The Bankruptcy Club & Supporters Club

BigDebtBoy

Hi Guys

Hope I can get a bit of advice please bear with me as it’s a long one:

I am in a lot of debt somewhere in the region of £50k nearly all credit cards and loans here’s a rough summary

£14.000 over 5 credit cards
£1,400 for pc
£12.800 personal loan
£900 personal account overdraft
£3,700 Business Loan
£8,600 Business overdraft

Now about 8 months ago I started a dmp with payplan with all the above (I got into about £15k of debt via over spending etc being a bit sorry a lot stupid the bank offered me a consolidation loan to cover the lot and I asked them to cancel my credit cards which they didn’t I then tried to get my self out the mess by gambling (yes I know stupid) so ended up with the above so a fair portion apart from the business loan being down to gambling.

Anyway as I said I started a dmp paying just around £140 a month around 8/9 months ago and was doing ok at first but still very worried by the amount of money I owed and the fact I would be about 145 when I paid it off, I am self employed I run my own business but haven’t been able to motivate myself due to the stress and also the fact I cant barely sleep at night so although I could make good money from my business I haven’t due to not being in the right frame of mind.

The problem is I went on holiday in august (silly I know but the holiday was paid for) and spent far more than I could afford and obviously lost out on 4 weeks business I also found a old credit card with a £2.000 limit and like a Muppet used almost all of it gambling to try and get back on track Obviously I lost the lot AGAIN.

Now since then I have struggled to pay anything and as all the direct debits including 3 payplan payments have all bounced and my lovely new bank charges even more extortionate rates for such things so my new personal account is now £950 overdrawn (with no agreed limit) £800 of this is charges in the last 2 months inc about 15 £38 failed direct debit payments.

So I know have as well as the above debt
£2000 credit card
£900 new bank overdraft
And also £5000 I owe my parents in rent over the last 18 months (they have been great but I must pay this back ASAP)

Oh and I also owe £1800 for various companies I use via my business
3 months gym membership
£180 mobile phone bills

Now I am thinking of going bankrupt as I cant see any other way out I have tried all be it I have probably gone the wrong way about it but now I can barely get myself out of bed in a morning I cant sleep at night am not sure what depression is but I think I may have it at the moment as my life feels like its over and I am only 27

I have no doubt I could make my business work if I didn’t have so much to worry about and as much money owed out But can I do this if I go bankrupt as I will have to start from scratch (which is what I did when I started I was on the dole and my problems only started as soon as the banks started throwing loans/credit cards at me.

I Don’t really have any assets I don’t have a house or a car all I have is a small dj record collection , a pc , a old camcorder a 3 year old laptop and a small amount of stock. I Live with my parents and they are worried about bailiffs coming round and I am worried about what I would do to the bailiffs if they tried to take anything I feel I would see red and do something violent if they entered my parents house.

I can’t see any other way out but bankruptcy but I have read conflicting things about it like it ruins your chance of getting a house ever in the future etc


Any advice would be very much appreciated as I need to get my life back before I do something more stupid than I have already done

Thanks

bizzylizzy

Mike_St_Helens wrote:

Can you start a life policy after your Bday ?

OR gave us 2 choices - let the policy lapse and then start a new one after we're discharged, or buy it back and keep it going.

nocredit

BigDebtBoy wrote:

Hi Guys

Hope I can get a bit of advice please bear with me as it’s a long one:?



Any advice would be very much appreciated as I need to get my life back before I do something more stupid than I have already done

Thanks

Hello

1) Go and see the Citezens Advice people they are great
2) Phone your local Insolvency Practice for some short advice or even pay to see them (accountnacyage.com use a top 50 practice)
3) Start budgeting for your essential outgoings each month and try to live only to pure cash
4) Everyone makes mistakes only a fool make those mistakes twice, you will be ok..

nocredit

BigDebtBoy wrote:

Hi Guys

I Live with my parents and they are worried about bailiffs coming round and I am worried about what I would do to the bailiffs if they tried to take anything I feel I would see red and do something violent if they entered my parents house.

See the below re the bailiff

http://www.insolvencyhelpline.co.uk/debt_basics/bailiff-guide.htm

bizzylizzy

bizzylizzy wrote:

I have just spoken to OR again re life policy in the vain hope that he may have been wrong about the above. He said he does have an interest in it even though there is no surrender value in it. If one of us dies in the next 12 months then OR will get the money!!!! That is the interest he has. He is sending us the info on how to buy it back. I think we will have to do this as I can't leave us or our family unprotected. So that's us back in debt again! :mad: :mad:

An update on this - got a letter from OR today and it says that the policy is now an asset of our bankruptcy estate. If the premiums continue on it, then when one of us dies the proceeds will go to OR - EVEN AFTER WE ARE DISCHARGED! So we will buy it back now.
I didn't know about this before BR (not that it could have made any difference to our decision but it would have helped to be prepared for it) so I hope this helps someone about to go through it.

uskoks

Firstly, season's greetings to one and all

Since I last posted a few weeks ago my situation has changed a little - I'm now employed but still can't afford to pay anything back. We're inundated with calls every day (I just disconnect the phone then pick up my messages via 1571) and the unpleasent letters have started to arrive. Quite a few have threatened further action and this is starting to stress me out a little. How long would it take these company's to get around to 'nabbing' me? As you may remember, my Bankruptcy date is March 6 2007 and I'm seriously worried that things may happen before then. I'm dreading the baliff visits!

