My Bankruptcy Diary

TheEditor_2

Hi all,

Well, I invoiced - and I got the remittance advice this morning letting me know that I'd be paid 3-4 working days after the date of the letter. When I invoiced I CLEARLY STATED that I had changed account (Co-Op), and that my old account had been closed down.

On the bottom of the remittance letter - the money was paid into my OLD BANK ACCOUNT. I instantly phoned HSBC (old) and they were helpful in as much as they let me know that the money would technically "bounce" back to the pay'er. So now, on monday I have to contact my employer and go through the delay inducing dance of re-payment and the joy that will bring.

I was kind of relying on that money - and now I can see a wait of atleast 10 days - with NO money.... and it was all going SOOOOO well.

Time to sell a kidney?! LOL

TheEd.

TheEditor_2

Hi all,

Up until today all the phonecalls from debtors where considerate, business like and straightforward... Barclays Personal Finance called asking about my account and the fact that I'd missed a few payments. I went into the now well rehearsed patter. "I went bankrupt 3 weeks ago, my OR is... " I as cut off in my tracks by a very angry and shouty Scottish fella on the phone - "Why did you take out a loan of £12k if you didn't think you could repay it?" I, for an instant struggled to answer "It was a decision I took 2 years ago, and we all make.." then I realised what I was doing? Why oh why was arguing with this phone monkey? So I calmed down - listened to him rattle on "Why didn't you tell us that you were in such bad financial state when you took the loan out... blah blah blah!"

I stopped him and calmly told him that my financial details where not any business of his and now, if you need to contact me - don't. I started to give him the OR details and he hung up on me.

After the initial shock of being treated so badly, by an ill mannered little oik - I found it all very amusing that he thought that loan was his money, and my finances and decisions actually had something to do with him.

My OR gave me the advice about dealing with these kinds of situations, be polite, sickeningly polite - and if they hang up or shout, enjoy it. After all the months of stress they are experiencing a small amount of that stress or frustration they generated.

So, go on punks, call, I dare you... I'm ready for ya...

More info when I have it!

TheEd.

tigerfeet2006

:T :T Good one Ed :T :T

Nice OR as well:D

TheEditor_2

Hi all,

Well, I've just had my meeting with the OR. Before going into it, I was a little concerned that if an IPA was applied, my finances would be under scrutiny and I'd come to terms with that. 3 years isn't a long time, and if I hadn't have gone BR I'd be in a much worse situation in those 3 years. The time is going to pass anyway and if those 3 years meant that I'd be debt free, then that's job done.

I did prepare yesterday - sorting all my paperwork out into folders and sections to do with my finances, the loans, the company and general household bills. I also did a spreadsheet on Google docs of all my I&E for the next 10 months, which came as a bit of a shock because even without the debt, I was £700 short!

I worried about this too, having made "an arrangement" with the Inland Revenue to settle a tax bill, they had found after doing their own I&E with me that I could spare £1000 a month. This was a big reason why I went BR, thanks to a shortsighted view of my I&E to get money owed. I worried that the OR was going to expect similar cuts to make payment and give me an IPA.

I arrived at 9:15, had a smoke and coffee and took my bags inside and announced my arrival at the desk. Everyone was really friendly. A good start. At 9:35 my OR introduced himself, apologised about being late (by 5 minutes) and we moved to the "interview room"... which was a small minimal room with a table and 4 chairs, phone and a medieval torture rack... only kidding. There wasn't a phone. :-)

We talked throught the forms, and I answered his questions. Anything I didn't know, we turned to my folders. All the way along, I was dreading coming to the I&E part. It came, and he looked at my spreadsheet, my income and tapped some figures into his calculator.

"Well, I see from your I&E that you are coming up short, and that you have added all the sections you are allowed to have. Based on this, I will not be issuing a IPA." - and there it was, I could not believe it. As I'm self employed and the amount of work varies month to month - and that my Income is short of the Expenditure, I'm able to run my finances myself - sticking to the I&E as well as we can. So, 12 months from now, fingers crossed - it'll be over.

One thing, I did mention my Pay as You go Mastercard which he had not heard of - his initial reaction being "No!" and then showed him a leaflet which he read with interest. He read it, and then handed it back. I can keep it and use it.

He did not take details of my Co-Op account but assume that he can see it anyway? He took my pre-bankruptcy paperwork, sorting the post BR paperwork and handed them back. He was also very open and understood my questions about my wife buying a car with money from a relative, if at all...

He went over a few things, made up a list of equipment to be handed over, a list of things he needed - I forgot the chequebooks! and he shook my hand and wished me a good day.

It's such a relief it's over - and more so than the BR day, I feel like I can really move on now. Even if I had got an IPA, I would have felt the same. It's also a relief that the OR was a nice understanding guy, who I would not hesitate to call if something came up.

All in all my meeting lasted 2 hours 14 minutes, not that I was counting. I wouldn't want to do it again, but it wasn't at all bad - as long as you are prepared.

Time for a cup of tea.

The Ed.

creditcardshuffler

Congratulations Ed.....
I too had been nervous before my OR interview and had the same tale to tell. Your circumstances were more complicated than mine but we both have come to the same conclusion....
"It wasn't half as bad as we were expecting"
I guess a fear of the unknown lies within us all

Good Luck with the remaining twelve months(or is it only 49 weeks now)

tigerfeet2006

Hi Ed, glad it went well with the OR.

It's amazing the number of OR's who haven't seen the pre-pay cards before.

You'll have to start looking round the other boards to see if you can find ways of saving some money on your I&E.

fermi

Oops! I missed that interview post Ed.

That's great news.

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

It's amazing the number of OR's who haven't seen the pre-pay cards before.

I know. :rolleyes:

But then, without the BR I'm not sure if I would have had any reason to know about them.

tigerfeet2006

fermi wrote: »

Oops! I missed that interview post Ed.

That's great news.



I know. :rolleyes:

But then, without the BR I'm not sure if I would have had any reason to know about them.

The thing is there is quite a bit about them in the news and I just thought that as it was money related they might know about them, Though to be fair it isn't 'debt' related.

fiveyearplan

Ed, I'm glad it went well for you. I just can't wait to get it all over with myself!

FeelingLow

i'm so pleased it went well for you Ed