Here are some frequently asked questions:
• Is my credit forever ruined by a bankruptcy or foreclosure?
• A bankruptcy or civil judgment will stay on your credit report for 10 years, but it is a weighted scale, the older it gets, the less impact it has on your credit. The irony of a bankruptcy is that while it is bad for your credit score, it actually improves your debt to income ratio, which is an important factor for obtaining loans. After filing bankruptcy, you have only the debt you choose to keep, and are in a better financial position to take on new debt, as there is no longer the older debt hanging over your head.
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• What are some of the things I can do to improve my credit after bankruptcy or a foreclosure?
• Pay all bills on time. Note that payments less than 30 days late are not generally reported to the credit bureau.
• Try to keep your credit card balances that you have below 50 percent of the limit. Lenders like to see existing available credit.
• Avoid inquiries, because a large number of inquiries over a short period of time may be interpreted as opening several lines of credit at the same time due to financial problems, and will lower your score.
• Know that the longer the track record or history of paying bills on time, the better.
• Do not close existing unused accounts. This advice differs from the past. When you close an account, you now have less available credit overall to draw from, and have reduced the overall debt to availability of the unused credit ratio. Closing an account may also reduce the length of your credit history depending on the age of that account.
Source: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110102/NEWS03/101020454/1004/NEWS03
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