Submitted on Friday, July 5, 2019
Even if you have a bankruptcy that is ongoing, it will not necessarily prevent you from buying a house, and it certainly will not stop you from renting an apartment. It also won’t stop you from getting a credit card, because you can always get a secured credit card. Finally, it will not prevent you from buying a car. Basically, what you are going to find is that if you try to do any of those things with an ongoing bankruptcy, the interest rates are going to be higher than if there was no bankruptcy.
After your bankruptcy is over with and you receive your discharge, a lot of credit card companies will use a discharge as a trigger to send you a credit card application. So it will not be difficult to get credit cards after you obtain your discharge. You will certainly be able to purchase a vehicle at a lesser interest rate than if the bankruptcy was ongoing. We have represented hundreds (or even thousands) of tenants over the years, and while getting another apartment may be a concern of theirs (if they are going to leave the apartment they are in), I have almost never had someone tell me that they could not find an apartment to rent due to their bankruptcy. Actually, the bankruptcy would put them in a better position to pay rent because all of their other debts are taken care of.
Buying a house can certainly be done after a bankruptcy filing. If you are looking for a market rate of interest, waiting a year after the discharge would help a great deal.
The bottom line here is that you should not feel that just because you filed a bankruptcy you are not going to be able to get any type of credit or any type of loan for some ridiculous amount of time. You will be able to get these things, especially after the bankruptcy is discharged.