Credit score - 6 years after bankruptcy

JamesPortal91

Good Morning,

my bankruptcy from 2017 is due to be deleted from my file in less than a week. There have been no further failed payments or negative impacts on my file.

How much should I expect my credit score to increase once this is removed? I know this isn’t exact as there are other factors impacting my score, however should it increase?

I recently had a hard search removed and my score went up, so I’m hopefully about this.

has anyone else been in a similar situation and checked their score on the day/day after the bankruptcy drops off?

CliveOfIndia

I would expect your score to rise by approximately 50,000 points.  Or maybe 3.

Joking aside, your score is a meaningless marketing gimmick, invented by the CRAs to try and sell you products.  The score you can see on your file is not even visible to lenders - they look at the raw data contained in your file and generate their own internal score, which you (or anyone else) will never see.

What really matters is the data contained within your file.  A bankruptcy is obviously a huge red flag for pretty much all lenders, but once it drops off your file then you'll be assessed purely on the data that remains.  If you have very little credit history remaining (which could well be the case following a bankruptcy) then this may limit your options somewhat.

If that is the case, then the usual advice is to get a credit-builder credit card, use it for affordable, essential everyday purchases (food, petrol, etc.), and ALWAYS repay in full every month when the statement arrives.  It's not a quick fix, but doing this will gradually start to build up a favourable credit history, which is what counts.

This does, of course, require a fair degree of discipline to ensure you only ever buy stuff on the credit card which you will absolutely, definitely be able to afford to pay for come statement time.  The moment you start to carry a balance from month to month is the moment you begin to slide down the slippery slope back into debt - even more so with a credit-builder card, which will have very high interest rates.