Some advice please

xxmichellexx

Hi all i am just wondering wether to go bankrupt, i have so many debts in both my maiden name and married name and debts from my previuos marriage probably totals somewhere near 25,000 or so.
Im really concerned as to what they do when you become bankrupt ie do they come in and take your goods car etc...
Any advice as to where to go from here would be greatly recieved
Thanks
Michelle

Tinytim

Hi Michelle,

The first thing to say is that you should seek advice from one of the debt counselling charities such as CCCS, National Debtline or CAB before coming to a decision. They will be able to go through all of your options and advise you as to which is the most apporpriate.

If you do decide to go BR, it is extremelly unlikely that anyone will call at your home. Gone are the days when everything you owned was taken from you, and most OR's tend to take a pragmatic approach. As far as household goods are concerned, you are allowed to keep those items which are considered normal essentials of family living, including bedding, TV, washing machine etc and furniture. In practice, unless you have very expensive antiques, or a 50" LCD telly, the OR won't be interested (it costs more to collect and store, than they would sell for at auction). If the OR does take things such as a telly, he has to allow you sufficient funds to purchase an alternative.

The OR will be interested in valuable jewellery and your car. If you need your car for essential transport, then the OR will normally allow you to keep it, as long as it is less than a certain value. The value seems to vary from office to office, but £2000 has been suggested to be the rough limit. If you need a car for essential travel, but yours is more expensive, the OR will normally look for you to "buy" the difference of him, or will sell the car and give you an allowance to buy a cheaper on.

Oh, and welcome to the board

xxmichellexx

Thankyou for your advice tim i am worried sick as wether or not to go with this, i do have a car but it is on finance so obviously it will have to go.
What i was most worried about was them coming in to take jewllery tv,s, kids games consoles etc etc

philnicandamy

some reading here

http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/pdfs/guidanceleafletspdf/guidetobankruptcy.pdf

and here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1056083

BUT as others have said contact someone for free debt advice asap! but rest assured nobody will turn up to take anything

Desperate+Depressed

Hi Michelle

Welcome to the forum........as others have already suggested, you should take some advice before making a final decision.

I found CCCS very helpful. You can actually answer some questions online, and it will give you maybe a couple of suggestions at the end of it. Obviously, the final decision is still up to you.

Everyone on here is great. I have asked soooooooooooooo many questions, and have only been on here for a week or so!lol

Good luck with it all

x