Bankruptcy and Catalogues

savagevixen

Hi,
I have a catalogue account thingy. This was clear when I went BR, so at 0. It has a current limit of @£1500.
I am wondering if I can order from this catalogue or not.
Is it illegal? My washing machine (very large) and microwave have both broken and I have been sent a discount code, so I am wondering whether or not I can order.
Anybody know?
Vix

wherediditallgo

If you put them on your SOA, the OR should have informed them of you going BR, so you'll need to ring them & find out if it's still OK for you to use the account. If you didn't put them on your SOA, they wouldn't know you've gone BR, so the account will still be available to you to use. However, you'll have to tell them you're BR if you want credit of over £500 from them. If you don't want them to know about it, you could pay a down-payment for each item & keep your balance under the £500.

allofadither

Hi Vix,

I had a catalogue account that was £0 at BR and I didn't include them on my SoA. Soon after BR I decided to try and log into my account but it had been suspended, so someone or somehow they discovered my BR. Could be that the OR did the informing, or that they check the insolvency register as a matter of course.

Is your catalogue account defo still active?

savagevixen

I have logged in and it all seems fine.
Haven't actually placed an order (as a bit scared)
WDIAG-thats what I though, if I paid anything over £500 (unlikely to be that much). I didn't declare it as it was 0. And the OR is so dissinterested I couldn't be bothered to ring her and tell her. She must have bigger fish that shes frying!

earwig

hi
are you out of your bankrupcty yet we had a catouloge with kays with a 2000 limit and it was 0 at the time of bankrupcty and tbh we forgot all about it so never informed the or when my oh was discharged from his bankructy kays had sent us a discount code saying that we hadnt used the catoulge for a while and would we like to take advantage of there buy now pay latter as i said we had forgot about it so we went on line registerd for a online acount with the acount number they had given us an orderd a pair of pyjamers for ds two days latter they turned up we have been using it ever since with no problems

Broken_hearted

I would bin it the last thing you need is new debt.

Broken_hearted

You can pick a microwave up for £14 and £200 for a new washing machine, better still look on freecycle.

savagevixen

Broken_hearted wrote: »

I would bin it the last thing you need is new debt.

That is true, but I have never had a problem with carefully budgeted catalogues. The amount has always been well within reason and monthly interest free and very manageable.
It is the only form of borrowing we would consider.

savagevixen

Broken_hearted wrote: »

You can pick a microwave up for £14 and £200 for a new washing machine, better still look on freecycle.

The cheapest large washer I can find is £350, I do 2-3 loads a day as it is, in a 7kg, my AEG has lasted 8 years, so I want similar quality. My mum buys a £200 every two years, as that is roughly how long they last.

Microwaves that cost £14 are plasticy and again not terribly long lasting.

I have been a member of Freecycle for months and would use them for Garden Tools, but not appliances I need to rely on. That is not being snobby it is being practical. A new appliance = warranty. That said, I get constant emails from Freecycle, and I have seen kittens, caravans but never a washer or microwave!!!:D

owetoomuch

I rent my washing machine, some may say a waste of money but at £16 per month it is insured and if it goes wrong it gets fixed or replaced straight away. Also every 18 months I can upgrade usually reducing the costs and I am not responsible for disposing of it.

wherediditallgo

savagevixen wrote: »

That is true, but I have never had a problem with carefully budgeted catalogues. The amount has always been well within reason and monthly interest free and very manageable.
It is the only form of borrowing we would consider.

When you have a family to take care off (especially growing children), sometimes mail order is the only way you can buy household items.

There are ways to reduce the impact of the debt though. I've agreed with my catalogue company that I have to pay 25% up front for anything I want to order, & until I'm discharged (at the earliest) I can't buy anything from them on the "buy now, pay 2008/next Aug" sort of terms usually available. So if I want anything from them, I've got to have at least 25% to put down on it. Having to save that up first is a very good 'think first, buy later' check for me, as well as an incentive to make sure I'm paying a good price in the first place.