Should I file for Bankruptcy?!!

skintedmojo

My partner and I total debts of somewhere in the region of £40,000, £25,000 mine and £15,000 my partner.

At the moment, we have a joint Debt Management with Payplan, paying out around £650 per month. After all the bills and the cost of living, we're pretty much left broke every month.

I spoke briefly with a friend of a friend who is a financial adviser and he recommended bankruptcy as we rent our house and don't have any assets to speak of really (unless you count a clapped out car!!).

Can anyone give me any advice? Would we actually be any better off, or will we still be paying out a large sum of money every month? Our combined income is around £45k per year.

Thanks!

philnicandamy

Your first port of call should be to contact one of the Debt Charities; see links below. Their services are free; they have no vested interest to serve; their advisors are professionally trained and the advice they give will be objective and in your best interests only. CCCS operate a system of telephone appointments that are designed to be flexible and don’t require you to attend an office based interview. At the CAB you will need to make an appointment with a specialist Financial Advisor; other advisors may not have the specialist knowledge you’ll need.

http://www.cccs.co.uk/
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/
http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index.htm

If and only if you’re advised that bankruptcy is the most suitable solution to your financial problems then the guys & gals here will help any way they can.
For more specific advice and support, in an environment that is managed by people with first hand experience of bankruptcy, and moderated to ensure that no deliberately inflammatory or abusive posts are made then please visit:

http://bankruptcysupportersclub.co.uk/default.aspx

There are lots or pros and cons to BR, your debts will be wiped clean but any excess money after your expenditure rent/elec etc over £100 or so pounds will involve a percentage taken by the OR this is called an IPA, your credit rating will be shot to hell for 6 years meaning it will be near impossible to obtain any credit, although on a DMP already your credit rating won't be great I imagine, you'll struggle to find a mortgage..although not impossible after discharge from BR...as long as you've no sports cars or hidden picasso's under the stairs that should be fine, depends how old & how much your old banger is worth if it's over £1000 you might loose it..depends on the OR

debt_doctor

YEP, IM a debt caseworker for the c.a.b. and the above is good advice. I would need to know all your essential outgoings, wether vehicles were neccessary for work, how many in family etc before I could estimate your possible IPA.

Also dont know if your employment, or other issues affect your bankruptcy decision. Also check if your tenancy agreement to see if it has a ' no bankruptcy ' clause - get some advice !!!

plumduff-2

I think the first thing is to shw us your inome and expendiure then we can assess the situation to see if in BR you would get an IPA, and if so for how much.. If you do this, also let us know how many kids you have - if any..

skintedmojo

Hi, thanks for the advice guys. Still mulling over what to do at the moment. Have no kids though! My partner is not keen on going bankrupt as he reckons that you can't spread out payments such as home insurance etc as this is a type of 'credit'. Do you know if he's right on that one?! I have a friend who is a financial advisor who seems to think bankruptcy is the way to go but I need to have a proper conversation with him. Just finding the time at the moment.
Th main reason I want to go bankrupt is that I have no life, no extra money for clothes (which I do need for my job as I have to dress smartly!) and basically am chasing my tail every month to keep up, even though I am on the DMP. We pay them £650 a month which seems a lot to me, but is still a lot less than we were paying out before.

Thanks for all the replies, I'll be sure to be back when I've decided what to do!!
XX

Treadstone009

You can pay home insurance etc in a 'one off' payment to save on interest, its pointless paying for insurance on a monthly basis as its often loaded with interest.

madoldbat

Hi Skintedmojo.I may be been a bit dence (not for the first time) but dont understand why your OH thinks you cant pay insurance ect monthly.We pay contents and car insurance by DD each month.Road tax get stamps each month from post office.Phone,gas,lectric ,water all DD.Amount budgeted for mot, car maintanance/repair,hols,xmas & b.days,school trips and clothes these ammounts we put away in little envelopes and do not touch until required for the purpose they were saved.
Know that sounds a bit pompas ,dont mean to but if we had been this controled years ago we would not now be BR.Tell you what though it feels brill to be in controle for once,sleep better dont scream at kids as much and even like the OH a bit more;) :rotfl:
Seek out your freind and the CCCS and CAB just finding out face to face will make you feel so much better and more in controle.
Good luck.

l3ights

after all dept is wiped, what do you have to pay? for how long? and how much?

Also whats better being made BR or making yourself BR?

tigerfeet2006

l3ights wrote: »

after all dept is wiped, what do you have to pay? for how long? and how much?

Also whats better being made BR or making yourself BR?

Are you asking the questions for yourself? If so why don't you start your own thread and then we can give you answers to suit your own situation.