All this wouldn't be a problem if I was living elsewhere but this long waiting list at Brighton is causing me a few problems!

Regards

uskoks

Mike_St_Helens

uskoks wrote:

Firstly, season's greetings to one and all

Since I last posted a few weeks ago my situation has changed a little - I'm now employed but still can't afford to pay anything back. We're inundated with calls every day (I just disconnect the phone then pick up my messages via 1571) and the unpleasent letters have started to arrive. Quite a few have threatened further action and this is starting to stress me out a little. How long would it take these company's to get around to 'nabbing' me? As you may remember, my Bankruptcy date is March 6 2007 and I'm seriously worried that things may happen before then. I'm dreading the baliff visits!

All this wouldn't be a problem if I was living elsewhere but this long waiting list at Brighton is causing me a few problems!

Regards

uskoks

Hiya... I went 12 months without paying anyone and no-one came to see me.

Ironically one did the other week.... He was packed off in a little santas sack.....

Mike - BTW Happy Christmas !

sandralovescats

You may remember I told you about a problem with a dozy solicitor I had. Well, I changed solicitor about four weeks ago.

I sent him a letter about 10 days ago informing him about how unhappy I was with his work and that he had not carried out the work I had expected him, etc. Then I explained that I was no longer working and had no money to pay his bill but that I was taking out a 100% Full Payment IVA and he would be hearing from my IP at GT very soon.

So, what happened???

The old solicitor has taken out a claim against me in the local County Court - got the letter today.

I emailed my IP whom is setting up the IVA and was told just to send the paperwork to them directly and that they would deal with it.

These solicitors are a pain in the you know where!

rog2

uskoks wrote:

Firstly, season's greetings to one and all

Quite a few have threatened further action and this is starting to stress me out a little. How long would it take these company's to get around to 'nabbing' me? As you may remember, my Bankruptcy date is March 6 2007 and I'm seriously worried that things may happen before then. I'm dreading the baliff visits!

Season's Greetings to you as well.

I would not worry unduly about the long delay or the threats of further action by some of your creditors, uskoks. Firstly, no-one will be able to 'send the bailffs around' without having first obtained a CCJ (the ONLY exception being the Council for CT arrears). In order to get a CCJ, they would, first, need to issue you with a summons for a CC hearing. All you would need, then, to do would be to put your current circumstances, including your br hearing date, in your defence. It would be very unusual for a judge to issue a Judgement against you as this could be seen as offering preferential treatment to that creditor. Even if a CCJ were issued, you would STILL have 28 days from the date of issue, during which time you could make an offer of minimum payment or apply to have the judgement 'set aside'.
March is not that far away.

rog2

I must admit that I do not seem to be having a very smooth passage through bankruptcy so far, and this week has been a particularly !!!!!! week - one I really didn't need just on Christmas - so I thought I'd post a short update as I really could do with a bit of advice:

1. This first point is more of a mini 'rant' than anything else; On Tuesday I received a strange phone call, from HMRC. A very 'officious' squeaky voiced man demanded to know when I would be available as they had been 'trying to serve a statutory demand on me, and were about to register me as a 'lost trader'
He seemed somewhat taken aback when I explained to him that HMRC had served a statutory demand on me last July, followed by a petition for my bankruptcy, which was subsequently declared on the 26th of November in the Royal Courts of Justice. I even gave him my br number and asked him how many times HMRC wanted to declare me bankrupt. In true Civil Service manner, he told me that he would 'investigate' what I had just said, but, in the meantime I must make myself available for this 'statutory demand' to be served on me by Friday (today), otherwise it would be deemed to have been served and subsequently posted through my letter-box.
I often ask myself why the hell I bother. :mad: :mad:

2. Strange letter from appointed Trustee; I was told, at my OR meeting, that as the next stage of my process my br would be passed to a trustee. I was informed, 2 weeks ago, by the OR of the name of the trustee and that all future queries etc., concerning my br, would be handled by the trustee, whose main role would be to realise my assetts. I was, therefore, expecting to hear from the trustee's office, but was not really expecting the type of letter that I recieved this morning.
The letter introduces the Trustee, although gives me the name of a 'clerk' with whom I should communicate either verbally or in writing. It also states that a creditors' meeting has been called for the 18th of January and that I, normally, do not have the 'right' to attend, although I may apply for the trustee's permission to attend.
Okay - not a lot new in that, but the letter also asks me to complete an attached 'bankruptcy form' which basically covers everything that was discussed at my OR meeting. The form, whilst similar to that which I filled in for OR, is a lot more 'probing' and asks for financial information going back generally 5 years, but in some questions 10 and 15 years.
Firstly I do not have a lot of the information requested, plus I would question the need to go back so far, but my biggest concern is that I gave all the information, as required by the OR and have signed the 'perjury act' acknowledgement. The OR told me that that was all the information required, so can anyone advise why the trustee requires more information?
Would the information that I have already given to the OR not, automatically, have been passed on to the trustee?
If I try to fill in this form - a lot of the answers would be 'from memory' as I had to manually fill in my form (38 pages) and much of the information on which my answers were based was taken from accounts now given to OR. If there were any unintended differences, could this be construed as 'perjury'?
Also, I tried ringing the trustee's office today, only to be told that they were closed until after the New Year. Trustee requires this information by 3rd January.
Any advice greatfully received.
Hope I haven't upset anyone's Christmas Spirit.
Thanks.