Financial Articles

A credit card after bankruptcy? It is possible! You may thinking that obtaining any type of credit card after having filed a Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy is an extremely bad idea. However, they can help in reestablishing your credit reputation and history, as well as being quite easy to get.

Once you get the credit card after bankruptcy, it is extremely important that you always make the payment on time, as well as continually pay the balance. Doing so will help you in opening up other roads such as home loans, personal loans, or car loans.

However, it is important to take extreme care when you apply for a credit card after bankruptcy. Avoid jumping at each credit card offered by any company. They may offer the credit cards to you; however, they will come with low spending limits and high interest rates, when compared to those who have not filed for bankruptcy.

You might feel flatterd that these companies are working hard to receive your business, however, avoid being fooled and overextended by their offers. Many companies are well aware of the fact that people who have filed bankruptcy are looking for ways to improve their credit rating; therefore, they may just offer you more than you imagined. Take great care in choosing credit cards and do not allow yourself to fall back into the spiral of debt.

You should have a goal when you obtain a credit card after bankruptcy and it should be to reestablish your credit rating. You should not run out and take a vacation, buy things you do not need, or simply go on a shopping spree. You now have a big negative black mark on your credit report, if you are wanting to rebuild it, you need to take care of your finances, obtaining a credit card after bankruptcy could help you.

Use common sense and restraint when using the credit card. Only make small purchases that you would be able to pay off in full each month. This will greatly help you improve your credit rating and reputation. You may find with this kind of discipline that the company offers to raise the spending limit and reduce the amount of interest charged, after six months.

If you have ever filed for bankruptcy and are in need of a car loan, a bankruptcy car loan may be the choice for you. While filing bankruptcy often puts a big dent in our credit report, we often find that we have a need for a car during the seven years after filing. I say seven years, because this is the amount of time a bankruptcy generally remains on your credit report, which could lead to the denial of credit. Bankruptcy car loans can help you in purchasing a new vehicle, even if you have a bankruptcy in your past.

Bankruptcy Car Loans:- Bankruptcy car loans further help you in rebuilding your credit and re-establish your rating, after filing for bankruptcy. Typically, two years after filing bankruptcy, people become eligible for bankruptcy car loans. The reason for the two year waiting period is that it gives the lenders the ability to see what your choices have been since the bankruptcy event. In other words, if you jumped right back on the same track as pre-bankruptcy, you will not receive the loan. However, if you have learned your lesson and become responsible in your financial choices, you will find that they readily offer you a loan for a new vehicle.

Of course, it has not always been this way. In days gone by, if you had filed bankruptcy and it still remained on your credit report, it was nearly impossible to receive a loan for a new car. However, today, bankruptcy is seen in a new light and treated much different than in the past. However, bankruptcy car loans do not come without a hitch. The loan will likely come at a higher rate of interest when compared to those without bankruptcy on their credit history. Generally, because of the positive side of these loans, which is getting back on the right track financially, people will have no problems in accepting the higher interest.

One thing to keep in mind is that you should take great care to make every payment on time, every time. If you work hard to keep the bankruptcy car loans paid off in a timely fashion, you will find yourself back on the road to financial recovery, and have the ability to obtain further loans if needed.

There is no need to despair; someone who has gone through a bankruptcy process can easily get approved for a secured personal loan within certain period of time if able to meet certain requirements. Bankruptcy can be very stressful but finance can still be found during these hard times, you just need to know where to find it.

Requirements

Each lender has different requirements when it comes to personal loans. Due to a lack of regulation on this particular issue, lenders are free to lend to anyone and take as much risk as they want. Their only limitation is the interest rate they can charge but they usually bypass this limitation by charging additional fees and other costs.

The main requirement, as usual, is your credit score. Of course you will have a low credit score after bankruptcy. The question is, however, how low? If bankruptcy was your last delinquency, then, your credit score must have increased over some time and if there weren’t too many delinquencies before bankruptcy, perhaps you can convince lenders that bankruptcy was due to unfortunate events and not because of your poor credit behavior.

Your credit history is another important variable related to your credit score. The credit history that really matters is the months following your bankruptcy. Your credit report must show no late payments, nor missed payments and no other delinquencies whatsoever during those months. This will greatly increase your possibilities of getting finance after bankruptcy.

Collateral

Since bankruptcy implies a lot of risk, the key to obtaining finance is to reduce that risk. One of the best ways to do so is to offer some kind of security by providing an asset as collateral. A house, apartment, a car or any other vehicle can be used to secure your loan and increase your chances of getting approved. Obviously, the asset has to be worthy enough. Its value should exceed significantly the amount of money requested.

Even though the loan will be secured, the interest rate charged will be considerably higher, this is due to the fact that collateral will only reduce the risk but the risk for the lender will still be higher. A past bankruptcy shows you’ve defaulted before and that scares lenders away. Thus, the interest rate, which is based on the risk, will be higher under these conditions than under regular conditions.

Outstanding Debt

Since not all debts are discharged after bankruptcy, your debt level will also be a variable to take into account when a lender considers to provide finance or not. If you still have outstanding loans and high amounts of debt, chances are that you won’t get approved unless you can show a steady income and provide a very valuable asset as collateral that is free from mortgages and other limitations.