A list of things to do before filling for Bankruptys

EbonyTiger1996

Hello,

I will be filling for bankruptcy by the end of this week. I am still a little unsure and wanted to know the must dos before proceeding any further. 

A little backstory, I am in £36k of debt and I am only receiving benefits now, due to mental health issues. I have no late payments and no arrears to my name. I am currently awaiting a referral for Autism with suspected ADHD also. I am very impulsive and bought things, mostly gadgets. I cannot handle money and I need a new start with no access to credit. This whole process is confusing, and I want to do it correctly. I have spoken to Stepchange and they helped with my application. but I'm still unsure of some things. 

Should I open a new current account before or after going BK?

A lot of my debt is related to mobile phone contracts, will I be able to keep my main phone number and contract? Or will I have to get a new number and do pay as you go? 

I am due to get married next August, but will not be joining funds/banks of any sort until sometime in 2024, will this cause any issues?

Any other tips and information are greatly appreciated. 

Thank you

flipflopflo

Hi and welcome to the board. 

Yes you can open a new bank account now and get your direct debits etc. moved over before going BR. It must be a basic one with no overdraft and have no affiliations to your debts. Just mark it on your form as your main account. There are a few BR friendly banks such as Starling and Barclays. 

As long as there are no debts associated with your phone then you should have no problems with keeping it on as long as you are not paying silly money for it in a month. 

Congratulations on your engagement and I hope your wedding goes well. It’s best not to have any linked joint financial products until your BR drops off your credit file in 6 years. Being linked to someone who is BR could adversely affect your fiancé’s credit file. 

EbonyTiger1996

flipflopflo said:

Hi and welcome to the board. 

Yes you can open a new bank account now and get your direct debits etc. moved over before going BR. It must be a basic one with no overdraft and have no affiliations to your debts. Just mark it on your form as your main account. There are a few BR friendly banks such as Starling and Barclays. 

As long as there are no debts associated with your phone then you should have no problems with keeping it on as long as you are not paying silly money for it in a month. 

Congratulations on your engagement and I hope your wedding goes well. It’s best not to have any linked joint financial products until your BR drops off your credit file in 6 years. Being linked to someone who is BR could adversely affect your fiancé’s credit file. 

Hi, thank you for you help, one thing I would like to know, about the basic account. I heard you get a cash card and not a debit card. What does this mean? 

I can set up direct debits but when It comes to buying food, essentials ect, I have to take cash out to pay for them?

Thank you 

EbonyTiger1996

The main thing that Is making me consider not going through with it is. When taking all those mobile phone contracts out, I ended up selling all those devices in order to have money in the bank and pay the bills. I always sold them for their full value and always in order to pay bills and buy food. 

I feel my application will be rejected due to this information, as I don’t have any of those devices anymore. My bills would be close to £1000 a mouth for debt alone, i hadn’t worked for nearly four months and before that I was barely making any money. Selling those phones ect just kept me on top of my debts and nothing more. 

I don’t know how to explain that, I can’t afford my debt anymore and I really need a fresh start but I feel I messed up massively, even for my bankruptcy application to be accepted. 

flipflopflo

You will get a debit card with your bank account and you can use it just like any other bank card so don’t worry about that. 

I’m assuming that you explained the full situation to StepChange and they weren’t worried about the phones? If so then I would say that you will have no problem. The ORs have seen it all. They are used to the lengths people go to to survive in the world. In the grand scheme of things it’s not the worst that they will have seen. 

EbonyTiger1996

flipflopflo said:

You will get a debit card with your bank account and you can use it just like any other bank card so don’t worry about that. 

I’m assuming that you explained the full situation to StepChange and they weren’t worried about the phones? If so then I would say that you will have no problem. The ORs have seen it all. They are used to the lengths people go to to survive in the world. In the grand scheme of things it’s not the worst that they will have seen. 

Thank you, one last thing before I send my application. I had sent my partner £1000 from my account to his because I sold his iphone on my eBay account. My eBay account has very good feedback and he works a lot and asked me to sell it for him. 

Will this look suspicious? I will tell them what I have told you. What would be the consequences of this? 

Sorry for the questions. 

sourcrates

Bankruptcy is only ever refused if you have committed some kind of serious fraud, or there is some other serious issue that would prevent it from happening, a few old mobile accounts don`t rate that highly on the scale of things.

There will be no consequences for anything that you have done, it`s all pretty much run of the mill type stuff, somewhere just above Cliff Richard, but not quite Keith Richards lol, you will be fine.