Bankruptcy????

Carol26

Hi Folks,

I am divorced and on Income support and housing benefits and i have credit card debt of about 12000 pounds and i cant pay minimum payment any more.

Please tell me what to do? can i declared me bankrupt and if yes then how?

Thanks.

P.s. I am not a homeowner.

johannamse

See here first...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1103204730,72152,

I would ring CCCS in the morning see here...

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

They are truly excellent and will talk through your options with you.

Good Luck.

silverfoxdude

Hi Carol

I was a single mum over a year ago, and when my son's father and I split up 12 years ago, he stayed in the house, he didnt pay the mortgage for roughly 6 years before they repossesed the house. My name was still on the mortgage so although when I had left there was no arrears, I was still liable. The debt for the building society was just over £29k. Then my husband after and I got a loan out for a car from the bank for £10k, and we split up too (yeah, I dont have much luck lol), he disapeared off the face of the earth and he hadnt been paying little bills like rent (!), water etc etc... Anyway as I was claiming Income Support, all the people that was owed money knew where I was, so they hounded me for 12 years and kept adding their interest on. I went to a debt agency place called Christians Againts Poverty (CAP) they had run an advert on the local paper about helping people in debt. After seeing them, we set up a budget plan, and they helped me manage my money. We saw that it was going to take something like 133 years to pay off the £46K that had built up, so basically it was never going to happen, so we took the option of going bankrupt.

The laws have changed recently so it is now a lot more straight forward and quicker. I paid something like £450 to the courts. I filled in loads of forms with CAP, and we arranged a hearing at the county court one morning. Took my fee and paperwork, saw the judge, explained how it all came about and he granted the bankruptcy order. I was under the order for 12 months, but this can be reduced to 9 months in some circumstances. I cannot do certain things like be a director of a company and things like that, but you will get given a lot of bumf telling you all about it. I felt such relief when I walked out of court that morning. I cried because it was all over.

Oh yeah, when you leave court the official reciever either arranges a visit or in my case he rang. I found a quiet place at work and spent nearly 2 hours talking to him, we went throuh the forms together, and he told me that I wouldnt pay tax on my wage for the duration of the order, this would be clawed back by the official reciever to pay his fees. (He never did ask for that, so I dont know what went on there). I found it hard to get a bank account and my existing ones were frozen, never to be touched again.

Anyway hope this long winded account helps of my experience, if you would like to know more, please PM. Sorry for going on lol.

Teresa

anniemint306

I found Teresa's experience helpful - hope you do too. Your local Independent Advice Centre or Citizens Advice Bureau can help you liaise with creditors while you decide if you want to pursue bankruptcy. The court fees for people on benefits is £310, and there are charitable trusts that you can apply to for assistance. I live in the Anglian Water area, and have just applied and received the court fees. This has to be done through the agency that advices you, and make sure you ask if they know of any charitable trusts you can apply to for assistance. Ask them if you could apply to Social Security, for either a Crisis Loan or Social Fund loan (where they deduct so much per week from your benefit).
The process can be a minefield, and you will be given so much varying advice. It is easier to declare yourself bankrupt these days, but other advice can be to stick it out in the hope the banks will right your debt off eventually. That depends on how harden you can become to their constant barage of letters and phone calls, or whether you can find an expert to take it on and deal with it on your behalf.

charlotte_dunn

hi last year i was in your position on benifits and in 11500 debt. i contacted a local money advice helpline, they helped me decide what to do. i declared myself bankrupt as you are on benifits you only pay £310 if i remember rightly kind of defeats the object of paying money you cont have but hey its worth it, first things first find a helpline number call them make an appointment taking all incomeing monies papers you have and all billd you have and go from there. after bankruptcy you cant get credit untill you build your so called rating back up but trust me thats a good thing. i can now pay my bills and have money spare it feels great, then after that if you dont have the money to buy something dont get it or credit. creditors will still try and give you credit but say no.
its a fairly easy process you go to court but not in front of a judge sighn some forms do the oathe thingy and go back the next day to c if your application for bankruptcy was allowed and thats it.
hope that helps, remember talk to family and friends if you are down it doesnt help to ,make yourself ill over it i know.
Good luck

trencherpilot

Carol,

look in the yellow pages for an insolvency practitioners. They will sort you out and advise you and the 1st meeting is usually free. The ones that my wife used earlier this year when her business went insolvent were great and explored all the options before giving their advice. CAB can be hit and miss, they just kept telling Deb to keep meeting the payments or her credit rating would be affected!!