Can I get a Still Get a Cell Phone after a Bankruptcy?
The quick answer is YES, you can get a cell phone after a bankruptcy, and you can make it a part of your plan to rebuild your credit over time. If you've just discharged your debts and haven't worked on rebuilding your credit yet, there are two options for you.
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Pre-Paid Plan - These don't have credit restrictions and work very simply. You buy a cheap cell phone and buy the number of minutes you want and use them as you go. There is typically a dollar a day charge for continuing service, but a thirty dollar minimum is a much cheaper bill each month than you'll be getting with a traditional plan.
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Non-Prepaid Plan – If you don’t want to go the pre-paid route, you could still get a phone with a more traditional cell phone company, but for a price. Most require a large deposit to secure your account. This is the better option to go with, as the company will report your on-time payments to the credit bureaus.
If you are diligent with your finances after discharging your debts in a
Chapter 7 or
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, you can have a good score in as little as two years. Making your payments on time and in full each month to the cell phone company is a big part of it. Getting everything discharged was so that you could make a clean start with your finances and making sure you build up this new history of positive credit use is really what it's all about.