Hello one and all.
If you are on the East Coast hope you are enjoying the snow.

Now for the business at hand.
I have completed my Chap 13. I have received a lovely letter from
the trustee commending me on completing the payments in the time
required. (mine was voluntary not payroll deduction).

I have not received my discharge from the Bankruptcy Court.
I expect it will arrive within the next week or so.

In the letter from trustee he advised that I send copies of my discharge
to 3 specific credit reporting agencies. Is this a good thing to do? If so, why?
If not, why not?

I will be selling my home within the next 3-6 months - is this a problem? Should
I wait until I get discharge papers before signing a contract with a realtor?

Thanks for all responses.

Sun

Sunshine Lady wrote:

In the letter from trustee he advised that I send copies of my discharge to 3 specific credit reporting agencies. Is this a good thing to do? If so, why? If not, why not?

IMO, there are 2 ways to look at this. You can do as the trustee
suggests, and send TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax the copies of your
discharge papers. This will ensure 2 things; that all of your accounts
that were discharged through this bankruptcy will report as such, and
you will get a fresh start(with a low score); and, that you are
confirming/verifying that you have filed bankruptcy, and that record
will remain for 7-10 years. Some people do this so that all of their
old accounts report as "included in bankruptcy" and not as charge-offs,
unpaid lates, etc. Believe it or not, a charge-off lowers your score
more than "included in bankruptcy."

The downside to this strategy is that if you ever want to dispute your
bankruptcy, you are SOL. You have already done the work of
investigating for the credit reporting agency. Some people, and there
are those who think this is not ethical, will dispute every negative
mark on their credit reports as "not mine," knowing that the account is
in fact theirs. As lond as the CRA has to do the work, you stand a
chance of getting certain marks removed. Right or wrong, legal or
illegal in some states, you can improve your credit report this way.

Case in point, I have 2 BK 7 filings. One from Dec. 2002 that was
dismissed, and one from August 2003 that was discharged in October. I
disputed both as "not mine." Well, the BK 7 that was discharged was not
verified, and it was removed from my Equifax report. Like it never
happened. They also "verified" my Dec. 2002 filing as being
"discharged." That is incorrect, and gives me opportunity to continue
to dispute that mark. I also disputed some of the accounts as "not
mine," and a couple of them were not verified and removed from my
report. Slowly, and with a little luck, I hope to have my report clear
of any indication of bankruptcy. It is possible.

I don't know if that helps your decision, or makes it more confusing
now. ;)

I definitely would not bother sending them to the Cr Agencies. I do a
lot of work with credit reports. In my experience there is no notation
for a "discharged bankruptcy". The only indication I have ever seen is
a listing for bankruptcy under public filings. If it isn't already
there, why give them a second chance to list it?

As far as challenging everything on the report as, "unethical", why not?
the Fair Credit Reporting act only allows listing of accurate items.
Accuracy is defined in the act. You have the right to have obsolete,
unverifiable, and inaccurate items removed. A good rule of thumb is
that just because you owe it doesn't mean they can show it. All a
challenge of each entry does is shift the burden to the Reporting Agency
of verifying that each entry is accurate, ie, the creditor possesses the
requisite documentation to justify inclusion in the report.

Bankruptcy is one of the easiest things to remove from a report. The
FCRA, requires a certified docket to be filed with the agency. Most
often they have a rep go to the court. Enter the info on a laptop and
email it to the agency...not a certifed docket is it? Do you think each
agency pays the fee for a certifed copy of each docket for the tens of
thousands of bankruptcies filed each week? Keep challenging, ultimately
they will get it right.

none wrote: Sunshine Lady wrote: In the letter from trustee he advised that I send copies of my discharge to 3 specific credit reporting agencies. Is this a good thing to do? If so, why? If not, why not? IMO, there are 2 ways to look at this. You can do as the trustee suggests, and send TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax the copies of your discharge papers. This will ensure 2 things; that all of your accounts that were discharged through this bankruptcy will report as such, and you will get a fresh start(with a low score); and, that you are confirming/verifying that you have filed bankruptcy, and that record will remain for 7-10 years. Some people do this so that all of their old accounts report as "included in bankruptcy" and not as charge-offs, unpaid lates, etc. Believe it or not, a charge-off lowers your score more than "included in bankruptcy." The downside to this strategy is that if you ever want to dispute your bankruptcy, you are SOL. You have already done the work of investigating for the credit reporting agency. Some people, and there are those who think this is not ethical, will dispute every negative mark on their credit reports as "not mine," knowing that the account is in fact theirs. As lond as the CRA has to do the work, you stand a chance of getting certain marks removed. Right or wrong, legal or illegal in some states, you can improve your credit report this way. Case in point, I have 2 BK 7 filings. One from Dec. 2002 that was dismissed, and one from August 2003 that was discharged in October. I disputed both as "not mine." Well, the BK 7 that was discharged was not verified, and it was removed from my Equifax report. Like it never happened. They also "verified" my Dec. 2002 filing as being "discharged." That is incorrect, and gives me opportunity to continue to dispute that mark. I also disputed some of the accounts as "not mine," and a couple of them were not verified and removed from my report. Slowly, and with a little luck, I hope to have my report clear of any indication of bankruptcy. It is possible. I don't know if that helps your decision, or makes it more confusing now. ;)