The Bottom Line! If you have credit cards PLEASE, use them wisely!About 12 years ago I, unfortunately, had to file for bankruptcy. I had all my outstanding credit cards and bills discharged, and swore off credit cards for life.
...And life went on.6 years ago my (now ex) husband and I wanted to purchase a home. We applied to 4 different lenders and got back 4 rejections. Although all debts were ’’charged off’’, the credit bureaus still had all the bills showing as ’’outstanding, delinquent, slow pay, etc.’’ It appeared that for some reason, the discharge paperwork was not reported to any credit bureaus!
We had to get all of our bankruptcy paperwork together, make copies of everything and send it all to the ’’big 3’’ credit bureaus so they could verify that all credit cards had indeed been ’’charged off’’.
...And we waited.
Three months passed and we again tried to apply for a mortgage to purchase the new home.......and again were rejected due to a ’’newly registered’’ bankruptcy! It seems that the credit bureaus recorded our bankruptcy effective as of the date they received copies of the original paperwork instead of the date years earlier!
So, once again we had to get in touch with the credit bureaus and try to straighten things out. Registered letters, certified letters and more copies were sent.
...And we waited.
After about 6 weeks went by, I called to see what was going on, and to make sure everything was getting straightened out with all 3 credit bureaus. ’’Yes’’, I was assured, everything is fine now.
So, once again we applied for a mortgage. Yes!! The credit report was accurate, finally! We were approved for a mortgage, at a rate higher than the going rate because of the fact that we had the bankruptcy on file and our credit rating was low because of the credit card bills. Plus we had to take out mortgage insurance they said, ’’to protect their interests’’
So after 12 years, the overuse and mismanagement of credit cards was still haunting us.
I use no credit cards now, although my credit has been restored.
The credit/bankruptcy nightmare is finally over.
My name is now on the title of a new townhouse, and my bad history is behind me.
So, as I said in the beginning. If you do use credit cards, use them wisely. Don’t use them for frivolous things. Using credit cards can become addictive. Break the habit!
Remember, if you take advantage of credit cards, they will haunt you, for years to come.