{"id":2609,"date":"2013-05-01T23:11:43","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T03:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/?p=321"},"modified":"2023-05-16T12:46:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T16:46:42","slug":"bankruptcy-and-your-credit-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/bankruptcy\/bankruptcy-and-your-credit-score","title":{"rendered":"Bankruptcy and Credit Scores"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Bankruptcy_and_Credit_Scores\"><\/span>Bankruptcy and Credit Scores<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_65 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6628849dd7912\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6628849dd7912\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/bankruptcy\/bankruptcy-and-your-credit-score\/#Bankruptcy_and_Credit_Scores\" title=\"Bankruptcy and Credit Scores\">Bankruptcy and Credit Scores<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/bankruptcy\/bankruptcy-and-your-credit-score\/#Can_Bankruptcy_Rebuild_My_Credit_Score\" title=\"Can Bankruptcy Rebuild My Credit Score?\">Can Bankruptcy Rebuild My Credit Score?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p>One of the biggest concerns people express to me is that they have or more often, had, a great credit score, and they want\u00a0it back.\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 That is a worthy goal.\u00a0 A good or great credit score helps you get the best rates on a mortgage, helps you with a car loan.\u00a0 A good credit score may also help you land a better job. So, how can Bankruptcy Rebuild Credit Scores?\u00a0 Let&#8217;s talk about that.<\/p>\n<p>When you come to the Grafton Firm, saddled with debt, falling behind or already helplessly behind, and your chief concern is your credit score?\u00a0 My advice is to take a step back and look where you are.\u00a0 Either your credit score is already tanking and you need to take action to stop the bleeding and start reversing the trend or your credit score is still hovering in the good range, but you&#8217;re stretched beyond your means.\u00a0 At this point the only way to &#8220;save&#8221; your credit is to pay off your debt and fast.\u00a0 Otherwise, we&#8217;re looking at rebuilding credit.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s how I often describe this to my clients:\u00a0 Think of your credit as a building.\u00a0 It may have been a modest home, or it could have been a soaring skyscraper.\u00a0 Now, it&#8217;s either a pile of rubble or has serious structural defects.\u00a0 You need to rebuild, but you can&#8217;t do that on top of the faulty structure or the pile of rubble.\u00a0 You have to clear the foundation first.\u00a0 You can&#8217;t restore your credit while there is still ongoing late payments, collections, or even judgments being reported.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_Bankruptcy_Rebuild_My_Credit_Score\"><\/span>Can Bankruptcy Rebuild My Credit Score?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The short answer is yes.\u00a0 But the hard truth is that your credit is going to take a major hit.\u00a0 How bad?\u00a0 I can&#8217;t tell\u00a0 you that.\u00a0 Credit Scoring is an extremely complicated thing that is based on a SECRET and proprietary formula.\u00a0 The one that people know most is the FICO score.\u00a0 This is based on a secret formula developed and maintained by the Fair Isaac Corporation.\u00a0 They won&#8217;t tell me, you, or anyone else the exact impact that bankruptcy has, but that&#8217;s ok.\u00a0 I can tell you that in my years of practice, it has an immediate negative impact on credit and by law it can be reported on your credit for 10 years.\u00a0 The impact, however, begins to diminish soon after your case is closed.\u00a0 More importantly.\u00a0 All those negative items that were getting worse and worse as time went by and you couldn&#8217;t pay your debts.\u00a0 They stop getting worse.\u00a0 They don&#8217;t go away, but they stop getting worse.\u00a0 Then all of your balances revert to $0.00 for all of your <a class=\"linkilo_keyword_link  hyperlinks\" href=\"\/bankruptcy\/what-are-dischargeable-debts-in-maryland\"  rel=\"dofollow\" title=\"dischargeable debt\" data-linkilo-keyword-link=\"linked\">dischargeable debt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly, what you have is a bruised and battered credit score, but one that is ready for a new foundation, for new growth. Bankruptcy and credit scores can co-exist, and used as a tool, Bankruptcy can be the implement to grow your score in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>At the Grafton Firm, we are not just Maryland Bankruptcy Lawyers.\u00a0 We&#8217;re also counselors and advocates for our clients.\u00a0 We understand you have hopes and goals for your financial future.\u00a0 We pride ourselves on helping our clients past discharge, offering ideas and suggestions on ways to begin to rebuild their credit-worthiness.<\/p>\n<p>We do not engage in credit repair.\u00a0 In my opinion that&#8217;s a dangerous field more apt to hurt than help.\u00a0 Instead, what we offer is the guidance of 20 plus years experience navigating credit and debt issues for ourselves and our clients.<\/p>\n<p>About the Author:\u00a0 William Grafton is a Maryland Bankruptcy Lawyer and Co-Owner of the Grafton Firm, LLC.\u00a0 He has written, lectured, and educated on credit related topics for nearly 15 years and is happy to be bringing his expertise to the Baltimore Metro area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bankruptcy and Credit Scores One of the biggest concerns people express to me is that they have or more often, had, a great credit score, and they want\u00a0it back.\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 That is a worthy goal.\u00a0 A good or great credit score helps you get the best rates on a mortgage, helps you with a car [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,62],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3595,"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions\/3595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegraftonfirm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}