where do I start bankruptcy?

devona

Firstly I have been reading this board for several months now without ever having the courage to write on it.I have come to my senses and realised I desperately need some help and advice.I am considering going bankrupt ( well I have no choice really ) foolishly I have let my debts increase over the years and now im sinking.I have done the debt remedy online with cccs and nearly collapsed when it totalled up my debts ,im ashamed even to type the amount owed ,close to £50,000 ( Gulp!!).
Most of my debt is with credit cards and I have 2 loans with my current bank ( lloyds tsb ) until recently I have never missed a payment on any debt although admitedly I only pay the minimum required.
Please can someone come along and give me advice as to what to do as I dont know where to start !!

maxmycardagain

Firstly, you take proper advice from CCCS, Debtline or CAB. (seems you have)

The advice offered here is from experience and (mainly) not from proper training, having said that, theres not much the massed bands of the MSE-BR regiment havent seen, done and tried...

After advice "ALL" you need are the fees, an appointment at your local county court and 3 copied of your SOA - which you can start anytime by registering online with the IS.

https://www.insolvencydirect.gov.uk/isolv/

tigerfeet2006

The first thing you need to do is get some professional advice from one of the debt charities. The CAB and CCCS have a couple of weeks waiting lists at the moment, National Debtline will advise there and then on the phone, see links and no. in my sig.

Then you need to find out your local court that deals with bankruptcy and find out what sort of system they operate. If it is appointment then make an appointment. They will send you paper forms to fill in or you can do it online, the links to the forms are in the Bankruptcy Help sticky.

Save £510, fill in the forms, go to court, be declared bankrupt, speak to the OR, start your new life.

Ask as many questions as you need here and read through the information on the Bankruptcy Help sticky. We will help and support you as much as we can through the process.

Welcome to board by the way and well done in taking the first steps to tackle the problem

devona

Thanks for replying ,the first thing I will do tommorow is call cccs /cab and take it from there.I have been on the insolvency website and checked out what forms I will need to fill in and I have been thinking about the ways I can get the money together to start the ball rolling.My wages are paid into an account where I have two loans going out as direct debits and I also have a credit card with this bank ,would it be possible to open up another bank account and have wages paid into them and use the loan payments as bankruptcy payment ? all this seems a little daunting at the moment and I will probably have another 100 questions .

tigerfeet2006

Get a Co-op Cashminder or a Barclays Cash account asap as the bank has a right of off set and can just take all your money at any time to pay their bills.

Co-op can be done over the phone and if you don't have a branch nearby you can put money in via the Post office. You get telephone and internet banking, DD's,SO's and a Visa Electron.

Keep asking, knowledge is power.

devona

So if I open a co op account and have wages paid into them it means that I will miss loan repayments so I suppose I can expect some nasty phonecalls .I have stopped paying the minimum amounts on credit cards and written to them explaining that I am finding it difficult to pay ,I have only just started doing this and have made payments of £50 instead of the expected £250 .Marbles have been charging me 33% interest for way over 2 yrs now so I think they have had a fair bit back in interest!!
This all new to me so just getting a bit of advice will go a long way to helping me from going insane.
where can I work out my SOA and post it so you can all see my dillema ,a big thanks for replying !!!

tigerfeet2006

I am afraid that yes, you will start getting the calls and the letters but just ignore them. You need to save this money for your BR fee's.

Here is the SOA, just format it to MSE and copy and paste it on to a thread.

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

izools

devona wrote: »

So if I open a co op account and have wages paid into them it means that I will miss loan repayments so I suppose I can expect some nasty phonecalls .I have stopped paying the minimum amounts on credit cards and written to them explaining that I am finding it difficult to pay ,I have only just started doing this and have made payments of £50 instead of the expected £250 .Marbles have been charging me 33% interest for way over 2 yrs now so I think they have had a fair bit back in interest!!
This all new to me so just getting a bit of advice will go a long way to helping me from going insane.
where can I work out my SOA and post it so you can all see my dillema ,a big thanks for replying !!!

I would reccomend the Barclays Cash Account.

Wait until AFTER you have been declared bankrupt by the judge before opening your new account, otherwise the OR may freeze the account for a short while whilst investigating - remember that you would have to mention the new account on your Statement of Affairs if you open it before bankruptcy.

The Co-Opertive Cashminder is an OK account, you get a Visa Electron card. They charge £19.50 for each instance of returned DD, SO, or inadvertantly being Overdrawn..

The Barclays Cash account is better, you get a full VISA connect card, they don't perform ANY credit check when opening the account, and they only charge £8 for each instance of returned DD, SO, or inadvertantly slipping overdrawn.

Remember of course that without an overdraft you may find it a little harder to avoid charges due to the lack of a "Safety net".

Good luck, take it from someone who has come out of the other side of bankruptcy and starting a fresh, you will feel massively better afterward; and probably ask yourself "Why didn't I do this sooner?".

Go get 'em!

devona

This makes me wanna weep when I see how irresponsible I have been and its not as if I have anything to show for it I have just buried my head so now I have to face up to the consequences


Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1[Monthly income after tax................ 1230
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ Total monthly income.................... 1230[/b]
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 300
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 20
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 140 yearlyCar maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 827

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
mint...........................7500......180.......0
marbles........................5900......250.......0
halifax........................1800......25........0
lloyds loan....................7000......230.......0
lloys loan.....................13900.....241.......0
lloyds tsb.....................14900.....285.......0
Total unsecured debts..........51000.....1211......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,230
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 827
Available for debt repayments........... 403
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,211
Amount short for making debt repayments. -808
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -51,000
Net Assets.............................. -50,000
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.[/font]

tigerfeet2006

Izools, in this case I would recomend that Devonia gets a new account asap.

From experiance on this board we know that the Co-op very, very rarely freeze an account and if it does get frozen then a quick call to the OR will sort it pretty quickly.

Barclays don't always offer the Connect card and will quite often only offer the Cash card. They are also a bit iffy with internet banking at the moment. Also people are finding it quite hard to open the account.

You shouldn't be running your account so you get charges either.

(the only people who have had major problems with pre-opened accounts are ones who have their OR in Brighton.)

Tobiwan_Kenobi

The phone calls and letters are bad at the time, but keep telling yourself you have no alternative and get through it. Believe me, it isn't pleasant, but long term it is worth it (at least it was for me).