Thinking about bankruptcy - need some solid advice

icecream69

Hi guys,

thank you for your responses, i am currently in arrears with my electric bill by £200 the company has agreed to me paying this in two instalments of £100 pm and after that they want me to pay by direct debit of £80pm. In regards to the oil - the house i live in is a 3 bedroom semi detached, i use the oil instead of the electric but havent had any oil in the house for a while now, the oil company has agreed to provide me with oil every quarter if i pay £100pm, currently oil costs are £350 for 500 litres which is enough for a quarter, i didnt include vet bills in the soa, completely forgot, i can provide proof for the travel as i dont drive and get the bus around and i also have to travel to other cities once a month for meetings/conferences.
can you tell me why the OR would be interested in my life insurance? i have only just signed up for it - would i be better off cancelling that for now?
also my husband only contributes £200 to the household bills as he pays his dad back a for a loan and has his own debts, we have a joint bank account which is overdrawn by £3200, how would this affect my bankruptcy?
my landlord is a lovely man and im hopin he wont have a problem with my bankruptcy, the only issue i have now is that i dont have a tenancy agreement as we verbally agreed to a rolling agreement until either me or the landlord give notice to move/stop renting. How would this work with the or? would i need to provide a letter from the landlord to confirm this?

Can i also say thank you so much for being so nice and not judgemental about this, i have worried so much over this that to discuss it with ppl who arent horrible has made this weight to bear so much easier, i really appreciate what you guys are doing for me.

Thanks,

Icecream69

patman99

You and your OH need to open a new br friendly joint account at a new bank (as mentioned earlier). get your wages paid into this one and transfer your rent and utility DDs to it (but not CC's or payday loans). Make sure to check-out the info on minimum payments, then use the template letter you can find elsewhere on here to write to the credit card companies informing them that you intend to make a minimum £1 p/m payment.
Not sure if you can d the same to the payday loans, but if you can, then do this also.

The OR may not allow YOU to have a contract mobile or sat/cable TV, but if it is in your oh's name, then I think they will have less of a problem as it is not him who is going br, it is you.

The one outcome of going br is the feeling that a huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders. Your stress levels will drop as you will no longer have to worry about paying loans, cc's and o/ds with money you just do not have.

Ineedaname

icecream69 wrote: »

thank you for your responses, i am currently in arrears with my electric bill by £200 the company has agreed to me paying this in two instalments of £100 pm and after that they want me to pay by direct debit of £80pm.
If you're going BR then don't pay the arrears as they'll go into your BR.
In regards to the oil - the house i live in is a 3 bedroom semi detached, i use the oil instead of the electric but havent had any oil in the house for a while now, the oil company has agreed to provide me with oil every quarter if i pay £100pm, currently oil costs are £350 for 500 litres which is enough for a quarter, i didnt include vet bills in the soa, completely forgot, i can provide proof for the travel as i dont drive and get the bus around and i also have to travel to other cities once a month for meetings/conferences.
That all sounds fine to me.
can you tell me why the OR would be interested in my life insurance? i have only just signed up for it - would i be better off cancelling that for now?
The OR will be looking at whether there is a surrender value to the policy that they can get their hands on. If not then they take over beneficial interest, so if you die then the OR gets first dibs on the money. They will probably offer for you to buy the BI back for a nominal amount if you can borrow it from family/friends. It's up to you if you want to cancel it and take another one out later on instead.
also my husband only contributes £200 to the household bills as he pays his dad back a for a loan and has his own debts, we have a joint bank account which is overdrawn by £3200, how would this affect my bankruptcy?
The OR will expect your husband to pay a contribution comparable to the balance of your incomes, i.e. if he earns less than you then his contributions should reflect that. If he has other commitments meaning his contribution is a smaller percentage than salaries suggest, then you may need to prove that to the OR.
my landlord is a lovely man and im hopin he wont have a problem with my bankruptcy, the only issue i have now is that i dont have a tenancy agreement as we verbally agreed to a rolling agreement until either me or the landlord give notice to move/stop renting. How would this work with the or? would i need to provide a letter from the landlord to confirm this?
Did you have a signed contract originally, an Assured Shorthold Tenancy? If so then yes, that automatically goes on to a rolling contract with two months notice from landlord and a month from you, if you haven't signed a new contract to replace it. That's what I have and the OR is happy with it. So a copy of your original AST should be enough for the OR, although they may still want to contact your landlord. Might be wise to give your landlord the heads up when you go BR, so it's not a shock if they do hear from the OR.

Can i also say thank you so much for being so nice and not judgemental about this, i have worried so much over this that to discuss it with ppl who arent horrible has made this weight to bear so much easier, i really appreciate what you guys are doing for me.

We're not here to judge how or why you are in this situation, but to help you work through it.

Don't forget to contact one of the debt advice agencies as in the links above. That's a prerequisite to going BR, that you've taken appropriate advice, unfortunately MSE forums don't cover that criteria.

icecream69

Hi guys,

thank you all for taking the time to read and respond to my queries.

I have opened separate accounts for myself and my husband once i decided that i was going to go br. We both now have separate accounts from the joint account which has the overdraft, do i still need to open a joint account for us?

i earn twice as much as my husband and he only contributes £200pm would i need to prove this as so far all i have been doing is taking the money from his pay and using it to pay for bills, groceries etc in cash.

