Should I go bankrupt? What would you do?

moonklash

mrcow wrote: »

What does "the cost of food and every thing else" mean? You've got £710 per month unaccounted for. As a single person, the cost of food is about £15 per week.

You are either eating far too much food, or are wasting your money when you should be paying off your credit cards.

Why on earth is your overdraft "predicted" to be a £1000? You live with your parents......you shouldn't even have an overdraft.

Have you spoken to your parents about your idea of going bankrupt? What are their thoughts on it?

Righty then - the "predicted" comes about because of this: my finances got so completed a number of years back I started plotting and planning everything on a spreadsheet, that way I can determine how much money I have and when I'll be out of debt. The "Predicted" refers to the fact I've just been paid - as this money is spent I will get further into my overdraft, and that's how far in I expect to be by the end of the.

I disagree - £15 is not enough to live on for a week. For one thing, as a vegetarian there is only so much Tesco Price Bacon I'll be willing to eat (i.e. - none lol), and for another thing, leaving for work at 9am, getting back anytime from 7pm to 10pm means I sometimes have to grab a sandwhich or something from a tesco or petrol station, although on the most part I cook stuff in advance and take it with me. The government may say that you can live on £15 a week for food, and maybe you can if just eat rice or just eat pasta. BUt I don't see why I should. I've followed the rules, I've done as I was advsied, I worked hard at school, college and Uni, got a job as soon as I could and worked my !!!! off, never been in trouble with the police, yet people such as myself seem to penalised. At the very least I can get through the following in a week:

Morning
Bagels £1.20 Cheese £2.00 Eggs £1.60

Afternoon/Day
Crisps
£1.20 Water (For the two hour drives and the gym)
£3.00 Fizzy drinks at work £5.00 Some choccy snacks in the week £3.00 Pasta £1.00 Something to go in the pasta £3.00

Evening
Chips/Waffles £2.00 Veg £2.00 Fruit £2.00 Mains £7.00 The odd desert £3.00

TOTAL £37.00
- Although the amount I spend varies. Not only that there's other considersations - washing powder, shower gel, deodorant, the occasional ned to by new clothes and shoes, mobile bills, gym bills (I'm not quitting my entire life, yes I believe it is within my rights to have some leisure time) the list goes on and on! On average, what is left for me to pay off on my card is usually about £140-£240. But it varies like mad and mostly anything I pay off comes from whatever I've managed to sell on eBay. I've got through my (classic) Doctor Who collection, B5 collection, videos, DVD, music, computers - I am now low on stock and frustrated at having spent every weekend trying to sell my possessions for peanuts when they took about fifteen years to collect in the first place.

moonklash

shinyhead wrote: »

Why not post again on the 'Bankruptcy and living with it' sub-forum. People there may be able to give you a better idea.

If you have no assets to pay against your debts then it could be the way for you. Bear in mind that it would take a long time for your credit rating might bounce back, but that could be the consequence of whatever way you go. A DMP is also an option but might take a long time to pay off and leave you in the same situation you are now.

You could always have a chat with CCCS or Payplan. Why not try CCCS's debt remedy you can do online in confidence and it will suggest a way forward.

Thanks, that's really helpful advise. I'm going to think about it all for a while, but I'm certainly going to look into the CCCS and PayPlan - whenever I've researched all of this I've only had limited time to find information, print it off, and read it when I get breaks at work, I've never had a chance to discuss that at depth with people, so I haven't really come across CCCS or PayPlan. I found lots about IVAs including Martins excellent guide which I still have in my car, but I've not been able to find a ready made booklet on bankruptcy so the information here is extremely useful!

moonklash

Jacks_xxx wrote: »

:hello: Hello lovely,

Can we have a more detailed breakdown please?

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Have you had a play with the snowball calculator to see if that will help?

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Or spoken to CCCS for advice?

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

On a personal note, in Aug 2006 we added up that we owed £96700 (plus a £91000 mortgage) on a joint income of £2644 with two kids and a grumpy cat to support - but thanks to the magnificent support on these boards we will be debt free in a few months (except for the mortgage.) so please don't think that bankruptcy is your only option.

We considered it ourselves - but because hubby would like to be self employed again the future, because we need to renegotiate our mortgage again V soon and because I am a control freak we plumped for the paying it off asap option.

(We discounted an IVA because my basic mantra is "things change" and a an IVA is based on the fact that things won't change and you'll be able to make the same payment every month for five years - but what happens if you get ill, or lose your job?)

