Newly bankrupt - advice please

yellowbackpack

Hello everyone!

These forums have been great for me to search through whilst thinking about and ultimately deciding to declare bankruptcy so thank you to those that have contributed because your posts have meant so much, even from afar.

Having been browsing but not signed up, I found myself with some questions and also slightly confused by the process.

My situation was that I had £42k in loans, store cards and credit cards. I’d taken out loan after loan trying to consolidate my debts but was living beyond my means and would spend on the credit cards when I had no spare money from my salary each month.

Long story short, I was made redundant in October and have been living off my redundancy payout. I’d always paid on time and never missed a payment because I always wanted to maintain at least a decent score in the hope that when I finally paid off my loans, I could focus on clearing the credit cards and my score would be great.

Having lost my job, I now work part time at a local shop and only bring in just over £300 a month - despite applying for numerous full time jobs, to no avail, I was insolvent. I hadn’t used any of the money to buy flashy items over £500, I don’t own a house or assets, I don’t drive so there’s nothing for me to sell.


I applied for bankruptcy on Tuesday this week, it was approved Wednesday, I set up my appointment yesterday and I had my interview this morning - it’s all gone very, very quickly.

After reading through the forum, I asked the Examiner if I was to prepare bank statements etc and she told me just to get a timeline together so that she could understand fully what had happened and why.

My interview lasted 25 minutes and she mainly focused on the larger debts, why I took so much out and how I intended to pay it back at the time.

What I’m slightly perplexed about is she has at no point asked for bank statements and concluded the interview saying that she’ll take up to 10 days to write the report - is this usual? I have nothing to hide so would be perfectly happy to let her see them. I’m assuming she can access this information herself?

She also went into detail about how much overtime I could do before letting the OR know as I don’t have to make IPA payments as I have a large deficit already so the interview was quite thorough but short.

Also regarding a Monzo account that I opened 2 days before my bankruptcy - Monzo themselves have said they won’t close the account due to being made BR but the OR might order them to. How would I know if the OR will order them to or will I never know?

I have opened a Nationwide basic account just to be sure but I like the way Monzo’s app works.

Any help that anyone can give would be super helpful. Sorry if any part of this post seems rushed or doesn’t make sense.. i’m still a bit dazed by it all. It was only this time last week that I decided I was going to file!

sourcrates

Hi,

Sometimes these things happen super fast, i would assume if they want to see bank statements, they will ask for them.
There really isn't a lot more to say, its a very much streamlined procedure nowadays.

RattyIrk

Sounds similar my experience. Filed form online on a Sunday night and order came through by email mid Monday morning! Interview a couple of weeks after that.

I also had a hopeless deficit on income and expenditure. Sent finance form in, some follow up questions and bits and pieces but heard very little since.

Took me a month or two to get used to the bankruptcy but definitely right thing for me and I'm sure will be for you too.

BeeCat

Sounds all very similar to mine too, my debts were about double the amount of yours so I was expecting to be hung out to dry! The lady at the OR's office was lovely and we chatted about other stuff during the telephone interview. She said she would write up a report for the creditors etc, I asked her what else she needed from me and she said she would be in touch if she needed any further information, I never heard from her again! I did contact her once with a query about something but other than that it was all very, very painless and straightforward. I was discharged a year later, which is now almost a year ago. I kept all the relevant docs for a year just in case she would need them, and destroyed them once discharged.

I doubt they will close down the Monzo account, I opened one a short time after going bankrupt and didn't have any problems. I also had a Co-op account that I'd had for years, she asked me what the balance was (which was about 68p!) and she said they wouldn't be interested in shutting it down and I still have it now.

A friend of mine went bankrupt and opened a basic Barclays account the same day, they were given access to the app and everything.

Hopefully you'll start to feel a bit more relaxed about it all in the next week or so, you've made the move and done the best thing, and there really is nothing else to worry about!