Michigan bankruptcy filers normally find that their financial lives get a little easier after discharge. Getting rid of all or most debt burdens gives bankruptcy filers an opportunity to start over, make better choices, and move forward more confidently with their finances. However, most of the time, their credit scores are heavily damaged. This is one of the major drawbacks of both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Yet, even though bankruptcy filing stay on credit reports for several years, Michigan filers can start a credit repair plan immediately after discharge. Chapter 13 filers can even begin repairing their credit while still completing their repayment plans. Although, regardless of what type of bankruptcy you filed, your credit repair efforts should start with checking your credit reports.
Why All Michigan Bankruptcy Filers Working on Credit Repair Should Monitor their Credit Reports
Any consumer who has filed bankruptcy in Michigan knows that it involves a complicated process. Typically, one bankruptcy filing involves many different people and organizations. In addition to the filer, there are the lawyers, the court-appointed trustee, the creditors, and the credit bureaus. Unfortunately, when information goes from creditors, to credit bureaus, to credit reports, mistakes often happen. Then, many bankruptcy-related credit report errors slow down credit repair efforts.
This is why all bankruptcy filers in Michigan should keep careful tabs on their credit reports. In fact, closely monitoring your credit reports is the only way to catch credit score damaging errors and demand their removal or correction.
While checking your credit reports from all three major credit bureaus, you should pay extra attention to the following.
Your Bankruptcy Filing Date
A Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays on Michigan credit reports for ten years after the filing date, and a Chapter 13 bankruptcy remains for seven years. Luckily, Chapter 13 bankruptcies typically take 3-5 years to complete. So, this type of bankruptcy should fall off consumer credit reports within 2-4 years after discharge.
Michigan bankruptcy filers should memorize their filing dates, then figure out exactly when this negative item should disappear. Make sure to check your credit reports around this time to ensure that the bankruptcy really does fall off. You don’t want your filing to stick around longer than necessary, damaging your credit score.
The Statuses of Your Reported Accounts
On your credit reports, every account included in your bankruptcy should have a “discharged” or “included in bankruptcy” status. After discharge, however, these accounts should not bear statuses such as “active,” “current,” “delinquent,” or “charged-off.” If a bankruptcy-discharged account has the wrong status on any of your credit reports, it is an error that may eventually hurt your credit score.
Reported Account Balances
When Michigan consumers check their credit reports after Chapter 7 bankruptcy or during Chapter 13, they should pay attention to the balances reported for discharged accounts. All of these accounts should have zero balances. If, however, even one of them shows a balance of more than zero, have the mistake fixed immediately.
Collection Accounts
If you reach an agreement with a debt collector about removing an account in debt collections from your credit reports, make sure that the account actually disappears. Again, bankruptcy damages your score significantly. Yet, unnecessary accounts in collections will drop your credit score even more.
All Michigan bankruptcy filers who find bankruptcy-related errors on their credit reports should contact Credit Repair Lawyers of America in Michigan. Our firm understands that you want to make progress with your credit repair plan as quickly as possible. So, when you call the credit pros here, we’ll get to work immediately on your credit issues. We’ll also connect you with an experienced credit attorney who will do whatever it takes to get you clean credit reports – legally and for FREE.
The Free and Legal way to Get Better Credit After Bankruptcy in Michigan
Don’t let post-bankruptcy errors on your credit reports bring your credit score down. At Credit Repair Lawyers of America in Michigan, we’ve been cleaning up credit reports for consumers since 2008 for free. How do we do it? All of our fees come from the defendants in cases that are settled. This is why our clients pay nothing for the work we do.
Let’s start the conversation about what we can do for your credit. Set up your free consultation today by calling Attorney Gary Nitzkin at (248) 353-2882 or contact us on our contact page.
For more information about Free Credit Repair, please visit https://creditrepairlawyersam.com/michigan/credit-repair/.
