bankruptcy help very worried...

dancingfairy

Hi - at the moment deciding whether or not to carry on with the IVA is sort of up to you but I am concerned that you have been continuing to wrack up debt during this time- I'm not having a go but this needs to be addressed whichever option you take.
Taking the electric for example - either you are on a bad tariff for your needs, have a leak/problem somewhere, are using electric like there's no tomorrow or your budget hasn't been properly accurate.
I'm not sure what other bills you have managed to wrack up but you need to get them sorted somehow.
You are 1 year into an IVA? What dividend did you originally offer your creditors? What dividend is it now looking like they will get - how much in the pound? IF the budget was sorted out properly could you continue for another 5 years?
You've been advised re the house situation in bankruptcy -unless it's in massive negative equity it won't be looked at until 2 years 3 months I think it is - at this point you may have to sell and move or if possible buy the Beneficial interest. What is your mortgage like compared to rents? If your mortgage is massive compared to rentals then the OR might have a problem with this. Your other man issue with bankruptcy is going to be the car from what you've said.
df

dancingfairy

kepar wrote: »

I am sorry , I still don't get.
Tell me where I am going wrong?

Your income is £1996 of which you pay £338 towards your IVA, leaving you £1658 for the month. Now if you go br your outgoings are nearly £2400.
If that is the case , you will not be able to go br as your outgoings exceed your income by a large amount.

It seems that this could be the problem - if you're still spending more than you earn you will be in trouble - you can't afford what you are spending on your SOA - sorry
Are you getting all the benefits you are entitled to? If so some things are going to have to be cut back - holiday will have to go - you can't afford 100 a month, nor 100 a month for emergencies, electric and gas are extortionate -please tell me you don't actually spend 160 a month on them?
620 a month on food - now that seems pretty high as well- you're at home all day so although it must be tough you should be able to get that down to something more sensible - I spend 200- 250 on food for 2 which is excessive and includes the odd takeaway and also rubbish like coke, squash , treats etc and if I couldn't afford them I wouldn't buy them - simple. Also sky - you are putting the roof over your childrens heads to have Sky - this is a complete luxury and one you will have to do without.
I'm sorry but you have to learn to live within your means - it is tough but everyone has to do it
If you desperately want the car you will have to be extra tight in order to afford to run it
The other thing is that I believe there is the legitimate consumer action who campaign on various consumer issues but also there is another 'company' trying to trade off their good name who tout for business and are a debt company out to make money out of your misery which it sounds like you have been approached by.
Best of Luck getting it sorted.
df

arghhh

dancingfairy wrote: »

Hi - at the moment deciding whether or not to carry on with the IVA is sort of up to you but I am concerned that you have been continuing to wrack up debt during this time- I'm not having a go but this needs to be addressed whichever option you take. (the gas an electric debt is with BG we moved over to Scottish power when we moved over the account with BG was clear then they took final meter readings and it put us in a £300 debit which we are trying to pay off at £40 a month, the new supplier who told us they were better than BG (dont they all) and they quoted us £80 for both gas and elec per month, which we had been paying up until last month when i could only afford to pay £40 now they have sent letters wanting £187 off us as this is our monthly useage... i questioned it but they said it was correct and wont look at reducing the monthly payment needed and say we have to pay £187 every month!
Taking the electric for example - either you are on a bad tariff for your needs, have a leak/problem somewhere, are using electric like there's no tomorrow or your budget hasn't been properly accurate.
I'm not sure what other bills you have managed to wrack up but you need to get them sorted somehow. other bills we just have one other bill apart from this which was a store card we forgot to add into the IVA, this only has a £250 limit on it and we are paying off £20 a month.
You are 1 year into an IVA? What dividend did you originally offer your creditors? What dividend is it now looking like they will get - how much in the pound? IF the budget was sorted out properly could you continue for another 5 years? i havent got my paperwork to hand but i believe they were offered 11p in the pound originally and now its gone down to 2p in the pound, am hoping thats correct i cant remember off the top of my head.
You've been advised re the house situation in bankruptcy -unless it's in massive negative equity it won't be looked at until 2 years 3 months I think it is - at this point you may have to sell and move or if possible buy the Beneficial interest. What is your mortgage like compared to rents? If your mortgage is massive compared to rentals then the OR might have a problem with this. our mortgage is £584 a month rent round here is about the same if not more. Your other man issue with bankruptcy is going to be the car from what you've said. yes it seems the car may prove an issue luckily we havent had to do any repairs on it until now so its only really factoring in petrol costs at the moment that needs to be considered oh and the insurance of course
df

So much to consider and as i thought the 'company' that had contacted us first about going BR have very much sugar coated it, we were told we wouldnt loose the car because its worth less than 3k, we were told the house wouldnt be looked at and would be dismissed so wouldnt be looked at again...

one question i do have i noticed on one website i have been on it states you either have the OR or an IP if we did go bankrupt we would prob do it through the company we are with for the IVA as they have all details of all creditors e.t.c already, we obviously have our own IP through this company so i assume he would just take control with the BR instead of the OR, so my question then is does it all stay the same regardless of whether you have an OR or IP or are there differences? if that makes sense

arghhh

dancingfairy wrote: »

