If you have filed for bankruptcy in the past, then you already know how difficult it can be to get a refinance loan or a home equity loan. But if you are willing to take the time to dig a little deeper into the topic, you may be surprised at the number of very viable and downright attractive offers and options. The fact that you have a bankruptcy on your credit report or a past or existing debt consolidation loan does not seem to deter many lenders from various sources in the same way that it may cause traditional lenders to run for the hills.

In fact, many of these lenders are more than willing to offer you an attractive program or rate for a home equity loan or a refinance loan. The reason for this is that they have looked at the bankruptcy statistics and realize that the majority of people who filed bankruptcy did not do so out of their personal financial mismanagement, but more often due to an unexpected financial setback which was totally out of their control, such as a job layoff or huge and unexpected medical bills that your health insurance did not cover.

If your bankruptcy was in the very recent past, even with Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings, you may have to wait six months after you have filed to be eligible for all the programs that a potential lender may have to offer you.

Whether or not you have filed bankruptcy, you must realize that in most cases you are able to retain your home, where that is typically not one of the assets that needs to be liquidated to satisfy a bankruptcy judgment. In that light, you almost certainly have some equity in your home, so lenders will look at it as a loan they are making that already has a substantial piece of collateral on it, in the form of your home. In other words, when a lender makes a loan offer, one of the major factors that determines the program or rate they will offer you is their risk factor. That risk factor is partially determined by the applicant’s credit score, but it is also heavily influenced by the collateral that is used to secure the loan, so in the case of having your home equity loan or refinance loan secured by your house, the lender’s risk is minimal.

Even with the loan secured by your home, the fact that you did file bankruptcy will not go unnoticed by the lender. The worst thing you could possibly do is to try to cover it up, because that fact is highlighted in your credit report and is virtually impossible to hide. Based on your filing, you will likely need to pay a slightly higher interest rate that somebody else with perfect credit and no bankruptcy on their credit history, but even so, this could reduce your payments and give you a bit of financial breathing room as you are getting your financial act back in order.

Finding a lender who will consider you with a bankruptcy on your credit report is not hard, but you will need to look beyond the traditional lenders. There are actually companies who specialize in loans such as this. A bit of searching can yield just the right lender as you work towards rebuilding your excellent credit history and putting the bankruptcy behind you.