My (long) bankrupcy story...so far

Princess9

I thought that after looking at some of the stories and posts here then I should detail my BR diary. At the time of writing this I am due to have my face to face OR interview tomorrow at 10.30am, I have never ever before felt so sick and nervous and I have the beginnings of a headache (one of the causes of stress in all of this – had 3 migraines in a row about a month ago, lasting 10 days). I guess that firstly I should point out that at this stage there is still an element of uncertainty about what to expect tomorrow, the last week or so has been horrendous and as I am writing this I can feel like I am going to cry again. I also think that there are some things that potential BR should be aware of and that is the physical and mental stress that this puts on you – I have been very low, have had recurring headaches and severe scalp psoriasis – all stress related. I have also had a lot of anger as the sequence of events that lead up to this are not all my fault, and that I know of people that have declared themselves bankrupt and spent to the hilt knowing that this would be the end result – its not an easy get out but that is how some people use it. There seems to be a lot of people on here who are happy now that this is all over for them, which is good, but I don’t yet feel that and am scared that the OR wont believe me, or that they will want to go so far back into my credit history that I wont be able to explain things. I am known for having the worst memory in the world (probably vodka related from college!) and am afraid that they will try and ‘catch me out’ at the interview tomorrow. I also have been unable to find anyone who has had a face to face interview, and this has made me worry even more as it makes me think that the OR thinks that there is something dodgy going on – which there is not.

So, I hope that this helps.

I am 29 years old, now have a boyfriend (who has been amazing through the last year, especially in the past few weeks) Live in a shared ownership property through the Housing Association (I own and have a mortgage for 25% of the property and pay rent to the HA for 75%) which I purchased and moved into 3 years ago. I have a 5 year fixed rate mortgage, a car on HP with Peugeot and I work 35 miles from my house as a recruitment consultant – a job that I have been in for around 8 months. My debts are £53k, made up of a £25k loan (£34 with interest) 4 credit cards and a next account.

I have always had a loan – since I was 18 and I brought my first car, I have also always had credit cards and have probably spent more on them than I should have. It was always manageable and I have always had a job where on my own I have been able to afford all my bills including my credit payments. I can’t really remember a time when any spare money I had I didn’t put onto a credit card. I have never been one to go out and spend hundreds on my credit card on clothes and shoes; it was always more holidays that would go on the cc, or food shopping or bits for the house. So, not totally excusable for my CC bills. When I was 22 I was working for a company that said that they would sponsor me to do a degree, (5 years part time) and as I had never gone to university from college as I got a good job (always had good jobs, sales manager, business development manager etc) I never went to college. So, I started this course. After a year or so into the course, I left the company that I was with and started a new job, they allowed me to have the time off, but I had to pay the fees myself – fine, that went on the CC. That is not the reason for my debt but is probably a contributing factor probably. All was still fine throughout this and I was still managing to pay everything.

I don’t really know when, but at some point between 2003 and 2006 I moved various cc balances and took out another loan (so now I have 2 – one with alliance and Leicester which was initially my first car loan I think, and a cahoot flexible loan) as the loan payments were cheaper than the CC payments I was making, so a bit of consolidation. I met my boyfriend in early 2005 (not my current one) and he did not have a good credit rating and was on a plan with the CCCS (this was the first time I had heard of them) most of his problems spiralled from gambling a few years ago. He did not have a great job; He also was classed as being self employed (didn’t really occur to me at the time) and was not paying tax on the cash in hand work that he was doing. Anyway, a definite case of love is blind, I let him have one of my credit cards in his name on my account, (I know I know) and he moved in with me, but was still paying rent on the place he had, so I was footing all the bills for 2 of us.

