Wherediditallgo’s ‘path to enlightenment’ bankruptcy diary

wherediditallgo

30 March – Hit the Bacardi last night, & when I woke up this morning my head felt as though loads of rabbits were jumping around in it. Had some orange juice & now I feel heaps better, but I probably won’t be able to do any sudden movements until after lunch.

The OR didn’t waste its time - I’m already showing up in the Insolvency Register as bankrupt! It’s not on my Experian credit file yet though. Also checked some bank accounts – some payments haven’t gone through yet, so it looks like they won’t go through at all now – that means no Dell laptop for me after all.

I did an extra month’s rent payment & paid the council tax, but I can’t see any info about them yet on my account. Oh well, bigger fool them for not taking it immediately. There’s nothing I can do about it now – I’m not in arrears with either of them which is the main thing, & I don’t have the cash to pay them now even if I was. I’ve already been paid for March & got most of that out, & I’ve got until Wed 11 April to let my employers know where I want my salary to get paid into.

There’s no point in worrying about things I can’t do anything about, so I’m going to have some breakfast & plan for an extremely leisurely day.

wherediditallgo

30 March - was a bit down tonight. Rang the OR's office to ask for a "No Objection" letter to be sent to the bank my salary goes into (they weren't a creditor). Was told that they can't send that until after the notices go out to the creditors (Monday at the latest), & not until the bank confirms the balance & give details of recent transactions. I didn't ask how far back they go with that, though I'd have like to. While he was on the phone, the helpful soul :rolleyes: told me that I'll have to contribute towards my bankruptcy, as they don't allow for some of the things I put down. He wouldn't go through it, but said he'd contact me to discuss it properly once he'd gone through the SOA.

So I'll be getting an IPA. To be honest, I expected it. No piece of paper can properly take account of how you live day to day, & in the end I gave up with doing any more changes to the SOA, because whatever gains I made on one section seemed to cause problems on another. I've just got to wait now to hear what the amount's going to be. People have told me that I can contest the figure if I feel it's unfair, but I'm not sure I will. I know what I can afford to pay, so as long as it's not frighteningly over that I'll probably go along with it, even though I obviously won't like coughing up a penny. I haven't got the energy (mentally or physically) to be fighting people, especially when I know that (a) I've got nothing to gain from getting the OR's back up, & (b) whatever the amount is I'll only be paying it for 3 years at most, when without BR I'd have been still paying off my debts at least 12 years from now.

I don't regret going BR at all. But the way the OR can keep you dangling like this is horrible.

wherediditallgo

31 March (morning) - used telephone banking to check one of my bank accounts this morning. The extra rent & council tax went through on the day I went BR! I'm so pleased - now I don't have to think about them until end April, by which time the OR should hopefully have had enough fun out of me. I've got to go to the post office during the week & pay all the bills that would have normally had monthly payments go out by direct debit. I'll hopefully have my Co-op account set up by the end of next week, so they can start going from there from next payday, but I don't want to fall behind with my utilities otherwise I'll find it really difficult to catch up once the IPA's in place.

I've decided that even if my current salary account is eventually unfreezed, I'm still going to keep the Co-op account, & I might even open another account with another bank too. I don't want to ever be in a position again where I've got to choose whether to pay a bill or eat. Plus, when you're under pressure to move money around quickly, you need to be able to get to as much of it as possible without having to worry about £250 daily cashpoint limits. I'm going to try to have 3 accounts running - account 1 for my salary, rent, Council Tax & the OR, account 2 for the utilities & account 3 for myself to keep me through the month. I'll set up the "payments out" dates to work in that order too. That way, I can keep each one in credit each month & won't have to worry that spending money from my personal expenses account might affect the bills. If I do need money urgently, I can have 3 accounts to get it from via the cashpoint, rather than just one daily limit to work with.

(afternoon) Got a Final Demand letter from a collection service (normally they ring) telling me I'd failed to make payment (like I didn't know that :rolleyes:). It said that, unless I made an immediate payment action would be taken against me which may involve debt collectors coming round, a CCJ being registered against me, a bailiff coming & taking goods, or an Attachment of Earnings order being imposed. Rang up & told them I'd been made bankrupt on 29 March, & gave details of the case. The woman said that they could have discussed a settlement figure with me before I went down that route. I said that if they still want to do that, they'll have to do so with the OR as I wasn't allowed to enter into any discussions with them other than to inform them of the bankruptcy.

