| Cleaning your credit card up after a bankruptcy is | | | | To do this, you need to contact major credit reporting |
| always a challenging task. To get the desired results, | | | | bureaus and request that the accounts be reported as |
| consider it necessary to gather your wits first, learn | | | | "included in bankruptcy." There's no other way to |
| from your mistakes and then be ready to bounce | | | | recover your credit than doing this step. The contents |
| back. | | | | of your credit report determine your score so better |
| Learn from your mistakes | | | | clean up your report before it's too late. |
| When you come to think of it, your bankruptcy is often | | | | Use credit card to build credit |
| a product of financial moves not carefully thought | | | | Don't use just any credit card. Get a secured credit |
| through. Review your past activities and check your | | | | card. Following bankruptcy, you would actually find it |
| payment pattern and debts and credit history. Were | | | | hard to qualify for a regular, unsecured credit card. So |
| you paying out high interest payments? Did you | | | | the best option left is to get a secured card with a |
| overspend? Were you not able to manage medical | | | | credit limit that's equal to an amount your deposit at |
| bills or any other expenses efficiently? | | | | the issuing bank. |
| Rather than shut yourself off from your past financial | | | | Manage your secured credit card efficiently by paying |
| activities, make good use of them by learning from | | | | the balance off in full every month and by using it |
| them. After all, what you really have to assess is your | | | | lightly. As a rule, never ever spend more than 30% of |
| behavior toward your finances, personal or business. | | | | your credit limit. This will make it easier for you to pay |
| Clean up your credit report | | | | the balance and build your credit. Make it a habit to not |
| After a bankruptcy, you'll notice reports on your | | | | spend more than you can pay off every month. |
| accounts designated as open and overdue when, in | | | | Finally, don't just get any secured credit card. Look for |
| fact, they have already been closed and wiped out as | | | | those that charge a reasonable annual fee and reports |
| part of the bankruptcy. | | | | to the major credit reporting bureaus. It's also a plus if |
| Cleaning up your report after a tumultuous financial | | | | the bank allows for converting a secured card to an |
| activity is a tedious task. But since you don't have any | | | | unsecured one after a year or so of regular |
| choice but to do it, make it a goal to correct all data in | | | | payments. |
| your record immediately. | | | | |