Joint bank acct after BR question

shy-but-need-help

just as you thought the daft questions from me were over here goes...

was made BR yesterday and today my child benefit has been paid into the joint account dh and I share- dh is not bankrupt.

Can DH go and draw the money out (as everything i am reading says I must stop using my bank accounts etc immediately) or would that be seen as a bad thing?

In other words can it be transferred across into his personal account without it being questioned? (as to be honest could kind of use it!) - the joint account has an over draft on it which we were into, but obviously as only i went BR dh is now responsible for that. Or do we just leave it there to start paying back the OD to barclays so we can close those accounts eventually anyway?

Help!

LesleyL_2

no idea Shy, I havent had experience of joint accounts or read this situation anywhere on this board

but if someone doesnt come along before your call from the OR, ask him/her, you dont want to be taking money out before they say its ok and the account is of no interest to them.

Lesley

tigerfeet2006

I would just ring the OR and ask. It is benefits so you should be able to get it especially if you need it.

blind-as-a-bat_2

This is a grey area Shy as you are correct you are not supposed to touch the accounts unless the OR has released them back to you, your OH however not being BR is under no such obligation. Ive descussed this with Fermi before and dont think either of us could find a definative answer but as far as i can see there is nothing stopping your husband continuing to use the account but you may wish to check this with your OR

If he does use te account just make sure al transactions can be traced back to him makeing them to be on the safe side.

That is if the account hasnt been frozen that is, I was with the TSB and they didnt, but they did stop all debit cards and cheque books both fo me and OH and my wife did draw some cash from the account near the end of my BR so had to do it in branch, who thn had to autherize the transaction with someone higher up

Hope that helps:D


Edit-forgot to say although we could accsess the acounts through internet banking it wouldnt let us move money from one account to another or anything else either

shy-but-need-help

Thanks for the replies- I shall tell him to leave it where it is until I talk with the OR then (I suppose if we do manage without it and leave it where it is it'll all be that bit closer to being able to clear the ODs on the joint accounts)

blind-as-a-bat_2

As its child benefit i agree with tiger you should have no problem getting the OR to release it anyway regardless of the accounts status

fermi

Yep. You do need to ask the OR.

I was looking at this the other day, and the OR can (at least in theory) claim an interest in any money in the account.

In practice that only really matters if the account is sitting there with a nice credit balance made up of funds that are not required for the bankrupt to live. And even then the source of the funds would be taken into account when deciding how much the OR could claim.

For you, that's not going to matter but you still need to check. But access to funds for living or from benefits shouldn't be a problem (unless the bank is awkward).

Peter_Pan

When OH went B/C the overdrawn joint account was obviously listed as a debt on his papers and when the bank found out I was also unable to continue using the account.
My CHB also went into the account and i was advised to draw it out asap by the OR which i managed to do without any problem.

dalip

Hi
I had a joint savings acc with oh, only i went bc. We had £28 in it. The OR said he was not interested in it as they normally take half, but for such a low amount it was not worth it. Low and behold 4 wks after going bc i get letter from bank saying "until the OR has confirmed he has no interest in the account you will be unable to draw from it",but we are still allowed to deposit money if we wish!!! What money.lol. The OR seems to say 1 thing and do another,he said they would not apply NT but had letter from IR saying they were.oh well!Good luck with it all.Dalip

tigerfeet2006

It is not the OR that froze your account it was the bank. As you said the OR had no interest in it. You just have to get the OR to tell the bank and they will unfreeze it. The OR won't tell them unless you ask.

viv17

hi,SHY i hope this helps..I went bankrupt in june 2008. The OR was good and let me use cash i had as you need basic living cost. Firstly in my case I had to do overtime to pay for bankrupsy, and also had a weekend away spending a couple of hundred pound. All a week before going bankrupt and he didnt seem to mind, the OR was very understanding. I also asked as I have a cheap car that is worth £900. could I do some overtime to save towards a slightly better one and that was fine to.
You Child benfit is for your children so you should be fine.
Bankrupt and Happy......x