I don't get these people. For so long I've been asking for a level of understanding regarding the debt & the monthly payments, & they showed none. Do they think I wanted reduced payments because I wanted to flit to Monte Carlo, or had my eye on some designer gear that was an absolute bargain at £20k? I wanted some understanding from them because I couldn't pay what they wanted, & they wouldn't listen. The woman knows that whatever they get via the OR will be less than they'd have got with direct payments from me. They were my biggest creditor (just over £13k), & if they'd been more helpful they'd have been paid for a lot longer. Now they stand to get a pittance by comparison, maybe not even as much as they paid for the debt. I can't be sympathetic.

Now I've had one letter, I can expect the others to arrive some time next week. I'm not really looking forward to them, but I must admit I'll be looking out for one from that harpie who said they wanted £97.50pm otherwise they'd be charging me £25 for every missed/under-payment. I'm going to enjoy telling her that she's getting nowt without the OR's say-so. I sent them a letter on 21 March requesting a copy of the credit agreement, so it will be a good time to remind them that their 12 working days is almost up, & that if they don't supply it within 30 calendar days they're breaking the Consumer Credit law & I'll be reporting that to the OR. I'll be giving the OR a copy of the letter I sent them anyway. They'll get even less then, or nothing at all. What a fun-filled life I lead, eh?

rog2

Have only just seen this thread, as I've been 'out of it' for a while.
I'd just like to say that by recording your experiences in such detail you have probably helped more people than you realise.
I hope you continue to update us during your BR period.
Well done - brilliant thread. :beer:

wherediditallgo

Thanks. Normally, people say I have too much to say for myself.

wherediditallgo

1 April - did absolutely nothing related to debts except look at different internet forums to see where I could help other people. Made a pleasant change from going on them desperately looking for advice for myself.

wherediditallgo

2 April - got the batch of duplicate statements from one of my banks in reference to my claim for a charges refund. It's 4 inches thick! :eek: I'll start going through it today - I know the money won't be coming to me directly, but it will be interesting to see just how much they've had off me in that time. I'll type the details into a table first in Word, then use the calculator on MSE to do the cummulative totals.

As I'm not seeing the cash myself & there's no big rush to get it, I think I'll ask for the interest too. I haven't got anything to lose, & if I get the money, it might help my case for an early discharge later down the line.

I thought it was quite ironic that this is the first time I've ever received something from that bank that didn't contain some form of publicity material about their services. The statements came with an unsigned compliments slip attached. I suppose they realise I've got no money to spend with them now. It came by DHL - given that I'm BR now, does that mean Doesn't Have Lolly?

NekoZombie

On a similar vein HND = Have No Degree, H & M = Hit and Miss.:D

These come from a very close friend who has an HND and shops in H&M - hehe

silkglade

wherediditallgo wrote: »

Thanks. Normally, people say I have too much to say for myself.

YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL.

Firstly I would like to say WELL DONE, for all that you have been through and on your own.:beer:

Secondly things will start to get better soon. Trust me, nothing is worse than the feelings and self doubt before a step like bankruptcy! (we were discharged Oct 2002) It lasted 3 years back then. I really wish this site was about back then. I can remember feeling blind and useless.

For me it was a similar story, I found out 1 month after buying a house with my long term boyfriend and father to my son that he had been abusing him when i was at work. My neighbour only told me once I had BOUGHT the house. So i confronted him and kicked him out. therefore 2 full time wages had gone down to 1 and was impossible. I managed badly for 5 years though. and unfortunatley dragged my now hubby down with me

Now we look back and cant believe all the grief we put up with. for me the most satisfying thing was when we walked through the door after going to court and there was a very rude and obnoxious guy from one of our creditors threatening us with bailifs and ccj's. I felt so good telling him that actually your not alowed to call us anymore as we are bankrupt and you must deal with the OR from now on. :T

We are fully recovered now and when we look back on all that we have been through are very proud of what we have achieved.

We did lose our house for the equity and things were horrible for a while but the thing to remember now is that your life can and will only get better with each month.

What you have done for everyone going through this is amazing and a real insight. Huge respect and thanks to you.

wherediditallgo

Gosh, thanks ever so much! I don't know what else to say, except that your post has given me even more inspiration to keep doing it.