Post discharge advisors?

NotThatRichardThompson

First post after searching about 25 pages of the forum and not finding anything on this...

My discharge comes through in a couple of weeks and I'd like to find some personal advice (as opposed to the generic online stuff) about how to move forward with rebuilding credit etc. I've tried the usual National Debtline / Stepchange type services but they seem geared to debt management which is not what I'm after and their advisors didn't really have much of a clue where I could go. What I'd like, ideally, is a financial advisor who specialises in this kind of thing, but I'm having trouble finding such a person, if they exist.

Any pointers or advice where I might find one?

Thanks in advance.

luvchocolate

To be honest I found everything I needed from the amazing posters on here 

sourcrates

Rebuilding your credit file is something that happens naturally with time, financial advisors don`t tell you how to rebuild your credit, that`s basically common sense when you think about it.

A lot of utilities now report to credit files, in time, if you can, obtain a credit card, put your normal spend on it from say, shopping, then pay it off in full, once the statement arrives.

That way you pay no interest, and you also start to build history.

A stable address history is important, so is being on the electoral role.

Depends what your ultimate goal is, perhaps you want a mortgage in the near future, then that is something to work towards, but don`t get back into debt just for the sake of that little magic number that no one else ever see`s.

Your new start should be just that, not a rinse and repeat of your previous life.

NotThatRichardThompson

Thanks.

So from what I've gleaned on here:

1. Get the Insolvency Service register updated three months after discharge
2. Get credit reports from Experian et al and methodically make sure they're update (per the template thread here)
3. Get one of the credit-building credit cards, use it and pay it off repeatedly and gradually move up to more mainstream ones.

It takes six years for credit references to BR to disappear. Is that six years from being declared BR, or six years from discharge though?

luvchocolate

The Insolvency register updates at midnight 1 year after your BR date and stays there for 3 months so print a copy off 
BR comes of your credit report 6 years from your BR date. 
After 2 to 3 months post discharge check all your credit reports 

NotThatRichardThompson

luvchocolate said:

The Insolvency register updates at midnight 1 year after your BR date and stays there for 3 months so print a copy off 
BR comes of your credit report 6 years from your BR date. 
After 2 to 3 months post discharge check all your credit reports 

Thanks - so in my case that would mean that since my original BR date was end of November 2016 (yep, it's taken a while for a bunch of reasons), and my discharge is on September 18th:

- the insolvency register will be updated to include my discharge at the end of November 2021, and stay there till February
- BR will come off my credit report in November 2022
- I should check credit reports in December 2021

Is that right?

sourcrates

NotThatRichardThompson said:

luvchocolate said:

The Insolvency register updates at midnight 1 year after your BR date and stays there for 3 months so print a copy off 
BR comes of your credit report 6 years from your BR date. 
After 2 to 3 months post discharge check all your credit reports 

Thanks - so in my case that would mean that since my original BR date was end of November 2016 (yep, it's taken a while for a bunch of reasons), and my discharge is on September 18th:

- the insolvency register will be updated to include my discharge at the end of November 2021, and stay there till February
- BR will come off my credit report in November 2022
- I should check credit reports in December 2021

Is that right?

Err, no, not quite.

If your Bankruptcy date was November 2016, you were, I assume, discharged one year later, so it would have updated November 2017, and stayed visible on the register for 3 months till February 2018.

The whole lot will be gone from your credit file by December 2022. 

Credit file clean up should be done ASAP, follow the debt camel guide.

NotThatRichardThompson

Nope, it comes through in a couple of weeks, as I said.

NotThatRichardThompson said:

My discharge comes through in a couple of weeks 

I just had the notice from the IS.

Actually I got some pretty good personal advice from my local CAB, so I'm pretty much sorted now.

Minkym00

So your discharge was suspended for whatever reason but I would not have thought that would have affected your credit file, just the register. I would think that your credit file is clear 6 years after the bankruptcy order.

What did CAB say out of interest? 

NotThatRichardThompson

Broadly:

1. Credit file will be cleared 6 years after BR rather than discharge, so Dec next year
2. Check and do a clean up if necessary anyway
3. Don't use a 'repair your credit' agency
4. Get a 'bad credit' card and save with LOQBOX to rebuild credit score.

So nothing revolutionary, but good to have it confirmed given they checked my name on the register.

NotThatRichardThompson

(paying off the credit card every month, obviously)