To those starting to repair their credit:

[Guest jeeptravel]

Hi there. It's a good road you're started down. I just wanted to give you a a little encouragement, and a little guidance as you start out on this trek.

First of all, some encouragement: In August of 2002, my wife and I were crumbling from debt. She had to quit her job due to a short term medical condition and I had to take on all her finance payments as well as my own. We had 2 car payments and a total of about 15 credit and store cards. We struggled for months pinching pennies, but after looking at our options, we Filed BK7. In 4/04, all our debt was discharged and we each had credit scores in the low 400's. That was 8 months ago.

About that time I started visiting this forum and learning every day about credit and how to clean up my credit files. Anyway, the encouragement is my credit scores you see improved from 400's to almost the 600's in an 8 month period. (see listed at the bottom of the page.) This huge improvement happened by doing things listed on this board, and personal emails from people on this board who were kind enough to help me out. I still visit and check my scores doing things that will raise them higher still.

Now, for a little guidance: To get into the swing of this, your best advise is to learn the "clip" of the thing. Changes never happen over night, sometimes not even in a month. Credit repair is an activity that requires a certain level of commitment. Once you get copies of all three credit reports, put them in a 3 ring binder with dividers marked "TU" "EX" and "EQ." Put all dipute docs in the correct folders and make it part of your day to 1) Visit this site to get help and then give some later 2) Join a daily credit monitoring service to check your reports daily. I chose www.mycreditkeeper.com but I have herad good things about www.privacyguard.com so check them both out, but join for sure. It is well worth the 10 bucks a month for daily updates.

Ok, that's it. I just want you to know you are not alone and you can rebuild your credit. If you ever have any questions you can't find the answer to on previous posts, just drop one of us sworn credit-repair hobbyists on here a line.

Blessings

Damien

[Gryffindor]

Thanks Damien for the words of encouragement. DH and I filed BK7 in June. Discharge was in Oct. I have no idea what our scores are and don't really want to until I've had some successes.

Hopefully, with the help from the people on this board and others we will be in a much better situation this time next year. We don't plan on ever having another Christmas like this last one and have already set up our plans for this upcoming year.

The thing that's really holding us back at this point is our income. Hopefully the employment situation out here will gain a little steam and new "good paying" jobs will materialize.

[Guest jeeptravel]

You're welcome. BK is no good unless you have a good job to recover with. I always suggest going back to school for a new career. Financial aid is not dependent on credit.

Once you fid the job of your dreams, the credit situation is a small chore. If you work a job you dislike, credit will always be a problem (In My Humble Opinion).

Best of luck rebuilding your credit and finding a new job. Remember, all you need is one.

Damien

[Gryffindor]

School isn't the problem. It's mostly the weak economy that's been killing us (and illegal immigration - but that's another story). I'm an Office Manager/Accountant. Used to make $35,000 + bonuses per year. I now am making $18,720/yr

DH is a journeyman carpenter. He's only making $12.00/hr. We're just in with BAD companies for the time being. Neither of us get paid for holidays, vacation or are even offered health care. I can't wait for Feb as that is when I expect jobs to start opening up.