Get Back on Your Feet After Bankruptcy

If you’ve just filed for bankruptcy, you likely feel a sense of relief as your past debts are discharged and you’re starting fresh. There’s one issue though – you now have a flag on your credit report. What can you do to help correct the negative impact that Chapter 7 bankruptcy has had on your credit?

These tips can help you avoid future debt problems while simultaneously helping to rebuild that all-important credit rating.

Create a Sustainable Budget

One of the core components of staying on a financially healthy course is creating a budget. Keeping track of your income and expenses allows you to clearly see where your cash is flowing. In turn, it allows you to find places to cut back on spending to put more money in your pocket. For instance, keeping a budget allows you to see if you are spending too much on groceries, so you can trim it down by buying less name brand foods – something you likely would not have realized otherwise.

Creating a budget sounds more difficult than it actually is, and there are nearly limitless tools available online to assist you.

Put Money Away in Savings

This seems obvious, but building a savings is one of the best ways to keep bankruptcy from happening again in the future. When you have your own money, you are less likely to overuse credit, and building a savings helps create self-discipline when it comes to spending. If there’s a certain item you want to buy, save the money for it as opposed to using credit. Impulse buys are one of the biggest contributing factors to people filing Chapter 7, and some self-control can go a long way.

Open a Secured Credit Card

A great way to rebuild credit after bankruptcy is to get your hands on a secured credit card. These credit cards require you to deposit money into a separate account as collateral, which equals the amount of credit available on your card. This allows you to rebuild your credit history by making on-time payments, as secured credit cards report to credit bureaus in the same way unsecured cards do. Your goal here is to prove that you can be trusted with money again in the future.

Money is an extremely valuable tool that requires some skills to use effectively. If you find yourself in a position where you need to file for bankruptcy, it is not something to be taken lightly, and you should always consult an attorney who is experienced in bankruptcy law first. At the BCN Law Firm in The Villages, our team is well versed in all aspects of the relevant laws surrounding bankruptcy filings, and we can help put together your application and bring you peace during a stressful time.

Contact the Attorneys at the BCN Law Firm today at (352) 775-4739