I thought that he was the one (looking back now, and being in the relationship I am now, I know I never loved him, I was just scared of being on my own) and I am not a stupid person, we often rowed, usually about money as he would lie to me about what his earnings were, would lie to me about when he was working (so I thought that there should be money coming in when there wasn’t) and I had resentment that he was spending on the credit card and not making an effort to pay back what he was spending. I asked to have the card back a few times and that would cause a row as he said that I didn’t trust him (which I completely didn’t). Anyway, it continued like this until summer 2006. The job I was in was paying me a £25k salary; I had a company car and petrol allowance. I had been there around 18 months and was also in the final year of my degree – having the option to write my dissertation over the summer so graduate that November rather than the following year. I knew that having completed 4 years, I liked HR and wanted to move into this field, traditionally Recruitment roles are low paid, but I thought that it would be good to get into this type of role as a way into HR. By this time he was contributing about £450 – 500 a month to the bills. I saw a recruitment job on £35k basic recruiting in the industry that I have been in my whole career went for interview and was offered the job in June. I wanted to start in the Sept after my dissertation had been written so that I could put my all into the new role. My boss wasnt happy that I was handing my notice in and upped my salary to match, I knew that I wanted to change my career though. In that summer I applied for a 25k loan from Northern Rock, so that the 2 loans I had could be consolidated as I was paying about £450-80 ish per month for both and the NR loan meant I would be paying about £330. There was not enough the consolidate any of the credit cards that were mounting, I may of consolidated one, but really cant remember but there was about £800 left out of the loan and I brought a new sofa. I thought that I could afford it as my income was going up by such a lot. Then my other half proposed (having brought the ring on my credit card, taking me to London and paying £300 for dinner and £200 on a hotel – all on my credit card…) and so we were set to get married. Thank god I never put any deposits down on any thing. So, I went on holiday and whilst away I had a call from my sister who worked with me, she had been suspended pending an investigation – it turns out that my boss had got the !!!! on because of my leaving for definite and was trying to find anything to give me a bad name, he took it out on her and found the tiniest things to pull her up on – not wearing tights to work was one, the other was an email sent from a work account to a personal account, which I had been included on and replied back to from my personal acc to her and my cousins work account. She was sacked, when I got back into work I said I wished to be put on garden leave and bring my notice forward as I did not want a bad reference jeopardising this new job. Anyway, it turns out that he did give a bad verbal reference and in mid august I received a letter from my new role saying that they were withdrawing my offer of work, 2 months after I had been offered it. So, 2 weeks before I was due to start I had no job, a loan for £25k and mounting credit cards (there is another whole story about my visits to free solicitors as the contract I signed was not subject to references being taken). So, I started job hunting, and in the end took a high street recruitment role on £20k, £5k less than I was on and £15k less than I was expecting to be on. We had done all of the sums and we could just about manage with him making a bit of a higher contribution - £550 a month, we were still (just) managing to pay. I also thought that I would be able to try and find a higher paid job in eth meantime. I also forgot to say that I had to take a HP on a car during this period as well as I had had a company car. I did finish my dissertation though J through all of this.

Things were ok, we were still arguing as much and early November I was on a 2 day course in Birmingham and I received a text to say that he was leaving and going to him mums, no explanation, said that he couldn’t handle things etc, so I left the course and drove 2 hours in floods of tears, trying to call all of the way back, but that was it. He did text to tell me to stop calling and that he needed some space. The next week was s blur, he came round the following week to say that it was over and that he would not be coming back. My first concern was the money, I said to him that he owed me a lot (his spending alone was around £8k minimum, excluding all of the money I had spend on both of us) and he said he would pay b=me back and send me a breakdown of what he owed.

This is when it all started really; I was now living in a house that I couldn’t afford, in a job that wasn’t paying me enough. I told my boss all about what had happened and she was brilliant through it all. She tried to pay me more but could only manage £500 a year, but tried to make my commission easier to earn (which didn’t happen as the market was declining). To survive I made attempts to rent my 2nd room out, which was impossible as I lived 30 minutes from town, and so I started to withdraw money off of my credit cards so that I could pay it back onto them to pay my minimum payments. Also used them for food, petrol etc etc. I just couldn’t afford to live. This behaviour went on until around Feb. 2007 which is when I contacted the CCCS (who I can highly recommend) They said that as my outgoings were higher than my income then they would not be able to help me with a DMP and that they would send me all of the information so that I would be able to write to my creditors and ask them if they would accept a £1 token payment for 6 months. They also advised me to increase my earnings by changing job or by renting my room out, and then they may be able to put me on a DMP. They said to call back in 6 months or call if there were any more questions I had. The paperwork that they sent me was very easy to understand, and all of my creditors accepted the payment, although I still did get regular calls asking me to increase my payments. I can’t tell you the times that I repeated the same thing! I