One question that has been buggin me is i am due to get a lump sum due to an agreement with my company from the union, this is being paid into my salary in april, so i will get my usual pay of £1305 plus £1431 (before tax) on top of that, that is only being paid once so will this affect my bankruptcy? me and my husband are going on holiday over to england for a couple of weeks and will be using this money to pay for hotels and travel, i am going to hand in my br papers on the 7th may and i get paid the higher amount on the 28th april, will the or question this?

i have already contacted all of my creditors advising them of my payment difficulties, some have agreeed payment plans etc but the payday loans wont accept anything, they want a months interest to roll over the loan or the ful amount. I am at my wits end with them, so i just rolled over the loans in the hope that i will be bankrupt before the next payments are due 1/5/11. I have changed bank accounts so they cant raid my account on non payment.

I am filling in forms at the minutes for bankruptcy, i did lose some money on gambling, i no i was very stupid but it was what i used to do when i was very depressed. I havent gambled since early march, i guess i have lost about £2k in gambling, but did get help for it and am no longer tempted to gamble. I feel like a complete idiot for making such a mess of my life.....just dont know wat to do anymore. Want to get my life back on track.

i am getting help from cab in my appointment with them tomorrow morning, will let you know how that goes, i did get advice from payplan in january and they said that going bankrupt was the best option for me, but i could consider a dmp if i wanted, i didnt think i was ready for bankruptcy then as i hadnt read up on it so was scared, however having read up on it now i feel alot more confident to do it.

Thanks.

Icecream69

Ineedaname

If only you are going BR then you do not want a joint bank account as this will affect your husband's credit record. Keep things as separate as you can.

If you earn twice as much as your husband then he will only be expected to pay in half as much as you towards the household expenditure. So if £400 of your income goes towards joint expenses, then £200 for him is fine. If it's substantially different you may need to explain to the OR why, if it's just a bit away from that split there shouldn't be a problem.

As you will be receiving the lump sum only a few days before BR then the OR will probably want it. I'd speak to the Insolvency Service for advice regarding using it for a holiday. Saving a small amount towards a holiday is allowed in BR expenditure so it's something you might get away with, but only if you've already spent it before going BR which will be tight! If you had to use it for essential living expenses then that would be more acceptable, but not if you had to do that because you spent your basic wages on a holiday of course.

Just stop paying all your creditors to save for the BR fees. They will ring and write but you can hang up the phone and file letters for the time being.

Please don't worry about the gambling, you have taken action already and are doing brilliantly by not even being tempted. :T If you search the board for 'gambling' you'll see you're not alone.

Good luck tomorrow and let us know how it goes. Don't forget to write a list of all the questions you want to ask them, or anything asked here that you want clarification on.

icecream69

Hi All,

thank you for your responses, my cab appointment was supposed to be at 10am this morning but at 9.20 i had a call telling me that the woman who was meant to do my appointment was off sick and i would have to wait for her to return to work before i can book another appointment. That meant waiting another 3-4 weeks! so i told them not to bother and ending up calling advice4debtni instead, the woman on the phone was really friendly and sooo understanding,. I had all my questions answered, she also went through all my incomings and outgoings and advised that bankruptcy is the best option for me. It was such a relief to hear somebody confirm that to me, even though i knew that all along.

I have decided to go ahead and get it done - she told me that if i did it through an iva it would take 5 years to pay off my debt and i would be charged for the iva. If i went for a dmp - which i have already tried and failed - it would take 26 years to clear my debt and therefore i chose the bankruptcy.

Now i just have to save the money for the bankruptcy and get it sorted.

Anybody got any advice on how to deal with this emotionally as i am already feeling quite anxious about it - dread to think how i will be closer to the time!!

i will keep everybody updated on what is happening coz im sure i will need help and support throughout it!

Thanks,

Icecream69

Ineedaname

I'm sorry the CAB appointment fell through but at least you found help elsewhere.

Did the lady you spoke to say if you would meet the criteria for an IVA as BR is usually the last resort if you are insolvent and don't have enough surplus to cover IVA payments.

If you do have surplus then bear in mind that in BR you would have to pay this into an IPA for 3 years anyway.

icecream69

Hi Ineedaname,

Yeah she said that since i only have £61 of surplus income left i cant go for the iva as you need £150 to do that, but she said she didnt think it would be worth me not paying my priority bills to have enough surplus income to go into an iva, which i agreed with.

I am very disappointed with the cab as they werent too helpful when i first rang and not too great when i went in in person, it took nearly 4 weeks to get an appointment and another 3 weeks after booking for the appointment date - which was meant to be today. I just feel let down by them but am so relieved that i got the help i needed to sort this out. Plus the people on here like yourself are so helpful it takes a weight off ya shoulders.

Thanks,

icecream69

Ineedaname

Thanks for the extra info Icecream and I totally agree. The priorities now are a roof over your head, bills in relation to that roof and then food!

The CAB does vary from area to area depending upon the commitment of volunteers, demand for their services and how often they can open each week.

I'm considering doing a debt advice course further down the line to try and help ours stay open as it's a good one and worth hanging on to.

Sorry your experience with them wasn't too good, but you're sorted now anyway which is great news. There will always be members on here willing to help and support you, don't worry about asking as many questions as you need to.

icecream69

Hi All,

Just a quick update, i managed to get the fee for bankruptcy saved and have filed my petition for bankruptcy, my date for court is next thursday, am nervous now..just want it over and done with. Keep getting calls from payday lenders and banks but i have ignored them as i dont want to tell them i am going bankrupt just yet.

In northern ireland my bankruptcy cost £345 for petitioning and £115 for court fees.

My question which im still trying to find the answer to is....
I have an electric bill arrear which is currently £700, this is included in my bankruptcy, however does anybody know wat happens with the electric account after bankruptcy? does it have to be in my husbands name who lives at the property with me? or does it become prepaid?

Any help is much appreciated.

thanks,

Icecream69