Bankruptcy was the best thing I ever did

p24hrsmith

In 2001 I had an accident leaving me partly disabled so was unable to work. I had a high paid job and of course lived upto it. The strain of at times being so short of money I had to scrounge food from relatives put an end to my marriage which then added in ludicrous demands from the CSA this meant my out goings were £350 a month more than my income. So I was force to live on credit even though I had cut down as much as I could living in a rat infested bedsit, sold everything I could and lived off a diet of Tesco baked beans and noodles. As the debt grow so did the level of harassment and when debt collecting agencies got involved the debt just sky rocketed. I did go see a debt councillor who come up with a plan but it meant for 5 years I would have to live like I was.
So in 2002 in desperation I declared myself bankrupt I no longer cared about the consequences of what that meant. I declared it myself to prevent me going into the longer term bankruptcy (then 2 years or 5 years), I paid for it by not paying anyone for a few months.
It wasn’t as hard to go through as expected the insolvency people where very helpful (NOTE if you have an assets or income that will help pay some of the dept you still have too I had nothing so could pay nothing) within a month I was able to move into a much nicer flat I could afford to eat again even got to go out once and a while. But the best was the harassment stopped and being forced to live without any credit taught me you can manage without it and to this day I’m totally debt free.

IF

Hello p24hrsmith, Thankyou for telling us your story. It gives us all hope that there is light at the end of our "imaginary tunnel". Well done you!

All the best.
Ifwishes...x

kew63

Great to hear a good news story and that what can be a dreadful period of your life can turn out so postively.

All the best :-)

sizzler

I am glad things worked out for you sizzler.

Good luck for the future:)

snoopy89

got to agree with u m8, best thing i ever done as well, its not a easy road to travel, but when u get to the end boy can u breath, i have money in bank, all bills are paid and i even help my son out. but no i dont get much, as i am disabled as well, but now i dont owe any moneies life is ok and one thing i have learned, do not use credit cards etc, they ruin your life as even if u dont run up a huge debet on them if you are ill or get made redundedt, the credit companies still what there pound and a half of flesh. best of luck to you in the future. oh i only went br november 2009. what a differance. :beer::T

shazbo

That is nice to hear, after 8 years still to feel good about your decision and have benefited so much from it.

We are only 8 months into it and occasionaly i wonder if it was the right decision, could we have worked it out another way? but then reality hits and i realise how much more relaxed and happy we are now compared to the first 6 months when it was a major struggle to try and stick to a budget, a real pain to ask permission for absolutely everything and not knowing what decision they might come up with next!

our budget is now finely tuned, i know exactly what to expect with regards to the bills (the OR is still a mystery). Sometimes we still have to take money from one pot to help another as life still manages to get in the way of our finances but at least its small manageable amounts.

I feel very lucky to have been able to get a second chance, to try and get it right as we should have done in the first place and our children are still young enough to benefit and old enough to learn some valuable lessons

dojoman

Thanks for sharing your experience of BR, glad you got through it OK.:T

josmidge

Hi,

BR was the best thing i ever did i never had as i never had a clean slate to start with (I married an older man with debts and i met him when i'd just turned 18). So now after 12 years of marrage and 3 kids and a bankrupsy order life is good i can save now and have what i like without a debt to show for it. It taught me to face my problems cool and calmly before they get out of hand. There is most definatly light at the end of the proverbial tunnel!!!

Jo

Whoopy

I'm glad I did it too tho at the time I felt a failure. But the relief that it was all dealt with and no more phone calls and letters made up for that. I now manage my money well, and never want any debt again.

It amazes me how different it is for everyone tho, reading the forum. Mine was dont through CAB and the guy was fantastic. He did everything for me.I do remember having to pay my fee of £100 to RBS to go BR with an account number from the guy at CAB written on a piece of paper. I walked into the bank feeling like a criminal and the girl asked who's account was it. I told her she would see when she typed in the account number!! Then 6 months into it getting the forms to review my circumstances and finally nearly a year ago informed of my discharge.

The clean up bamboozles me a little and to be honest I didnt know there were things I could to do help until I came on here. Just the fact of selling on my car and not getting credit for a new one that is a pain (tho I really dont want to borrow money anyway). I do plan on sending the £2 postal order to experian and seeing how it looks now. Before being on here I think I would have just muddled along for the next few years with a bad credit rating!!