There’s a myth circulating around that we really want to address today. You see, a lot of people assume that their lives are over because they’ve had a bankruptcy, and that’s not really the case at all. Case in point: the assumption now is that you will never ever be able to get a car loan because you have a bankruptcy on your credit report. Of course, it’s not like you can hide it – once you go through the bankruptcy process, you’re never going to be able to hide it from people. It will be on your credit report for at least 7 years, and sometimes even 10 years. You will also not be able to file your bankruptcy again for 10 years after the discharge date. In other words, once you file bankruptcy, you can’t just file it again on a whim. This means that the creditors are a lot more likely to offer your credit products and services because they know that you can’t get away. You can’t run. You can’t decide suddenly that you’re not going to pay. You will have to just push forward and get things done.

What does that mean for the person coming out of bankruptcy? It means that you’re going to need to build credit. We still believe that secured credit cards and secured loans from credit unions are two great ways to rebuild your credit — as long as you’re willing to pay on time. A lot of people still believe that you can be lazy and not take care of the loan or credit card, and that’s not true at all. Remember that these things are going to be reported to the credit bureaus. That’s another point — you want to absolutely make sure that it’s going to be reported to the credit bureaus. You don’t want to waste your own time by taking out a credit product that isn’t going to really do you any good at all. That would be downright foolish. It’s better to really make sure that you have everything else in line before you just decide that you’re going to skip over something as important as taking charge of your own credit.

We say that you need to watch after your own credit first because the last thing that you really want to do is find yourself being rejected because you haven’t done anything after the bankruptcy. It’s true that the bankruptcy process gives you another chance, but you can’t’ waste that chance by standing still. You can’t waste that time by deciding that you’re not going to take action. You can’t waste that time by believing that you have no control over the process. That just doesn’t make any sense at all, and it leads you to missing out on things that nobody should have to give up just because they took on bankruptcy.

Everyone’s situation is different. Bankruptcy might have been your last chance, and taking it isn’t the end of the world. Avoiding bankruptcy is something that we all want, but if we can’t achieve that goal, then it’s time to look at some new goals.

How does all of this play into getting a car loan? Well, you will need to prove that your credit is on the mend, and that your income is also better too. Far too often people don’t realize that creditors are ultimately trying to make sure that you’re able to pay your bills — all of them. If they only focus on your car loan, then you could easily point out that you have expenses other than the car loan and thus you can’t pay. So to avoid this problem they really do make sure that you have everything at your disposal to pay for all of the major bills in your life.

Make sure that you include all sources of income that you can count on — if you’ve got multiple streams of income through child support, alimony, government assistance or even a company or two, then you will need to talk about all of these things and also submit proof.

Yes, the car loan company is going to want proof, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. Most revenue streams have income reports built in, so it’s just a matter of attaching a printout to your application.

You can get financing at the dealership, or you can come with financing from your bank or credit union — but the time is now to get started today!