please help me! bad advice and in more trouble than i would of been :(

gb2010

hi

i am 25 years old and 18 months ago i was told by my accountant that the best option for me money wise was to ignore letters, change my number and forget all about it and eventually my creditors would make me bankrupt. as a 23 year old, petrified young man who trusted his accountant i took this advice and did exactly as he said. now 18 months on i have realised that this was the worst advice he could of possibly given me. :mad::mad::mad:

i now want to face upto my debt and clear it asap as i am wanting in the future to have my own house and family but with bankruptcy hanging over me i know this would be difficult. please please please can someone tell me my best option from here?????

my debts: (rough figures as i've not been in touch with them yet and without interest)

hsbc 8k
all & lei 8k
misc 4k
cr card £250

please can someone advise best option/ what to do???

thanks for reading this and your time......

velrist

Oh my word. Do you have any of this 'advice' from your accountant in writing or was it all done verbally? I can't really advise on the best course of action with this from a legal view, I'm sure someone else will be able to let you know if you have any kind of case against your accountant.

I would check your credit file to see exactly what is showing there - it should show you current balances and any defaults as well without having to contact your creditors just yet.

In the meantime if you complete a statement of affairs so you can have an idea how much money you should have available for debt repayments.

gb2010

unfortunately it is all verbal from my accountant but thanks for your reply i will check my report now...

WASHER

Your accountant wants sacking or at least reporting, that is the worst advice you could have ever been told.

Post an SOA (incomings and outgoings) and we will see what we can do in terms of reducing your outgoings in order to repay the debts.

You have approx 20k of debt, not a huge sum, and if you work, you may have other options open to you rather than bankruptcy.

Take alook at the the CCCS website ( a debt charity) who can help you and they will not charge you a fee either for doing so, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES PAY ANY ONE FOR ADVICE YOU CAN FREE FROM THE LIKES OF THE CCCS.

WASHER.x.

Norfolk_Jim

Seriously? Thats more like "bloke in a pub" advise than an accountants. Is he registered? Bankrupt is a last resort, theres so much you can do before it comes to that, especially as you are still pretty young.

GeorgeUK

I agree that a SOA would be useful. Ther may be savings in your expenditure that can be made.
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

There may be a few options available to you - Debt Management Plan, IVA
But we need more info before we can comment.

savingmummy

That is terrible. You never run from debt and certainly dont ignore the letters etc. It actually makes matters worse!!
Your cc debt is quite low if you post your SOA (ensure it is 100% accurate) you may be able to pay that off in one month by reducing your outgoings ie, clothing, groceries, mobile etc.

You really need to get some professional help so you can start repaying these debts.

velrist

I agree, the accountant definitely needs reporting/sacking, it's definitely the worst advice that could have been given. The debt management charities like CCCS should be able to help you sort it out without charging you a fee and negotiate payment terms and maybe get interest frozen.

Dependent on your personal circumstances it's not a massive amount of debt but your SOA will give people more to go on about advising you.

gb2010

going to do the soa shortly so watch this space. thanks for evry1's comments on this

gb2010

i have just done my credit report via experian and its telling me i owe 10k on a loan and 340 on a credit card but it says my other loan with hsbc has been settled is this definately correct and can i trust this? if so i am obviously over the moon and can concentrate on getting my other debt sorted and much quicker...

velrist

Keep an eye on the HSBC debt, it might be showing as settled because they've sold it to a debt collection agency, if so a new debt might show up later on.

In the meantime concentrate on the debts that are currently on your credit file. When you come to do your SOA make sure you include APRs and the minimum payments on all of your debts as it will help you prioritise which to pay off first.