Did you go public with your bankruptcy?

tight_jock

When we were declared bankrupt last year, we found our friends and aquaintances very supportive of us. If any thing it has strengthened our friendships.We also discovered just how many of them are struggling financially too.

I think this was because we were up front and open with them. Have any others on here had similar or wildly differing responses?

Mike_St_Helens

We took the stance that no one need to know unless they have to ... Our friends wouldnt know our normal financial position, so there was no reason for that to change.

Our life has got better rather than worse as we thought Bankruptcy would affect us more than it has... Mind you its still early days yet.

scootw1

i told a few people when I went for an IVA. most were supportive. One guy, however, insisted on telling everyone he met about my debts. I would be sitting in a pub and he wouldtell the barmaid, people at the bar etc "do you know this guy has £45000 debt". there is no way I am telling him about my bankruptcy

tight_jock

scootw1 wrote:

i told a few people when I went for an IVA. most were supportive. One guy, however, insisted on telling everyone he met about my debts. I would be sitting in a pub and he wouldtell the barmaid, people at the bar etc "do you know this guy has £45000 debt". there is no way I am telling him about my bankruptcy

Ours was due to a business collapse. I employed several guys from the village so when the business went down the pan it was fairly common knowledge that we were suffering.

dabble

Not BR yet, but when we do one of the town worthies is bound to spot it and ask the MIL - reckon best she hears it from us, but as far as anyone else is concerned - none of their business.

That will be the worst thing though - tellling himself's Mum - she will find it hard to understand or deal with - and will have to spin it some to make it as palatable as we can for her. Crazy, but there you go.

Mike_St_Helens

You will be surprised how little people are interested.

less2303

Only one person spotted mine, the window cleaner!!

goonergirl

think it is becoming more acceptable and lot more info about it now even compared with 6 yrs ago.
Then my friends thought it was a criminal offence and thought id done something really really bad, until I explained the situation then they were like oh right we thought it was something only criminals did.??
but things have changed I think and other people who have done it quite openly talk about it, although sometimes it opens them up to the green eyed monster in people who now think its the easy option (ie have a great time and write it off!) but we know different ....
angie
x

lou031205

We let my side of the family & some close friends know before BR (my uncle is our landlord). I also told my work colleagues (6 in total), as I was drastically reducing my hours from 30pw to 5pw.

Ben struggled with the idea of telling his family, so waited until we had been declared BR to tell them. They were really supportive, so he needn't have worried.

Lots of people are genuinely interested in what being BR means. I found that telling them is better than them jumping to wierd and wonderful conclusions.

Louisex

skylight

I haven't been made BR (or we!) yet! So I haven't asked for a number - I will do when I submit the forms!

We decided on this course of action months and months ago, but still haven't yet actually got round to doing anything - the debt is not increasing and we haven't used credit for over 2 years now, just nasty letters etc.

Anyway, point is, we have told my Dad and my Mum and OH has told his parents. My best mate knows the score and thats it. We don't intend to tell anyone else. My OH will discuss this with his boss when the time is right (when forms are submitted) as he will know anyway through the tax code. And thats it.

The elder kids are aware of whats going on. The eldest (Step-D) still has no interest in learning about money, but Amy does so she is being taught what not to do!

alidadas

We haven't told anyone!!! And we have no friends or family in the area so they wouldn't have found out via the paper either.