Bankruptcy... Is it to easy?

vivatifosi

I don't know whether bankruptcy is as easy as it appears from this thread. It certainly sounds like the system can be tweaked, but I wouldn't say that it is easy. I know someone who went bankrupt following an industrial injury that left them disabled and they were even threatened with having their pets removed and sold as they had value.

I also agree with mower5's point that you need people to start up businesses and take risk. At some point the 'green shoots of recovery' will occur again and we will need people to start up businesses. You can't risk making business start up difficult or it will make the downturn worse, though the government's tinkering with the small business tax regime over the past few years won't have helped either.

Edited to add:
Having said that, there are always people who know how to play the system in this country. If loopholes can be closed without changing the fundamental way in which the system works, that probably isn't a bad thing.

WTF?_2

olly300 wrote: »

How do you tell if someone has been made bankrupted through redundancy/illness/death or is just an over spender?

I would suggest that a cursory look at their bank and credit card statements over the previous few years would probably provide a very good idea.

neverdespairgirl

Alan_M wrote: »

Is there something special about the way gambling debt is dealt with? I never did get to the bottom of it.

Yes, it's very likely to attract a BRO / BRU.

WTF?_2

From the Torygraph:

dad-of-4

repoamuse wrote: »

Many things are tempting, and made easy to obtain however, we have to have self control, and restraint.

their is a very strong almost overwhelming ring of truth to what your saying, but as much as its a fair point, does any one want to live in the world of no credit and no material gain? it would seem not, this is bourne out by the economic missery were feeling not just at the losses, but the prospect of being caught in the losses, bankrupsy is arguably a small price to pay for a shot at the good life, and equaly a small burden to carry for thoes who will always have the good life through either living a more prudently or taking the gamble and it paying off.

every chancer who overstretched kept the cost of credit down for everyone, kept people in jobs, created jobs, opertunity, and everything else a good capitalist society needs.

their is probably a goodargument for the possability that the easier and less stigmatising backruptsy has become, the more people have been willing to "have a go" and contrute to our economy

WTF?_2

dad-of-4 wrote: »

every chancer who overstretched kept the cost of credit down for everyone, kept people in jobs, created jobs, opertunity, and everything else a good capitalist society needs.

Nope - the chancers who overstretched (and the chancers who loaned them the money) are the ones who caused this problem. Credit is drying up, jobs are being shed and there's precious little opportunity for most people now with a very uncertain period ahead.

A bubble of unsustainable growth based on credit followed by an horrific recession/depression is not what any society wants.

dad-of-4

milliemonster wrote: »

I have never been bankrupt nor do I know anyone personally who has but yes I have debts that I am paying back and would not consider bankruptcy.

However, I do think those of you who seem to be under the impression that bankruptcy is the easy way out are very ignorant. whatever the reasons people end up facing bankruptcy, I think there are few and far between who deliberately ran up debts they had no intention of paying, most people facing BR reach the point where there is no other option open to them, they have had months if not years of struggling to repay everything, fear, stress, not sleeping etc etc and I do believe that everyone deserves a second chance. Most have restrictions placed on them for a number of years anyway and most importantly, they can't get credit anymore which is a good thing.

Times can go bad for all of us, for some people there are no alternatives and no options left

my efforts to avoid bankruptcy ultimate put me in prison, and i can say in all honesty, it wasn't to protect anything i had, just a desire to pay what i owed and not be bankrupted.

not a path i would ever care to tread again, and ill fosake the house, card, car, and anything else, to ensure it.

StevieJ

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Nope - the chancers who overstretched (and the chancers who loaned them the money) are the ones who caused this problem. Credit is drying up, jobs are being shed and there's precious little opportunity for most people now with a very uncertain period ahead.

A bubble of unsustainable growth based on credit followed by an horrific recession/depression is not what any society wants.

Let me get this right, are you saying that the Banks and Credit Card companies have not been making any profits, because UK citizens have been not paying their debts, so now have no money to lend? Or have they been writing off US sub-prime debts that has destroyed their balance sheet.

fermi

Subscribing....................................;)

piggeh

The 'perceived' rate of failure is built into the normal rates that they give to everyone, so it does not really affect their profits (unless they get the expected rate of defaults wrong, but if they cant get that right they shouldn't really be in the credit giving business!).

There will always be a natural rate of defaulting, it is the price of entrepreneurism (sp) and at the same time there will always be a minority who try to manipulate EVERY system for their own benefit (not just BR, but benefits, tax loopholes, whatever). That's why I think the only thing that really needs to change (in BR-terms) is a more in-depth review by Official Receivers into individual circumstances with appropriate BROs imposed for those that do try and use BR as a means to live the high life (or possibly a more integrated banking & payment system that allows full traceability throughout every system, although the privacy rights groups would have a field day with that ).