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My chapter 7 bankruptcy was completed and discharged about a year and a half ago, but there were immediate consequences to my filing that I still live with today. I will continue to feel the effects of my bankruptcy for many more years and some of the problems will likely never go away fully.
Canceled Credit Card
I had a store credit card that I did not owe any money on when I filed for bankruptcy. Since I did not owe money on this card, it was not included in my bankruptcy filing. The store canceled this credit card anyway. In their letter to me, they indicated that their policies do not allow anyone who files for bankruptcy to have a card with them. At the time I filed for bankruptcy, I did not realize that any credit cards I had that did not have balances on them would be canceled.
Employment Problems
Several months after my bankruptcy went through, I was looking for a new job. On some of the applications, it asked if I had a bankruptcy or negative financial information on my credit report. While I do not know for certain that this was the reason I did not get certain job offers, I suspect that it was the reason in at least a couple of situations. There was a temporary agency that indicated they had an opening at a financial institution that I qualified for and asked for permission to run my credit report. I did not even hear back from that temporary agency after they ran my credit. There were also other companies that I did not hear back from after indicating on my application that I had a bankruptcy on my credit.
Costs of New Credit
In order to help rebuild my credit after my bankruptcy, I know that it is important to start doing the right things with my credit. In order to do this, I applied for a secured credit card. I had to pay them a $50 deposit for a card with a $200 credit limit. The interest rate on the card is about 23% and it has an annual fee of $29. Credit cards like these are the only kinds I can get at this point. After using the card for small purchases over the past year and paying off my balance in full each month, the company recently increased my credit limit by $100 without requiring an additional deposit.
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