“Rebuilding Your Credit After Bankruptcy in 6 Steps” is a series of posts that will appear over the course of the next couple of weeks. Following these 6 steps will help you lay the foundation to achieve better credit. Here are the six steps:

Step #1: Review Your Credit Reports
Step #2: Get a Secured Credit Card
Step #3: Get an Unsecured Credit Card
Step #4: Pay Your Monthly Bills, On Time and Every Month
Step #5: When Appropriate, Get and Pay a Mortgage Payment or Car Loan
Step #6: After Seven (7) Years Ask the Credit Bureaus to Remove the Bankruptcy Off of Your Credit Report

After your credit report is accurate you are ready to look for a secured credit card. A secured credit card is a credit card where a balance of money has already been posted. For example, most secured credit cards will require you to put up anywhere between $300 and $500. After doing this, you have a credit limit of the amount that you put up. I know, its not what you are used to in your pre-bankruptcy days but that’s okay. We are in a rebuilding period now.

To find a good secured credit card you need to do some research. There are some key things that you need to pay close attention to in your search. First, make sure that you get a card that does not have an application fee. Although you can find a card that does not have an application fee you aren’t likely to find a secured credit card that doesn’t have an annual fee. However, what those annual fees are vary a great deal. You’ll want to do your research and read the fine print to make sure you find a card that doesn’t try to nickel and dime you in other charges and fees. Second, make sure that the secured credit card reports to the three main credit agencies (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion). It does you no good to be making payments on a secured credit card if you aren’t going to get the acknowledgement of making those regular payments.

There are a number of places online where you can do research about different secured credit cards offers. One place is at BankRate.com. If you are a credit union member then they often times will have fairly decent options when it comes to secured credit cards. But again, do your homework and make sure you are getting the best deal for you.