Been to Court Today

wherediditallgo

relaxsoon wrote: »

well its £50 quid a month i dont really want a contract so does that get written off then the contract ???

No, unless you're already in arrears. For any contract to be written off, you have to have been in arrears before you went BR because only at that point are you in debt to a creditor. To have your mobile contract included in the BR, you would have had to cancel your direct debit payment instruction at least a month before going BR in order to create arrears & therefore a debt. It would be the same if you had Sky tv or had a gym membership - you have to have arrears on the account before it can be included in your BR. If you weren't in arrears, then you can still terminate the contract but you'll be responsible for any penalty costs your mobile provider imposes if you're ending the contract early.

relaxsoon

well thats sounds silly because i cant pay it off ??? as i have no money

debtdummy

when i started my iva i wasnt allowed a contract, its cheaper doing pay as u go

betterlatethannever

Sorry can i just hi-jack this post for a sec and go back to the first few posts about bank accounts.
I thought that if you told the OR that the account was for your everday living they 'might' not freeze it, or is that the banks decision?
The reason i ask is i've just spent weeks and many hours setting up an accoutn with another bank/bs and just finally sorted all my direct debits wages etc. I got my court date today (14/08) and am i now going to have to go through all that :eek:
Would be awkward with work too as you have to let them know before the 11th of the month if your changing accounts, as my court dates not till the 14th this is going to be a prob. OHHH god, just when i think things are gettign easier:mad:

Posthinking

Just to expand on my previous, without any penalty charges, but that's not guaranteed

Posthinking

betterlatethannever wrote: »

Sorry can i just hi-jack this post for a sec and go back to the first few posts about bank accounts.
I thought that if you told the OR that the account was for your everday living they 'might' not freeze it, or is that the banks decision?
The reason i ask is i've just spent weeks and many hours setting up an accoutn with another bank/bs and just finally sorted all my direct debits wages etc. I got my court date today (14/08) and am i now going to have to go through all that :eek:
Would be awkward with work too as you have to let them know before the 11th of the month if your changing accounts, as my court dates not till the 14th this is going to be a prob. OHHH god, just when i think things are gettign easier:mad:

The bank freezes the account, not the OR. In my opinion it's very important to plan your BR so you have time to open the new account afterwards, not before

betterlatethannever

Dam:mad: that would mean waiting till late aug/early sept and i just want this over now i have a court date.
I suppose its time to hi-jack my daughters bank account and put wages/DD from there.
Thanks for the advice:o

wherediditallgo

relaxsoon wrote: »

well thats sounds silly because i cant pay it off ??? as i have no money

Please don't take this the wrong way, but it's not silly at all. Some people think going BR is very easy, but we always encourage people to take professional advice BEFORE going BR so that they don't find themselves liable for bills they assumed BR would take care of. It would be great if all expenses/outgoings could be covered by going BR, but the OR can only take debts into account & he expects you to find out all the answers for your own situation before coming to court, as he's not there to give you advice. I'm honestly not having a go at you, but you should have been asking questions about your mobile phone, using your bank cards etc either here, on other BR-related forums or from whoever you got the professional advice.

Anyway, what's done is done. If you haven't done it already, I suggest you make a list tonight of everything that costs you money each week/month/quarter, & then put next to each item what you have sorted out for it. Anything without a resolution already in place must get sorted out tomorrow at the latest. You must clarify anything & everything that affects your financial position, because the OR will only allow you a certain amount of money as living expenses & you may end up having to pay for the mobile out of that. If you can't pay it, you'll have to explain to your mobile provider, & maybe they'll be prepared to come to some arrangement about payment with you. Perhaps you could reduce the contract, change to a pay-as-you-go phone or pay this contract off in instalments. The OR is extremely unlikely to allow you money for it, even if you put it on your SOA, which it doesn't sound like you did.

relaxsoon

i know its cheaper doing a pay as u go its just iv been made bankrupt and how can i still pay my mobile phone bill ????

fermi

Hi betterlatethannever.

The situation with banks is confusing since the decision whether you can continue to use one that you already have after BR is up to both the OR and the bank.

Firstly, the OR will decide whether they have any interest in the account, and whether they are happy to let you continue using it. With a 'basic bank account' with a small or zero balance this has become such a formality that the court's 'bankruptcy clerk' in some places mark a basic account on the SOA as one, and say that it should be okay to continue using. While 99.9% of the time this is true it is still technically the OR's decision.

Secondly the bank has to decide whether they are happy with you continuing to use the account. For the ones in the sticky at the top of the page (Nationwide, Co-op, and Barclays) this is normally also a formality.
However very occasionally this is not the case.
* Sometimes if you have owed them money on other accounts/Credit cards they may close it out of spite.
* Sometimes you get a jobsworth employee who decides that you are not a suitable customer, despite company policy.
* Plus other possible admin hiccups.

It is also worth remembering that the bank hearing about your BR, and being informed by the OR that it is OK to carry on using your account, does not always happen at the same time. Sometimes an account can be temporarily frozen until the bank hears from the OR.

You can see from the above why many people and places advise you to open your new basic account after BR.

If the account you have opened is one of the three previously mentioned then the vast majority of the time it will be OK, especially if you let the OR it is urgent that they inform the bank it is OK to continue using it.