bankruptcy - not a bad thing

shamendave

well folks, march saw both my wife and i become bankrupt. my petition was heard last thursday, and my wifes was heard 2nd march.

althought i have had mixed emotions about it last week, it was sure good to receive a letter from a creditor and just chuck it on the side, whereas previously, it would start the old routine of stress, guilt and usually, problems with the wife

the insolvency service were very helpful in answering all my questions and i would encourage all people who are lost in debt to consider such action.

debt feb 07 = 32500

debt apr 07 = 2500

the balance is what i owe to friends that have helped me these last few years and i cannot write these off

dave x x x

rog2

Well said Shamendave - and good luck to both of you in your bankruptcy period. :beer:
You are more than welcome to join us on the 'Living with Bankruptcy' board.

Broken_hearted

I think all options should be explored first

philnicandamy

but sometines its the only option as in my case...who knows what happens in life I had a very well paid job worked full time even with a long term health problem...had 2 car accidents neither my fault & my health took a tumble...I looked at all options & thanks to people here & cccs bankrupcy was the only option, now i'm starting to get my life together..bankrupcy is not the easy decision or quick way out some people think, i'm still struggling to come to terms with what I did...but i'm not sorry

lucylocket39

Hi Phil,

I agree totally with what you're saying! We never thought that we'd end up being declared bankrupt. I turned cold when the cccs told me that that was our best option. I couldn't believe it. Most of our probs were started by the tax credit chaos a few years ago, then OH had a 3 week strike at work. To top it all tax credits said they'd overpaid us and we had to start paying that back as well as other bills etc. We took on a credit card though i was very wary, and before i knew it we were dependant on it. We tried getting a loan to pay off the debt, switching credit cards etc, but with interest etc it became unmanageable, so we had no alternative! I do feel ashamed about this, we'd always managed before and it may sound crazy but i feel like a criminal and a bad parent as a result!

It was a tough decision, we looked at other options but we'd have been paying off debts for the rest of our lives at a reduced rate. I felt it better to make a clean break and fresh start, otherwise in our case i don't feel we'd ever have a life and would always be looking over our shoulders! At least in a years time we can move on and start again hopefully:j

Sooty0404

Lucy you should not feel ashamed. Wherever you go there are rich kids and poor kids.

Banks, Building Societies, Credit Cards etc lend money fully aware that some people will be able to pay it back and some won't. For them, as well as anyone in business, it is an occupational hazard. Bad debt write-off is written into their budgets long before you spend the first penny.

Bankrupts I have met and those I have become acquainted with on this site have never, to my knowledge, woken up one morning and decided to go 'bust' for the hell of it. The decision has been made after painstakeingly trying to amend the situation, sometimes for years and often at great cost to their marriage, children and own well being.

I personally had a friend who did not understand the benefits of bankruptcy and chose suicide instead.

SO PLEASE - if anyone reading this thinks that we (I have been bankrupt also) take this decision lightly, you could not be more wrong.

MARIADANCER

I love the fact now, that when some rings me up saying, you owe us money. And I say im bankrupt, thier voice, just changes. One not so gentleman, was very bulsey on the phone, when i said bankrupt his voice changed. And i loved it. Im sick of people talking to me like im a child. And as it wasnt planned to do this. Like most people.

RL07

we all look and try to find alternative solutions i have been for the last 3 yrs, i dont want to be in this position but im here and i accept it i have no other options, if you had said i would be bankrupt a couple of years ago i would have laughed, so as far as im concerned well done im dreaming of being able to start my life again and coming out the other side of this mess.

Ixy

It is the final option usually after a long long time of disperse and in our case illness due to worry.

My husband and I owed over £50,000 and we couldn't afford the payments anymore. The problem, as for so many, wasn't that we didn't earn a good amount of money, if it wasn't for the debt we would have a good income. However the repayments were more than we could afford no matter how hard we tried. After a lot of soul-searching and broken hearts we, as CAB had advised us, went bankrupt in 2004.

IVA would literally have taken most of our lives to pay off what we owed and during that period our credit rating would be destroyed. To go bankrupt would disrupt our lives for 1 year badly, 3 years for backpayments to them and 6 years on our records. That is better than a life sentence.

We behaved very well and were released from the bankruptcy early - after only 6 months although the payments will go on for the full 3 years of course.

It turned out to be the best thing we could have done, gone was the illness caused by stress and worry. With the repayments gone we earned good money and could actually have a normal life.

The only ill-effect is that we can't get a credit card - we don't want one but in today's society you need one for many ordinary things. Funny, if we want we can get a mortgage but we can't get a cc:mad:

wherediditallgo

Ixy, I've replied in your other thread about the credit card issue here.

wherediditallgo

Lucy, don't feel ashamed, just feel relieved. I've slept better in the few days since I went BR than I have in years. Of course, it's not over as if it had never happened, but for the first time in years, I feel that I'm actually dealing with my debts in the best way for me. If other options had been available, I'd have taken them. But I'm not prepared to spend the next 10-15 years committed to paying off a debt that partly arose because of penalty charges, & lenders not being prepared to compromise on the monthly payments.

Alan Sugar has gone bankrupt twice in his life, & his bankruptcies will have affected far more people than mine ever would. He quite rightly says there's no shame in it, & he's clearly gone on to bigger & better things since then that not going bankrupt wouldn't have allowed him to do.