Planning to declare bankrupt - advice wanted please

thearmoredbat

Hi
So to cut a long story short I've completely stopped paying off anything on my debts for the last year or two. I've been considering bankruptcy for a wile as it seems the most appropriate option. (The stepchange website/questionnaire thingy seems to agree). I've got just over 50k worth of debit spread across Credit cards, personal loans, catalogues and overdrafts etc. I'm in full time employment so have regular money coming in but I don't have any assets. 
The questions I have are as follows:
Once you apply for bankruptcy - I understand you pay a nominal payment each month to the receiver. How long is this for? 
One of the reasons I've put it off for so long is because I'm on a fairly decent salary, so am mindful that the receiver might decide to take a big chunk of it each month, leaving me with nothing left to myself. If this is the case, I'm fully prepared to have to eat beans on toast every night and not have a social life - but how long is this for? 1 year? 2 years? More?
Secondly, is there any chance the bankruptcy would get rejected? Towards the end (before I completely stopped paying anything) I started taking out any credit I could get - 1. to keep up with other payments, but I also went off the rails a little bit. I went through a period struggling with my mental health (not helped by the debt I was in), and dealt with it my completely burying my head, periods of drug abuse and the breakdown of my marriage. I'm glad to say that mentally I'm in a much better place but am wary that they will look at my final splurge of credit cards and overdraft increases and judge me accordingly.
Third, I have created myself a spreadsheet showing everything I THINK I owe and who to. I've taken this from some of the letters I still get through the post, cross referenced with my credit file info i've managed to find on clearscore and experian. That said, I can't guarantee that's definitely all of it. What would happen if I miss something out and it turns out I might owe someone else that I've forgotten to mention? 

My last point is just a passing comment on the irony of a bankruptcy application costing £680! Crazy

Thanks in advance. 

luvchocolate

An IPA lasts for 3 years and any surplus on your SOA over £20 goes towards your debts. The allowances are fair. 
Please read all the stickies on here and the I.S website explains everything. 
Please read as much as you can. Then call one of the debtfree charities..Stepchange or National Debtline are good. 
Never pay a company for advice 

Minkym00

You only make payments to the OR (known as an Income Payments Agreement) if you have more than £20 of disposable income after your reasonable living expenses have been taken into consideration. The allowances are pretty generous so you can have a life. It will last for a maximum of 3 years and can be varied over that time to take into account changes in your circumstances.


Bankruptcy applications online are pretty much never rejected. From what you’ve said, it won’t be.

How much of the £50k was incurred in the last 2 years?

Any debts you have missed will be included in your bankruptcy anyway, don’t worry about that. If any creditors contact you post-bankruptcy you just have to tell them you were declared bankrupt.

thearmoredbat

Minkym00 said:

You only make payments to the OR (known as an Income Payments Agreement) if you have more than £20 of disposable income after your reasonable living expenses have been taken into consideration. The allowances are pretty generous so you can have a life. It will last for a maximum of 3 years and can be varied over that time to take into account changes in your circumstances.


Bankruptcy applications online are pretty much never rejected. From what you’ve said, it won’t be.

How much of the £50k was incurred in the last 2 years?

Any debts you have missed will be included in your bankruptcy anyway, don’t worry about that. If any creditors contact you post-bankruptcy you just have to tell them you were declared bankrupt.

I'd say probably only about 5k of that would be from the last 2 years. Maybe even less than that. Why does that matter?
In terms of income vs outgoings, I'm actually doing alright. I probably have £500-£700 left after all the bills are paid - would the OR see this and take most of that for up to 3 years? 

luvchocolate

They can take any surplus over £20
Why not pop your SOA up here so we can look to see if you've missed anything. 
Have you spoke to Stepchange or National Debtline to see if BR is the right way to go?

thearmoredbat

luvchocolate said:

They can take any surplus over £20
Why not pop your SOA up here so we can look to see if you've missed anything. 
Have you spoke to Stepchange or National Debtline to see if BR is the right way to go?

I did the Stepchange survey thing where you input all your circumstances and it came out as BR being the best option.
I'll do a SOA and put it in here shortly.

