Money to live on

all-the-gear-but-no-idea

Hello there. Here asking for help.

Could I ask please. Does anybody know whether the BR process takes all your liquid funds from your bank account after it has been frozen. I know this sounds a silly question so I will explain what I mean.

I have changed my bank account to a BR friendly one with a bank that is unrelated to my debts. I intend to call the court tomorrow to arrange a date for the inevitable...

As I understand it when you go bankrupt the court automatically freezes your accounts therefore I will not be able to withdraw any funds. I also thought that the OR when I talk to them could request that this account is unfrozen ASAP to allow day-to-day living etc.

I would like to know that if there is any money in this account prior to being declaired BR, whether this money will still be there when it is unfrozen (there isnt much in there, just enough to get by for the short term under £50.00)

Would I be better off waiting until I get paid again 25th and drawing it all out before going BR in order to have enough to live on?

I am also getting letters and calls everyday now saying that my debtors will pass my details over to a collection company. Will I get into more trouble if I put it off any longer? I wouldnt be able to cope with people knocking on my door demanding money I haven't got.

Thanks for helping

A worried daddy

alastairq

hi, will answer to best of my abilities.....

I would like to know that if there is any money in this account prior to being declaired BR, whether this money will still be there when it is unfrozen (there isnt much in there, just enough to get by for the short term under £50.00)

yes it will.....doubtful if any freezing will take place in reality, however. On day of BR, you will likely speak to OR's office [by phone?], to clarify that this sum is for living expenses. You could always take most of it out the day before....?

Would I be better off waiting until I get paid again 25th and drawing it all out before going BR in order to have enough to live on?

Possibly..I didn't, but if it makes you feel more secure, pay all DD's etc first,

I am also getting letters and calls everyday now saying that my debtors will pass my details over to a collection company. Will I get into more trouble if I put it off any longer? I wouldnt be able to cope with people knocking on my door demanding money I haven't got.

This is always a problem when in debt....if you have the BR fee, then do it now? It is doubtful any DCA can get things like a Court hearing organised quicker than you can go BR..and it wouldn't matter anyway.

Let them knock away....there are many threads on here advising on how to deal with Doorstep collectors.

Thanks for helping

The OR is only interested in bank accounts if there are significant sums of money on deposit...the OR has no interest in money needed for normal , reasonable living expenses.

Take heart, there really is very little to worry about, now you have made the biggest step of deciding what to do.

Ineedaname

You say you have opened a BR friendly account, just want to check it is one of the two regularly recommended, either Barclays Basic or Co-op Cashminder. Anything else may be frozen by the bank regardless of whether the OR declares they are happy for you to continue using it.

I didn't take any money out of my Co-op Cashminder when I went BR and have continued to be able to use it with no problems whatsoever. The Co-op knew why I opened the account and had a note on my records to say I was going BR and the OR said he would write to confirm I could continue using the account.

HOLIDAYMAD_2

it is the bank discretion as to whether they allow the account to continue , money management team not customer services at co op expect a call off the BR following the BR with ref number etc asap, as the OR can take a min of 2 months but can take longer.
if the call is not made they may take umbridge to the client and on notification from the OR can close such.
The co op like to be kept informed , we are the customer not the OR.
i have spoken with both teams at the co op and money management can be funny if not informed of all the actual and current a facts, i have banked with co op for over 3 years.

The court does not close an account and no accounts are closed /froze like on automatic, there is no special button to hit etc , if you have accounts they are usable but shouldnt be used without both the OR and the banks permission as a declared undischarged BR, the OR is looking for assets in accounts, if a account has assets he will say no to usage if no assets he wont have a problem.
But its the bank that says yeh or nah and there is never a guarantee they will say yeh, co op dont really like BR either but do tolerate such within reason......

HOLIDAYMAD_2

just to add i contacted the customer services team the night before BR and was told should be no problem BUT I MUST contact the bank at the time of BR to see if the account was still ok to use and it was the money management team that would make that decision and not the call centre customer service staff.

BaldEagle

HOLIDAYMAD wrote: »

it is the bank discretion as to whether they allow the account to continue , money management team not customer services at co op expect a call off the BR following the BR with ref number etc asap, as the OR can take a min of 2 months but can take longer.

Don't know if the minimum of 2 months is strictly true. My bank, Barclays, wrote to me within 6 days of me going BR so it may differ from one area to the next.

Back to the OP, I personally would wait until the next salary cheque arrives in the account. Make sure enough is left in there to cover existing DDs, STOs, etc. and then withdraw the rest and keep it safe just in case. It's unlikely, as Alastair and Ineedaname have said, that the account will actually be frozen but it's one less thing to worry about.

Ineedaname

HOLIDAYMAD wrote: »

The court does not close an account and no accounts are closed /froze like on automatic, there is no special button to hit etc

Nobody said the Court freezes accounts so I don't know why you mention this.

I didn't ring the Co-op up on the day as I had already told them why I needed the account and it was noted by them as the couple of times I did need to ring them prior to going BR they were aware of the situation.

The OR still needs to declare no interest in the account, if they did declare an interest then it would most likely be frozen by the Co-op. It doesn't sound like the OP needs to worry about that though.

My OR wrote to the banks very quickly as I got a call from my previous current account bank about 3 days after going BR.

dojoman

Ineedaname wrote: »

Nobody said the Court freezes accounts so I don't know why you mention this. The OP states this in his original post.

I didn't ring the Co-op up on the day as I had already told them why I needed the account and it was noted by them as the couple of times I did need to ring them prior to going BR they were aware of the situation. My OR told me to ring them when I had my initial phone call after going BR.

The OR still needs to declare no interest in the account, if they did declare an interest then it would most likely be frozen by the Co-op. It doesn't sound like the OP needs to worry about that though.

My OR wrote to the banks very quickly as I got a call from my previous current account bank about 3 days after going BR.

Every OR operates differently, hence the different answers to similar questions.

HOLIDAYMAD_2

dojoman wrote: »

Every OR operated differently, hence the different answers to similar questions.

in my answers i wanted to clear up the myth that gets asked a lot " will the court freeze my accounts" so hense why i gave the answer and as dojoman said the OP did ask the question.

Going back to the co -op ive had a account with them for over 3 years and they are in my opinon an excellent organisation however i think because they have the status as running as a co operative, which is slightly different than the main stream banks they tend to be more reasonable with their customers, i dont think they consider them selves BR friendly but have more relaxed practices etc

however the money management team can be really stuffy if you just assume, so that is why i said you should ring after the actual BR, i asked the same questions the day pre BR with the co op that i must ring money management i had a lenghty call with money management, my account was always run well. So it wasnt a case that i had been naughty at times.
They also explained what products i could and couldnt have such as a basic savings account, yet nationwide had no issue with me keeping such.

last thing anyone wants is to see a account closed based on not following the information through, co op customer services are ok but dont always give the correct info out.

and OR did say that they have up to 8 weeks to notify banks and creditors but as we all know there is a little backlog.

OR helpline also said that each OR can work slightly different.

hope that helps. not trying to scare mong but saying what had actually been said to me by both the OR and the coop.

dojoman

HM, I agree with everything that you posted in No`s 4 and 5, what you have described in them is what happened to me when I went BR:)

Ineedaname

My mistake, very tired last night so sorry for any confusion.