to do or not to do

beelucky

hello,
im new to the forum, its very interesting. my situation is as follows......i owe approx 4k in bank loan, 12k on credit cards. im on benefits long term. my partner does not work. we live in an housing association home on full h/b.

reached the point where its starting to hurt, and my thoughts are as follows......if i dont go bankrupt i can just change my phone number and that would stop the nasty calls. also if anyone comes to the door i wont be intimidated by anyone ill just tell them to **** off.

this then gives them a problem, i have no assets, on benefits. if they take me to the county court they would be lucky to get £10 a week off me.

thats why they dont go down that route. the other alternative is bankruptcy which will cost me £325, and ends all the aggro. i couldnt give a toss about my name being in the papers.

i should just point out that im not behind with my payments but have reached the point where im using the c/cards to pay the debts each month there being a shortfall off approx £100 each month. i just cant make my mind up which route to go down, i would appreciate your thoughts and advice.

cheers dennis.

rog2

Alarm bells should start to ring, and obviously have, when anyone starts to use their credit cards to pay off debt - I wish they had in my case.
Well done for recognising your situation, whilst there is probably still time to do something.
The FIRST thing that you need to do is to talk with one of the Debt Counselling Charities, such as CAB, CCCS, PAYPLAN or National Debtline (there are links to these at the top of the main forum page).
There may well be alternatives to bankruptcy.
Good luck

beelucky

thanks rog 2,
im going to make an appointment with the CAB on monday. just one thing puzzles me, if i go bust, do i have to make any payment to the o/r each month out of my benefits? i seem to remember reading the figure of 5% of the SINGLE persons weekly benefit, is this correct? has any one else had moneys docked from benefits? i would be quite happy with that outcome.
dennis.

rog2

If your SOLE income is made up of benefits, then normally no IPA/IPO would be imposed on you. These are only imposed if there is surplus disposable income AFTER taking all normal living expenses into account.

beelucky

thanks guys,
i recieve an occupational pension from my ex employment for local government of Approx £140.00 per month. however, this amount is deducted from my benefits, so in other words, if i was not recieving a pension, then my benefit would increase to make up the difference. if they did take the pension then that would mean the state would be the loser.

dennis.

sarah84

Hello,
my advice would be to look into bankruptcy, and find out as much as you can about what happens during and after. (I was so desperate for my life to become just a bit easier that I didnt think it through. Luckily for me it was definately the right thing to do, although now me and my partner are getting a place together next year it is making things a bit more difficult.)
Talk it through with your other half and weigh up all the pro's and con's. I amgine in your situation there will be more cons.
Best of luck whatever you decide on

debtmonkey1

Hello mate-you're amongst friends here!

Firstly-as advised-go to cab &/or ring one of the charities shown.

I'm 95% sure they'll say BR is an option. As you're on benefits you'll make NO monthly payments & in all prabability you'll be discharged after 6 months!

My advice to you is....1)-Change tel numbers NOW whilst credit rating OK.
2)-STOP PAYING all your creditors that you don't need to pay...sure I understand that you're 'living' off the cards but any other debts where you have no available credit & are purely paying them (ie keep using credit cards!(Been there done that!) don't make any other payments!)...& save up (ie if needed use cards plus any money left over from stipping payments) the £330 OR fee. As you're on benefits they'll be no court fee to pay.

3)-In NINE years of having multiple unsecured debts (1 mean about 15 different companies!!!)-one elderly collecter called ONCE-I told him I could pay a fiver a month & he said 'it's not worth my while' !!! 4)-As no court action has been taken-no bailiffs can call so relax!

My advice is that once you've got the 'nod' that BR is an option-DON'T DELAY-get the forms from the court (or download from the web-links on this site somewhere!)-book an appointment at Court (or-if it's too long to wait just turn up-they can't turn you away if you are adament that you have to go BR now).

You'll be in Court for under an hour....& its all quite informal. Then-1-3 weeks later you'll have a phone meeting/or face to face meeting with the OR to explain the reasons for BR (really really nothing to worry about!!) & THAT'S IT!

From the split second you leave the court you are DEBT-FREE. The psychological 'closure' for me came after the OR meeting!

Honestly-YOU WILL FEEL GREAT! At the risk of getting shot down by those who hate the idea of sorting your debts with BR IT IS EASY (the process). Psychologically you've done the hard bit-deciding to do it!

So-your credit rating is shot for 6 years-SO WHAT! You can get a bank a/c with co-op with debit card & web-banking, buy a pre-paid gold mastercard....you just can't /or will struggle to get, unsecured credit for 6 years! You can however, get a mortgage as little as a few months after discharge.

I would definately-if advised it's an option-do it-quicker the better! If you need help with forms, etc..post back!

beelucky

thanks Sarah & debtmonkey
i think b/r is the best option, but ill see what the cab have to say, then ill make my own mind up. if the judge asks me if i have taken proffesional advice i can honestly say that i have.
cheers guys.

sarah84

Its definately worth doing sooner than later-I remember when I used withdraw money off my credit card from a cashpoint and then go and pay the bill for the same card with it in the bank, and its not a nice feeling!
Let us know how it goes.

Conor_3

debtmonkey1 wrote: »

2)-STOP PAYING all your creditors that you don't need to pay...sure I understand that you're 'living' off the cards but any other debts where you have no available credit & are purely paying them (ie keep using credit cards!(Been there done that!) don't make any other payments!)...& save up (ie if needed use cards plus any money left over from stipping payments) the £330 OR fee.

Just to expand on that a little.

You'll probably find that when you've stopped making these payments, you'll actually have some money in the bank and won't need to live off the cards. It's quite a shocker how quickly a bank balance builds up post banking when you've not got the £100's a month going out on debts.