Your credit report will show your bankruptcy permanently. This could make it harder to rent an apartment, to obtain a credit card at a favourable rate of interest, and might make it very difficult to obtain a home mortgage loan or insurance.

“Wiping the slate clean” through bankruptcy also puts all future lenders on notice that you have had difficulty repaying your debts,; creditors are more likely to either refuse to extend credit, or to make you pay (through higher interest rates, for example) for the additional risk they are taking in extending you credit.

However, even with a bankruptcy on your credit report, many lenders will do business with you and extend you new credit. This is because the discharge obtained in bankruptcy leaves all future earnings free from the claims of past creditors.

Copies of a credit report can be obtain from Equifax, www.equifax.com