Not necessarily. While taking out a new credit account may improve your credit, accumulating a lot of debt on the card is not a good idea. This is true for everyone, not just bankruptcy filers. This ties back to the credit utilization ratio mentioned earlier. If your utilization rate is kept at a healthy level, such as the recommended 30% or lower, lenders won’t consider you to have unmanageable amounts of debt. It’s when your utilization rate shows that you have more debt than available credit that your credit score begins to see negative impacts. Example of credit utilization across three different cards. Using a credit card responsibly really is as easy as paying your bill on time and keeping your credit card balance low. It’s even better if you can pay it off each month, but a little credit card debt will not hurt your credit, so long as it’s manageable. Many credit cards can prequalify you and render an immediate decision. But no credit card can guarantee final approval, whether after bankruptcy or at any other time. The best you can do is to seek out cards that market themselves to consumers with bad credit and to those who have been discharged from bankruptcy according to bankruptcy law administered by the state bankruptcy court. Secured debt in the form of credit cards is consumer debt that fits naturally into this group and comes as close as possible to guaranteeing acceptance, assuming you pony up the required security deposit.