Considering Bankruptcy, currently have a Debt Management Plan - Advise Please

Annieec

Hi,

Last year myself and my husband took out a debt management plan (DMP), we currently pay £350 a month. Our review is due soon and we expect they'll want to take more as we are now earning more money. We are expecting our first child in May and are considering bankruptcy.

We have fully cleared 3 accounts, all for about £250 ish each and made a settlement figure of £750 on an account we owed just under £1200 to.

We now have 3 accounts remaining.. all Natwest accounts, 2 credit cards of £2100 and £2300.

We also owe Natwest £29000 in total on a loan we took our 3 yrs ago as a £25k top loading loan - we didn't realise it was top loading till we took out the DMP.

We are now considering bankruptcy because I am pregnant and we cannot see anothr way out.

A family member has said to offer Natwest £10k as full and final settlement for everything and they will find the money to help us out, then we can pay them back at a later date, but I don't think Natwest will go for it.

Any help & advise would be useful.

Many Thanks

mel12

A family member has said to offer Natwest £10k as full and final settlement for everything and they will find the money to help us out, then we can pay them back at a later date, but I don't think Natwest will go for it.

It might be worth trying, if the worst they can do is say no you havent' really lost anything?

Hanky3

Firstly, I'd recommend you seek help from one of the debt charities so an expert can suggest whether bankruptcy is the best solution for you.

From my experience of the NWest I doubt they'll go for your offer. Blood and stone are two words that come to mind to describe their attitude to people who owe them.

One thing I would definately say is that if you're struggling on a DMP (as I was paying £600 a month on total debts of 22K), then the DMP isn't working. It should be there to make your finances better and give you enough for the essentials, if this isn't happening it's probably worth seeing if you can reassess your payments with them.

Personally and in hindsight I wish I'd gone bankrupt sooner - was like fighting a losing battle and never paying anything off my debt. But hindsight's a great thing.

Really, you're first port of call is to go and seek help and discuss your options re bankruptcy and take it from there. Before you go bankrupt you have to make sure it's the only real solution to your debt problems.

All the best and Merry Christmas, at least you're getting things sorted!