Although a bankruptcy will usually lower your credit rating, once you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and thereafter get your act together, the credit score will usually start to go back up, instead of remaining in the dumpster as if you had never filed.  There are things you can do to help it go back up, such as obtaining a secured credit card and putting a little on it each month and then paying it off each month, as well as paying all bills on time going forward, now that the Chapter 7 is over and it has discharged all your debt.  Also, some financial institutions will now try to get your business again, since they know that once you have filed a Chapter 7, you can’t file again for eight years.  Finally, if there are compelling reasons why you had to file, financial institutions will take that into account.  At the end of the day one must weigh whether or not it is more important to get a fresh debt free start of have a higher credit score (which you will probably achieve in the future anyway.)  Please feel  free to call Attorney Mark O. Grater in Groton, CT at 860-449-8059 if you have any questions or check out the web cite at www.graterlaw.com.