I am currently feeling as if we were complete muppets to do this and that we should have just declared bankruptcy rather than working so hard to pay our debts for two years but that's probably just because I'm feeling grumpy today! :rolleyes:

As I understand it the entire world banking system is predicated on all of making our loan payments like good little debtors every month so god knows what would happen if we all suddenly declared bankruptcy! :eek:

Love Jacks xxx

Thanks Jacks, that gives me hope! I'm going to follow-up and check on those links later in the week (spending Monday to Friday in front of a computer and then doing at the weekends as well seams unhealthy so I'm going to look into this piece by piece rather than rushing!).

I know exactly what you mean - it does indeed feel like the world is a bank. I was talking to a Polish girl a few weeks ago and she was shocked at how casually we all except debt over here - in fact she didn't believe it. It does seem crazy - from a young age we have products pushed at us through advertising, then we are given the chance to borrow money and buy those products, of course we'll end up in debt. Then we spend the rest of our lives paying back things we were too young to understand that we didn't want in the first place! And the fact that, in my case at least, at least a third of what we owe is merely interest charges...

I've just had enough of it - I've been through the despair and the anguish, now I'm determined to fight back and not put my life on hold any longer!

I agree with you about the IVA. Things will easily change in five years. In fact I've grown quite distrustful of the concept. It seems to me that you continue to put your life on hold, but rather than paying back the people you borrowed the money from, you pay back a new company, and end up paying more or less the same as you would have in the first place. Really not sure about those. I found Martins guide from this site very useful in understanding them by the way.

> I am currently feeling as if we were complete muppets

Me to. I've been in debt since I was eighteen, and it's steadilygrown till it skyrocketed it 2006 when I went a little crazy with the credit cards. If I'd gone bankrupt back then at least my credit rating would start to recover. As it is I've spent all those years struggling with debt, watching as my friends move on with their lives, get flats, relationships, whilst for myself none of that will happen because I can't afford to move out of home or (strictly speaking) even go out for a drink to meet them if I want to get out of debt.

moonklash

betterlatethannever wrote: »

As others have said, seek some advice You can contact:
Your local CAB Office and ask to speak to a 'money advisor'.
The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) - Tel: 0800 138 1111
National Debtline - Tel: 0808 808 4000

or visit
http://www.cccs.co.uk/
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/
http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index.htm

If they decide bankruptcy is the right path, then the official receiver would investigate the loan that was taken out so close to going BR and would expect you to account for the money.

Have a read of the bankruptcy boards http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=136 and think long and hard before making a decision. Its not an easy way out and can have a huge 'knock on' effect on your life for many years.

I see you left uni 5 years ago. If you have a student loan then this can't be included in the BR and would still have to be paid.

Get as much advice as possible and use that advice wisely.

Hope that helps and good luck

Thanks, that's exceptionally useful. I intend to read up on the websites, then call and discuss as appropriate. I'll have another chat with some of the people on the boards you mentioned - I want to be 100% certain before I go ahead with this.

Yeah, I'm not surprised somehow that the Student Loans can't be written off. I noticed on my last statement that I now pay about twice in interest than I pay off, seams like this country really is about getting you in debt and then keeping you there

Thanks for your advice!

moonklash

JES_F1 wrote: »

I can't advise on bankruptcy but can recommend the CCCS. I used their online debt remedy - you plug in all your figures for ALL your expenditure (from the small things like newspapers through to the big stuff like council tax and mortgage/rent), and then it provides the options based on your figures.

At the beginning of the year, I had well over £45,000 in debt. I've now got a DMP with the CCCS and have seen this reduce to under £40,000 already.

From the information you've provided, it looks like a DMP would be suitable, and your debts could be cleared in a relatively short period of time. (Creditors will usually freeze interest and charges so you actually see your debts reducing!)

Other options are Payplan and CAB, but I don't have any experience of those.

Good luck and very best wishes.

Thanks Jess! I hadn't realised that with a DMP interest gets frozen - all these years I've been developing my own strategy of dealing with what I owe and so the idea of a plan written by someone else always deterred me. I'll certainly be looking into that as a possibility, and will be reading up on DMPs a little later!

shinyhead

If you want to find out more about bankruptcy look up the Insolvency Service website. There are lots of articles there that you could read. It's government run so the advice there is impartial.

