The Short Answer
In most cases, you cannot keep a credit card after filing bankruptcy — even if you're in good standing and never missed a payment. Once your bankruptcy is public record, most credit card companies will discover the filing and close your account regardless of your intentions. If you want to try to keep a specific card, you must contact the company before filing, disclose your bankruptcy plans, and get their explicit permission — which is entirely their decision to grant or deny. We always recommend listing all of your debts so you can get the cleanest possible fresh start.
Now I know most people will look at this question like, “why in the world would I want to keep my cards if I’m eliminating my debt?!” But occasionally, you will have one company in which you are still in good standing and will want to keep that card in hopes of somewhat holding on to what bit of credit that you have left. It’s just not as simple as that.
Have you ever been in a wreck? The next few days following the wreck, you will be bombarded with advertisements from attorneys claiming that they can help you in whatever service you may need from being in the accident. Many wonder how they even knew about the wreck in the first place! Well filing bankruptcy is a similar situation, once you file it is public knowledge and your creditors, whether they were included in the bankruptcy or not, will likely find out about the bankruptcy and will cut the usage of your account off. Most creditors’ fear violating the bankruptcy’s automatic stay so they will discontinue usage of the credit card. So in the situation of a credit card in which you wish to keep, you may have never missed a payment and have been in good standing and they will still cut the usage of the card off, which is why we recommend that you list ALL of your debts.
Should you wish to try to keep a credit card out of the bankruptcy and wish to continue making the payment, then you need to contact that credit card company and give them a heads up on what your intentions are and ask for permission to have that card be kept out of the bankruptcy filing. It will be completely and solely the discretion of the company whether or not they allow you to keep the card out of the bankruptcy and continue to make the payments, and report the standing to the credit reporting agencies.
If you don’t list down a credit card, with the hopes of keeping it, and then after filing the bankruptcy they shut it down anyways, you are still responsible for the debt. For example, if you have a Visa credit card with Wal-Mart and you talk with Visa and explain you are filing bankruptcy and they say they will allow you to keep the card but, after filing, they still shut it down, you are responsible for any remaining balance on the card. You may still be able to go back and amend the bankruptcy after the credit card company refuses to allow you to keep the card but there will be court costs involved in amending the bankruptcy.
Again, we always encourage our clients to list down all of their debts. You can rebuild your credit after bankruptcy and in order to get your fresh financial start it usually means wiping out all of your debts.
Key Takeaways
- Once you file bankruptcy, it becomes public record and most creditors — even ones you didn't include — will find out and close your accounts.
- Credit card companies routinely close accounts in good standing because they want to avoid any risk of violating the bankruptcy's automatic stay.
- If you want to try to keep a card out of your bankruptcy, you must contact the company before filing and get their explicit written permission — it is entirely their call.
- If a creditor agrees to let you keep a card but shuts it down anyway after filing, you remain responsible for any remaining balance on that account.
- You may be able to amend your bankruptcy filing to add the omitted card later, but court costs apply and it is not guaranteed.
- Listing all of your debts from the start gives you the cleanest financial fresh start and avoids unexpected balances you're still on the hook for.
Attorney Insight
The mistake I see most often is a client secretly leaving a "good" credit card off their schedules, hoping to hold onto it — and then the issuer closes the account within days of filing anyway, leaving that person stuck with a balance they can no longer discharge. Bankruptcy filings are public record, and credit card issuers have automated systems that scan for new filings against their customers. After nearly 30 years of doing this, I can count on one hand the number of clients who actually kept a card open through bankruptcy — it is the exception, not the rule. List everything, get your clean slate, and rebuild from there; you'll have new credit options sooner than you think.
