Less creditors = quicker processing and earlier discharge?

WLITC

Would I be right to assume that the less creditors the OR has to investigate, then the quicker the OR will process things and possibly discharge someone? Of course I appreciate that if people have lots of assets, etc then it would complicate and delay things, but if someone had only 3-4 creditors and no assets, then it not logical that they could process it quicker?

I ask because I currently have a 3 credit cards, 2 loans and an overdraft. If both the loan and overdraft are with they bank, are dealt with as one creditor, then I technically only have just 4 creditors.
Now I could reduce this down to three if I clear my barclaycard. The balance is only £460 and I have just enough credit left on the other card to transfer the balance to that card. I could then close the barclaycard and be left with just three creditors when I go BR. Or does the OR investigate any recently closed accounts/loans/cards too? obviously if thats the case then this would be a pointless exercise.

script

Probably best not to transfer credit card balances so close to Bankruptcy.

I guess having less creditors might make the OR's job quicker and easier.

But it will also depend on the volumes of work, number of staff etc.

A good indicator might be - if your county court were able to give you an appointment quite quickly or there wasn't a queue a mile long (if they do "walk in appointments")...

It may be your OR's office is not swamped with new cases.

(You could also check the other courts within your OR's juristrication to see what the time delays are like).

But - if you are in London I imagine the OR's are busy.

peachyprice

It won't make much difference to the amount of time your investigation takes. and certainly not ED.

It's a basic paper pushing excercise so it's not going to take the OR much longer to send out 3 identical letter as it is to send out 10, they only have to change the address and account numbers. Then there's no guarantee that your 3-4 creditors will reply any quicker than 10.

WLITC

script wrote: »

Probably best not to transfer credit card balances so close to Bankruptcy.

I guess having less creditors might make the OR's job quicker and easier.

But - if you are in London I imagine the OR's are busy.

I guess your right it might not make much of a difference, but I do live in central London so perhaps the OR appreciates it when a case is nice and straightforward . Anyway, I was just thinking (all I seem to think about at the moment is going BR) of ways to ensure the OR can process my BR as quickly as possible.

philnicandamy

as others have said sadly there's no pattern to how an OR handles a case....you may be in it for 12mnths you may be lucky enough to receive an early discharge..either way its just the luck of the draw

mine was a very simple case a few years ago...yet I went nearly 10mnths till discharge..many more here have been considered for early discharge but it's never been granted..

WLITC

philnicandamy wrote: »

..many more here have been considered for early discharge but it's never been granted..

What do you mean considered by not granted? I thought the OR just decided on early discharge if he has completed all his work and is comfortable that there is noting else to do or investigate?

fermi

welshladinthecity wrote: »

What do you mean considered by not granted?

To process the ED takes several admin steps by the OR over a few months. Including submitting paperwork to the court.

Doing that admin is a low priority job, so if an examiner/office is too busy with new cases then the ED paperwork can get "shelved", even if they have previously considered your case for ED and started the process.

kew63

Probably best not to count on ED, it's a plesant surprise if it happens but that's it.
Dont worry about the amount of creditors, what will really help the OR is if when they asked for info & copies of staements etc. that they get them & the info is clear & helpful. Their investigations go a lot better if they dont have to work hard at getting the info they need.
Hubbie was advised start of Dec 09 that he was being considered for ED and so far nadda, be nice if it happens but as the others have said, you shouldnt count on it.

Tinytim

As the others have said, it is best not to plan for ED and just treat it as a nice surprise. However, I am almost certain that the number of creditors will not have anything to do with it, and as kew says, providing as much information up front as you can is likely to be of more help. My case was anything other than straightforward, and the number of creditors was well into double figures, and the total amount owed significant. I had a face to face interview. My ED came through after 5 months and 29 days, which would indicate it has nothing to do with the number of creditors or the amounts. However, I did provide full documentation for almost everything

debtinfo

the number of creditors does not matter, there is no need for them to reply. Most holdups are caused by getting hold of information for the investigation such as replies to accountant and solictor letters replies from mortgages and copies of statements etc, some of that such as the statements you can help the OR with by providing them, some you can do nothing about, for instance if a mortgage lender is slow about responding.

Just a note about ED, The Examiner can recomend that ED is not appropriate at all. This is usually whare you have done something wrong, but not wrong enough to get a BRO

WLITC

debtinfo wrote: »

the number of creditors does not matter, there is no need for them to reply. Most holdups are caused by getting hold of information for the investigation such as replies to accountant and solictor letters replies from mortgages and copies of statements etc, some of that such as the statements you can help the OR with by providing them, some you can do nothing about, for instance if a mortgage lender is slow about responding.

Just a note about ED, The Examiner can recomend that ED is not appropriate at all. This is usually whare you have done something wrong, but not wrong enough to get a BRO

Hey debtinfo, to be honest I probably mis labled this thread a little, I guess in reality I'm more concerned about making it easier for the OR to process and sort my BR out (the bit after the interview, when your waiting to hear if you might get an IPA, etc), ED would be nice, but I'm not overly bothered with that.

You mentioned statements. I can print off my bank ones easily enough (unless I need to get them to send official copies?), the other problem is that my loan and credit card only allow me to look/download the last 12 months. How far back will the OR want statements for and does anyone know if these companies can usually provide paper copies of old statements older than 12 months ago. They say the can supply a replacement copy (for £4-£5 each) but I didn't know whether that meant paper copies of just the last 12 month or however long the account has been going.