Are you simply fed up with having little or nothing to 'live'? If you can make minimum payments on the cards and the loan payment and the debts are going down, then I'm not sure what next to advise, as technically you're not insolvent. If you're getting into more debt each month then that's another matter.

I'd suggest sparing some time to try CCCS's debt remedy online. I realise another poster here on this thread is possibly a troll but he/she has a point about your food spending. Not that I endorse their opinion but if you go on a DMP there are set maximum amounts allowed for outgoings such as food and it may simply give you food for thought. (Sorry, pun not intended!) If you input your outgoings on this then it will either allow them or tell you that you're over the limit for that particular item. It can also be an eye-opener to help you itemise what you spend your money on as it includes things that are often overlooked! It could then give you a starting point.

moonklash

I want to offer my thanks to everyone that posted back with such useful and helpful suggestions. The last few years have been a difficult time for me - no where near as difficult as other people have had to deal with - but not exactly easy nevertheless. Hopefully with the advice you guys have given me I can make the next few years turn out a little more positive.

I'm going to be returning to this post over the next week or two while I read up on everyone's suggestions, try and read up on each of the ideas that's been posted, and finally make a decision as to what I should do.

My thanks once again to everyone that got involved.

Stu.

moonklash

shinyhead wrote: »

If you want to find out more about bankruptcy look up the Insolvency Service website. There are lots of articles there that you could read. It's government run so the advice there is impartial.

shinyhead wrote: »

Are you simply fed up with having little or nothing to 'live'? If you can make minimum payments on the cards and the loan payment and the debts are going down, then I'm not sure what next to advise, as technically you're not insolvent. If you're getting into more debt each month then that's another matter.

Yes, that's the unfortunate thing really. In spite of the amount I owe, I've always tried to be really careful, so for the last few years I've made certain that everything is interest free. Therefore it's not possible NOT to meet the minimum payments.

However, my parents 65 and 78 respectively. They can't afford to support me for every until I get out of debt, and my mother desperately wants to retire but feels she can't because there won't be enough money while they continue to support me. My Dad is now better off either, spending nearly all his pension on bills debt or food for the rest of us.

A part of me thinks I should move out, then be unable to pay off my cards, then go bankrupt. But it just seems dishonest. Not that I've ever really considered any banks to be honest in the first place....

NB - my other concern about bankruptcy is bailiffs. Do you get bailiffs sent round or does everything get settled amicably in court? Only, if bailiffs are involved that instantly rules me out whilst I live with my parents. My Dad is 78 with a weak heart and having strangers forcing entry into his home would kill him for sure.

shinyhead wrote: »

I'd suggest sparing some time to try CCCS's debt remedy online. I realise another poster here on this thread is possibly a troll but he/she has a point about your food spending. Not that I endorse their opinion but if you go on a DMP there are set maximum amounts allowed for outgoings such as food and it may simply give you food for thought. (Sorry, pun not intended!) If you input your outgoings on this then it will either allow them or tell you that you're over the limit for that particular item. It can also be an eye-opener to help you itemise what you spend your money on as it includes things that are often overlooked! It could then give you a starting point.

No, you're quite right. It makes me angry that people think they can exactly specify how much a person can live on (and, in my mind, get it wrong), but I guess juggling the figures may be worthwhile. It annoys me though because I eat how my lifestyle dictates, and that doesn't mean dining on caviar and wine, but yes I will eat a packet of crips each day because in a computer job like mine the crisps are just about all that keep you awake

I'll check out the CCCS. I'm going to take a break from the PC for now though, however I'll post back when I've got some further developments

Thanks once again for your help and advice.

fermi

moonklash wrote: »

NB - my other concern about bankruptcy is bailiffs. Do you get bailiffs sent round or does everything get settled amicably in court?

No. You don't get bailiffs.

Unless the OR thinks you are hiding a Picasso under your bed then no-one will come round to your house. You will get to keep day to day items and possessions.

It's all a lot more civilised than you imagine.

This is a good place to start: Bankruptcy Help: Important topics, factsheets and links

moonklash

fermi wrote: »

No. You don't get bailiffs.

Unless the OR thinks you are hiding a Picasso under your bed then no-one will come round to your house. You will get to keep day to day items and possessions.

It's all a lot more civilised than you imagine.

This is a good place to start: Bankruptcy Help: Important topics, factsheets and links

That's positive news at least! Thanks for the advice