We have discovered through our clients that a good credit score is really and truly a representation of a fresh start. When you file for bankruptcy, your credit score is frozen at what it was just before you filed bankruptcy. Now, if you have a high credit score we have found that after filing, you will still have a good credit score; and if you file for bankruptcy but haven’t been paying on your debts, you’re going to have a low credit score. The criteria which goes into calculating your credit score does not include the filing of bankruptcy.
Most attorneys are taught in law school that if someone files for bankruptcy protection, they can achieve a fresh start, and therefore so many of the ads we see by attorneys will state just that “file bankruptcy for a fresh start” but after many years of practice I have found that this statement is only correct 50% of the time.
At the present time I don’t have enough statistical data of clients who have had high credit scores and what their credit scores were/are post bankruptcy but we have had clients who are current on their debts to the moment of filing bankruptcy and they have continued with a good and decent credit score rating immediately post bankruptcy.
You can watch my video below if you’d rather hear what I have to say:
We have conducted full-time experimentation in helping clients use the Federal Credit Reporting Act to improve their credit scores but due to the fact that many clients really couldn’t afford our services we suspended this service but most of our clients still needed help improving their credit scores and defined a fresh start as “having a good credit score” and therefore I give all our clients a 2 hour seminar and informative DVDs and other materials. This seminar concentrates on credit score improvement and comes with two booklets.
We call the materials “The Fast Track To Credit”. 80% of the program involves your positive determined and persistent attitude to improve your credit score. I have many specific steps and procedures use can use but unless you stay positive and use the specials tips and procedures you could indeed improve your credit haphazardly on your own but it won’t be done at the speed and efficiency you need. I give to all my clients what I call “the abbreviated program” for credit improvement.
My program is a do-it-yourself approach to credit score improvement. There is no additional charge for these materials.
I also have a one year program which I specifically developed in order to qualify a client to buy a home post-bankruptcy within one year of filing. I view a fresh start as obtaining a good credit score and not simply burning the field and getting rid of the debt.
Yes, burning the field is very efficient and worthwhile but then you have to back onto the field and prepare the ground for new planting, you have to pull out the tree stumps and boulders and prepare the ground for planting new seeds by sifting the soil and removing all the rocks that are as big as bowling balls.
Farmers use fire as an accelerate to remove all the heavy underbrush and trees; we use bankruptcy as an accelerate to remove all your debts but like the farmer who wants to grow new crops by burning the field you should want to develop a good credit score when you get rid of all your debt.
Most of my clients have a full understanding of this point. For those who don’t take this advice, they end up paying very high interest rates when they go to obtain a loan or credit because they’re credit score is so low and the act of filing bankruptcy didn’t instantly solve all their problems.
After a number of years of being kicked in the pants even the most hardened client remembers what I’ve told them and they start using the material from the seminar.
What I have definitely found is that a positive and persistent attitude is 80% of the work needed to obtaining a good credit score and the other 20% is listening to all that I have discovered while working with clients to increase and better then credit score value.
One of my clients who had over $150,000 in credit card debt in his bankruptcy filing, achieved a FICO Score of 713 within 24 months post-bankruptcy. You honestly can’t get any better than that in such a short period of time.