It seems that this could be the problem - if you're still spending more than you earn you will be in trouble - you can't afford what you are spending on your SOA - sorry
Are you getting all the benefits you are entitled to? If so some things are going to have to be cut back - holiday will have to go - you can't afford 100 a month we dont currently save or spend £100 a month on holidays because we simply cant afford it, we havent been on a holiday in 5 years, nor 100 a month for emergencies, electric and gas are extortionate -please tell me you don't actually spend 160 a month on them? according to our new supplier we are spending £187 per month on them i have questioned this till i am blue in the face and they will not budge on it, i could understand £187 a quarter which is why i questioned whether this was correct when he said per month... this is still an ongoing argument with them!
620 a month on food - now that seems pretty high as well- you're at home all day so although it must be tough you should be able to get that down to something more sensible - I spend 200- 250 on food for 2 which is excessive and includes the odd takeaway and also rubbish like coke, squash , treats etc and if I couldn't afford them I wouldn't buy them - simple.we dont have luxuries we have one bottle of coke a week we dont buy sweets and cakes and treats for the kids they have fruit or shops own brand yoghurts. Also sky - you are putting the roof over your childrens heads to have Sky - this is a complete luxury and one you will have to do without. sky i believe we are tied into a 12 month contract but i need to double check on this as that should have expired dec last year, the sky package has been reduced to the bare minimum now tho
I'm sorry but you have to learn to live within your means - it is tough but everyone has to do it
If you desperately want the car you will have to be extra tight in order to afford to run it
The other thing is that I believe there is the legitimate consumer action who campaign on various consumer issues but also there is another 'company' trying to trade off their good name who tout for business and are a debt company out to make money out of your misery which it sounds like you have been approached by. i thought this too, i did ask them if they were associated with the consumer action group and i was told yes but i was still very cautious as it was them who contacted us not the other way round, i'm always very dubious about companies that make the first contact.
Best of Luck getting it sorted.
df

thankyou for the advice so far its certainly painting a better picture of BR than what i have been led to believe

dancingfairy

You need to check out your electric and gas meters to work out what on earth is going on then as 80 a month still seems quite high but 187 is clearly insane. Check the electric/gas company have the correct info and have not made a typo or read the wrong meter or anything.
Also work out how many units you've actually used and multiply by the price per unit to work out if the bill is correct.
You might get more help with this issue on the electric/gas board?
Also I don't know if you can easily get to the meter but if you can turn everything off and find out how fast the meter is turning - you will see if it is something like the heating and turn everything on 1 by one until you find out what the culprit is - there is either a faulty item or a mistake somewhere along the lines.
df

arghhh

this is what i thought the only thing thats on pretty much most of the day is the computer, the tv is only on for a couple of hours during the day, although the computer is on all day, we listen to music through it while we're doing activities with the children kind of thing, apart from the usual fridge and freezer obviously which has to be on all day, i'm quite concious when it comes to turning things off at the plugs as i always worry about house fires, silly i know but have always had the same view... if its not in use turn it off at the plug.

arghhh

[QUOTE=(
Are you getting all the benefits you are entitled to?
df[/QUOTE]


i have enquired several times about this we get child tax credits (not the higher element) and also child benefit THATS IT! we have been told we dont qualify for any other benefits

dancingfairy

I think you need to draw up a realistic budget for you to start with - not one that's for the IVA company or bankruptcy or to maximise this allowance or minimise another but an actual proper budget - you need to see whether on paper at least you can at least balance and you need to work out what needs to be cut/ improved upon because as far as I can see your budget is wonky to say the least. I'd put 80 a month for electric/gas in as this seems sensible and you can continue to argue with your electric company. Also food - I'm baffled as you say some months you manage on 30 a week yet your overall food bill is so high?
When you have worked out a sensible budget you will then be in a better place to see about going bankrupt or continuing the IVA but by maximising some categories etc it's difficult to see whether you are actually balancing on a month to month basis (or should be). You can then look at what allowances would be allowed in an IVA/Bankruptcy and then adjust the SOA accordingly, but start at the begining first
df

dancingfairy

I'm not actually convince that an IVA is the right way for you to go anymore if you are planning to offer 2p in the pound - I genuinely can't see your creditors agreeing to it
That's not to say that they definitely won't accept it - it's up to them.
I'm also wondering how much you owe altogether and how the debt is split - it may be that one or other goes bankrupt but the other doesn't but it dependson whether you have joint debts etc. Also failing an IVA does not as far as I am aware mean that you will end up bankrupt - your creditors don't HAVE to make you bankrupt as far as I know - you could make token payments for years until things improve, they could perhaps go for a CCJ and then get a charging order - meaning they would get their money back when you sell your house - I'm not sure how it works with negative equity etc but I believe creditors will still apply for charing orders hoping that by the time you come to sell there is at least some equity - do explore all the options though.
I think creditors have to cough up to make you bankrupt and they may decide it's not worth it as they wouldn't get any more money out of you - obviously they might but it's worth thinking of all the options.
df

arghhh

thanks for that i think you are 100% right i need to figure out exactly what we are spending, the IVA income and expenditure had been done 'in our favour' so the readings arent 100% accurate anyway,

just wanted to point out about the food issue, i scrape by on about £30 a week buying in only the essentials, bread, milk, veg, that kind of thing we stick to shops own brands to save money there and i have found the market cheaper for fruit and veg. On our IVA i&E form the total for food also included cleaning products, personal care items (deoderants, shampoos, e.t.c) nappies, wipes, washing powder, comfort e.t.c not necessarily just food, i tend to spend as little as i can on food each week then when my child benefit comes in once a month i will fill the freezer with meat and things and then that is what we use throughout the month, we make all homemade cottage pies e.t.c to try and keep costs to a minimum, however the gas and electric company banging this on us means i have had to use money from the child benefit to pay those bills which then means i havent had enough to do my 'big' shop which is what see's us through the month so struggling as we are especially this month now i've had to pay extra towards the gas and electric i have no idea how i am supposed to find the money to buy the months meat.

sorry if non of this makes sense