, but
you will be offered new ones. The first few offers will be fairly useless ones
where you have to pay an excessive fee and/or link the cards to a bank account.
But before long, you will get offers for conventional credit cards, albeit
with fairly low credit limits and fairly high interest rates.