A lot of people ask, “Can I ever have a credit card again?” Bankruptcy stays on your credit report for 10 years, but credit is like skin. Have you ever had a really deep cut? Your skin recovers. Sometimes it leaves a mark, sometimes you have a little bit of a scar, but the skin works fine. Credit; if you’re late on your mortgage, you file a bankruptcy, you’re late on your credit card, it’s a mark on your credit, but your credit recovers.

Right now in the mortgage market, you can acquire a market rate mortgage two years and a day after your bankruptcy case ends. You will probably get a credit card offer the day after your bankruptcy case ends. The reason being, the creditors know that you can’t file bankruptcy again right away so everything you charge on that card you’re going to pay for the next couple of years. Reestablishing credit after bankruptcy is not as onerous as some people think.

Usually I recommend that people go to the Shell station, get a gas card, charge $10 a month for six months, and then your credit score will shoot up. Why; because you have six months of on-time payments. Credit reports, your FICO score, those sort of things, they’re not too interested in how much you borrow. They’re more interested in whether or not you pay regularly. If you carry a balance, that’s okay as long as the minimum payment is made.

Remember, the creditors make money when you carry a balance because you are paying in interest. They don’t make money if you pay it off every month. For credit score and credit rating purposes, they just want to see paid as agreed, paid as agreed, paid as agreed. When your bankruptcy case is over, go get a card, gas station, Capitol One, pay it for six months. Within a year you’ll be fine. Within two years you can get a house at whatever the prevailing interest rate is.

If you are in need of experienced legal counsel in New Jersey, please contact Tomes Law Firm, PC. and we will be happy to assist you.