Get married before or after declaring bankruptcy?

bankrubber

First of all, I am so glad to have found this forum. I no longer feel dirty and alone in planning to go bankrupt...

So, the question I hope to get some help with is whether to postpone a loosely planned wedding till after going bankrupt, or even till after clearing the 1 year period of being bankrupt?

What impact will my bankruptcy have on my partner in getting a mobile phone contract or similar small credit agreements, as opposed to if we were legally married?

Any useful info on this subject is greatly appreciated.

NeverAgain_2

Provided you are only linked by affairs of the heart, and not financially, your bankruptcy and married status should have no impact on your partner.

A more interesting question is what the official receiver will say when you put 'upcoming wedding' in your budget.

And whatever the law says, your marriage may confuse your creditors and some unscrupulous ones may try to drag in your marriage partner.

They can't do that, but if it's all the same to the pair of you, it might be simplest to delay your wedding until after your discharge - typically one year or a little less from the date of your bankruptcy.

Ineedaname

It will make absolutely no difference to your partner if you go bankrupt, married or not, as long as you have no financial connections. This means no joint bank accounts, loans, cards etc.

Planning a wedding is stressful enough though, so it might be wise to get the BR out of the way first.

As NA says, you may also find saving for a wedding a little difficult during BR year so just take it day by day and see how you go.

bankrubber

Thank you for the input. We are financially connected through a joint account, so I assume my bankruptcy will affect her credit?

The plan at the moment is to go and get married on paper and have a party when we are on top of things again. By the sound of your suggestions, the sensible thing to do is to put things off until after the discharge.

Ineedaname

It would be wise to remove your name from the joint account prior to going BR. Your OH can remain on that account and continue to use it. If you don't do this then the account is likely to be frozen when you go BR and the bank only unfreeze it when your name is removed and the OR has declared no interest.

You'll need to open either a Barclays Basic account (no online banking) or a Co-op Cashminder (with online access), both allow a debit card and direct debits/standing orders.

philnicandamy

One thing to bear in mind as well...if the joint account has an o/d and your currrently using the facility they WILL refuse to take a name off..

Ineedaname

...In which case it would still be best if you opened a BR friendly account and run all household finances through that until after BR. Just get your OH to do a regular standing order for their proportion into your new account. The joint account will almost definitely be frozen at BR.

Your OH could also open a new account somewhere and you both leave the overdraft behind for now. Once you are BR then your OH will be liable to pay off the overdraft.

Can you confirm that makes sense and is the right way round please Phil?

bankrubber

The joint account is currently minus £1500 and we are not using it for any transactions, I just pay off the interest every month. Closing it will be difficult.

As my concern is to have the least impact on my partners credit score, the only solution is to somehow bring the account up to £0 and close it before going BR? If the answer is yes, that does make sense, and it means I will do what is possible to bring the account back to £0. If it does not really have an impact, I would rather not attempt to pay it off...

Thanks again for helping me out.

Ineedaname

Unfortunately, even though that is a joint account, it would probably still be seen as showing preference to one of your creditors. If your OH could pay it off using only his money then I think that would be OK. Clarification of the latter from an expert on the boards would be appreciated...

As you say, you could then close the account and it won't affect your OH's credit rating. You would still need to declare the account on your BR forms I think, and supply copy statements to the OR.

I was thinking of a possible which would mean your OH is affected by your BR, due to the overdraft going into your BR and your OH then ending up solely responsible for it. The connection remains and his credit rating is affected as a consequence. I'm not sure though whether he could disassociate himself from your credit files once the OD is paid off and if that would solve the problem. I know he could put a note on his files to say something like "unused joint bank account with overdraft paid off by myself after OH went BR" and that may help when lenders search his files.

I guess the crucial question though is, will he be seeking any credit in the next 6 years? Considering what you are going through I would assume you'll both be very careful with your finances from now on. So if he's not planning on any credit then the issue of his rating being affected for now is moot I suppose.

I just don't know how badly a partner's credit rating is affected by the association with a BR...

Sorry, bit long, thinking out loud, hopefully that will generate some experienced responses though.

bankrubber

Just for the records, my other half is a she

About applying for credit in the next 6 years, you are right we will both be very cautious. Although we will not apply for a loan or credit cards, I am concerned about being able to set up a direct debit payment for utilities etc, as opposed to paying everything up front.

My understanding is that I will have to pay everything upfront after BR, so we are hoping that most utilities etc can be in my partners name.

Ineedaname

bankrubber wrote: »

Just for the records, my other half is a she

Thanks, that makes it much easier.

You should be able to continue to pay direct debit monthly for utilities after BR. At least I've not heard any different on the board the last few months, except in specific circumstances where utilities are included in BR. I think gas and electric tends to go into BR, particularly this time of year when a debit amount is likely after winter, but they just set up a new account and continue the DD as far as I know.

Only cases I can think of are when utilities are seriously in arrear and gas/electric again want to install pre-pay meters anyway.

So that shouldn't be an issue long term either.