By: Sarah J. Crouch, Esq.

So you have filed bankruptcy and you have your discharge in your hand.  Now what?  How will this look on your credit report?  Should you hire a credit repair agency to help you at this point?

How Your Credit Report Should Look.

In the letter that I send to every single one of my clients with their discharge order is a paragraph.  In this paragraph I urge my clients to run their credit report approximately six months from the date of the letter to make sure that their credit report is accurately reflecting their debts as discharged.

This means that next to each of the debts listed on your credit report that was properly listed on your bankruptcy it should state under status “Discharged In Bankruptcy” (or some variation on that statement).  If you see this statement this is a good thing!  This means your creditors are properly reporting your activity to the agencies.  If you see that is says charged off or past due you need to report the discrepancy to the credit reporting agency so that you receive the benefit of your discharge.

On Credit Repair Agencies and Their Empty Promises

Seeing the words “discharged in bankruptcy” can be distressing for many people who have filed bankruptcy as many of them believe that filing bankruptcy means these debts will simply “disappear” off of the credit report.   This is not the case.

It is very very very important that all debtors understand that there is nothing out there that will make any negative reporting “disappear” from their credit report but time.

That’s it.  Good old fashioned time and good credit use over an extended period of yet more time is the ONLY WAY you will every repair your credit.

Credit repair scams offer you an easy way out by continuously filing bogus objections to negative information on your credit report in order to artificially inflate your credit score.  This is not a long term solution (on top of being fraud) and they are charging you for a service that is NOT actually raising your credit score.

How to Actually Raise Your Credit Score

Scary as the words discharged are when you look at your credit report you have done the best you can.  You are at the bottom of the canyon and the only place to go is up and that will take time and effort on your part.  Lucky for you, we have an article on how to do that right here.

Need more information on how bankruptcy can help you with your financial woes?  Give us a call at 732-302-9600 or fill out our online consultation form and we will call you!