JCS1

thearmoredbat said:

Minkym00 said:

You only make payments to the OR (known as an Income Payments Agreement) if you have more than £20 of disposable income after your reasonable living expenses have been taken into consideration. The allowances are pretty generous so you can have a life. It will last for a maximum of 3 years and can be varied over that time to take into account changes in your circumstances.


Bankruptcy applications online are pretty much never rejected. From what you’ve said, it won’t be.

How much of the £50k was incurred in the last 2 years?

Any debts you have missed will be included in your bankruptcy anyway, don’t worry about that. If any creditors contact you post-bankruptcy you just have to tell them you were declared bankrupt.

I'd say probably only about 5k of that would be from the last 2 years. Maybe even less than that. Why does that matter?
In terms of income vs outgoings, I'm actually doing alright. I probably have £500-£700 left after all the bills are paid - would the OR see this and take most of that for up to 3 years? 

It matters due to "incurring credit with no reasonable prospect of repayment", i.e. taking out more credit when already struggling.  But if minimal amount in last few years it should be fine.  And yes, IPA would take any excess income after £20 for a period of 36 months.

Minkym00

To add to what JCS1 wrote, the OR is only interested in debt that has been incurred within the last 2 years. If it was a significant amount compared to the total, then this could be viewed in terms of a misconduct. Yours is around 10% so I wouldn’t worry.

If you stopped paying anything off your debts for a year or so, and have £500-£700 surplus per month, then you may well be asked why you have not been using these funds to make repayments to your debts.

thearmoredbat

Minkym00 said:

To add to what JCS1 wrote, the OR is only interested in debt that has been incurred within the last 2 years. If it was a significant amount compared to the total, then this could be viewed in terms of a misconduct. Yours is around 10% so I wouldn’t worry.

If you stopped paying anything off your debts for a year or so, and have £500-£700 surplus per month, then you may well be asked why you have not been using these funds to make repayments to your debts.

That's easily explained. Up until this month I was living with a girlfriend and paying half towards running the family household meaning I only had a couple of hundred spare each month. We've since split and it's only now I have  a bit extra. But even still with 50k debt, even if I paid off £500 a month I'd still be paying it off forever. 

thearmoredbat

Here is my SOA

[font=courier new][b]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b][b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 3009

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 0

Other income............................ 0[b]

Total monthly income.................... 3009[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 0

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 650

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 0

Electricity............................. 0

Gas..................................... 0

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 0

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 0

TV Licence.............................. 14

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 55

Internet Services....................... 0

Groceries etc. ......................... 500

Clothing................................ 50

Petrol/diesel........................... 0

Road tax................................ 0

Car Insurance........................... 0

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 150

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 0

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

Buildings insurance..................... 0

Contents insurance...................... 0

Life assurance ......................... 0

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25

Haircuts................................ 20

Entertainment........................... 200

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 0

Family Money Owed....................... 100

Child Benefit........................... 650[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 2414[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 0

House value (Gross)..................... 0

Shares and bonds........................ 0

Car(s).................................. 0

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 0[/b]

[b]

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts[/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

M&S Loan.......................4720......0.........0

Lantern Debt...................594.......0.........0

Barclaycard....................2417......0.........0

Amigo Loans....................9012......0.........0

VW Financial...................612.......0.........0

Lowell.........................5249......0.........0

Link Debt......................1585......0.........0

Lloyds Card....................3654......0.........0

Very...........................4249......0.........0

Halifax Card...................5019......0.........0

Tesco Loan.....................10440.....0.........0

Virgin Money...................5771......0.........0

HSBC Overdraft.................3012......0.........0[b]

Total unsecured debts..........56334.....0.........-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 3,009

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,414

Available for debt repayments........... 595

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 595[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 0

Total HP & Secured debt................. -0

Total Unsecured debt.................... -56,334[b]

Net Assets.............................. -56,334[/b]

[i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.LemonFool.co.uk.

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/i][/font]

JCS1

Just a quick glance, family money owed will not be allowed, that is technically a debt included in your bankruptcy. Entertainment at £200 a month is also likely to not be allowed.  
I'll let other people comment on your figures, as it's been a long while since I reviewed SOA's