Will I get in trouble?

Guy-Brush

Hi everyone

i took out a loan (£15k) at the beginning of January to consolidate two old loans I had into a smaller monthly payment. I am self-employed but this year the business has done awfully and I am considering going bankrupt.

I spoke to StepChange debt charity who said I won't get in trouble for taking out the loan so close to the possible bankruptcy, because I was taking genuine steps to improve my financial situation. It looks dodgy but isn't because the entire loan went on my old ones!

However now I am petrified the loan company will try and pursue me for fraud. I'm self-employed and whilst the period leading up to Christmas was great, it is a new business and has totally died off since. The figure I gave on my application was a guess at my gross income for the year (because I couldn't predict the future) but will in the event be way off.

I provided bank statements as they asked so they knew what was coming in and going out at the time. Sadly since January it's really dried up and I am about to start defaulting and have been advised BR is a realistic option.

DCFC79

Maybe a daft question but are you looking for full time employment ?

Guy-Brush

Why daft? Not at the moment (am in the process of moving abroad where I will be looking for work). The reason for BR is partly the loan and a couple of credit cards but also because I need to get out of a long commercial lease I am tied into, so it really is the solution I need.

Guy-Brush

I have just calculated my earnings for June-December (first 6 months of the business) and these were give-or-take-a-hundred-pounds more or less what I quoted in my loan application. Unfortunately since Christmas the business has been losing money/breaking even and isn't improving so it's gone from that figure to hardly anything.

Loan company knew I was self-employed so must expect this to happen occasionally? Furthermore surely some people CHOOSE to quit their self employment for whatever reason, or get ill, so the quoted income figure proves false? Same as if I were employed, in debt, quit my job and went BR. It's a free world..

jonesMUFCforever

IMO banks don't ask for earnings but salary you take out of the business for the last 8 weeks or so.
Earnings = cost of sales - expenses - not the same thing.

Guy-Brush

My business and personal accounts are one and the same so no salary to see as such. However when I said 'earnings' I meant what's left after business expenses and cost of sales.

BrassicWoman

there's a specialist bankrunptcy board below this one where you may also get helpful advice.

Fishingtime

Pay your debts/
Another chancer wanting to stiff people out of money

27cool

I can't say that I am very impressed by the ethos of people, whose solution to a problem, is to solve it by making it someone else's problem.
Which is exactly what bankruptcy seems designed to do.

BrassicWoman

Fishingtime wrote: »

Pay your debts/
Another chancer wanting to stiff people out of money

And sometimes people work hard, it doesn't pan out and they deserve a second chance. Which is exactly what bankruptcy is designed to do.

You don't like it? Talk to your MP.

Bog off back to judgemental corner. You know almost nothing about the OP.

Bogalot

BrassicWoman wrote: »

And sometimes people work hard, it doesn't pan out and they deserve a second chance. Which is exactly what bankruptcy is designed to do.

You don't like it? Talk to your MP.

Bog off back to judgemental corner. You know almost nothing about the OP.

OP's other threads do indicate a pattern of calculated behaviour. Their enquiries about BR are not a recent thing.

(Not snooping, just a poster that sticks in the mind.)