I didn’t really keep track of the 6 month date, but not a problem as Northern Rock started calling me 4/5 times a day on my mobile and about the same on my home phone, along with letters daily. So it must have been around August that I called CCCS. As it had been a little over 6 months, my ref number had expired, so had to have an interview from scratch. My circumstances had changed and I got the job that I am in currently, on £23k basic, my outgoings increased as my cost of travel increased, but my potential earnings have also increased too. So I was not in a position with the CCCS where I had £30 a month spare, so I paid this to them and they paid my creditors £5 each. Their advice to me was that even though they were able to help, this should only be a short term solution and that I should consider going bankrupt as I would never be able to pay all of this money back. I should point out that I have not used my credit cards since Feb 2007. I was immediately alarmed at this solution, stigma, loosing my home and car were all things that immediately sprung to mind. They gave me useful information on what I should do, like finding out the value of my home and car, market prices etc. I contacted my housing association to find out if they would be able to buy my share back so that I could then rent the whole thing from them; I thought that this would prevent me from the stress of loosing my home. I sent the forms to them in around Nov/Dec 2007 along with details of my I&E. They had valued the house next door at £175,000 – the same as I purchased mine for 3 years ago, so it looked like there was no equity in the property. They also wrote to me in January to say that they would not be able to buy my share back. So that was that for me, I thought that’s that really. To get through this now its out of my hands, from the hours and hours of research I had done it looked like they were not going to make me sell as there was no equity (I did put a 2k deposit on the property but there is a £1666 early redemption penalty on the property if I close the mortgage before the end of 5 years) and that after speaking to my HP car finance company, they said that as long as I could still make my payments then they would not make me give the car back. It is also essential for work. I had another discussion with the CCCS bankruptcy specialist and talked through all of this. They gave me the OR number and the court number, I called in late Jan and had my court date for the 11th Feb.

I was armed with a folder of paperwork, all my forms filled in, arrived at court at 9.55 for my 10.30 appointment, my friend came with me, after falling apart outside court, crying and shaking, I pulled my self together and went in, I was so so scared (not as scared as I am now as at court there was not really anything to worry about) I went up to the window and a very stern man asked me what I was there for, I explained and his face softened, I had started to cry whilst speaking to him, he told me not to worry and that ‘today is a happy day, a chance to start again’. He told me that as I was early, to go off and get a coffee and that the lady in the next booth would see me at 10.30. I went off and came back at the allotted time, the lady was still busy with the same person (it made me feel better that this man had turned up for his hearing and had not filled in any of the forms so was making the court people job quite hard) I didn’t see the lady that I was told |I would see, but another one, who was such a diamond, explained everything throughout the process, checked my forms and as there had been a couple of questions that I had not answered as I was not sure – she clarified these for me, asked if I had a copy – which I didn’t, she did me a copy and then went away again. I then paid my money and she took me upstairs to the court. She explained that it would just be me and the judge and that he may ask me questions about advice that I have taken. She also said that I would be a priority. I waited around 5 minutes until I was called, then I went through and sat outside the judges office. He called me in and sat me down, he was lovely, an older gentleman who spoke softly, said what I was there for and said that all my paperwork was in order so would grant the order. It was 11.16am. He then said that I needed to follow the instructions of the OR and wished me the best of luck. Totally nothing to worry about. I then went back down stairs with my file and saw the same lady, she told me to go and get some fresh air of 10 minutes whilst she typed up the order and she said that she would get the OR on the phone as they would need to speak to me before I left. When I came back she took me into a private room and ran through what she had just typed, gave me a copy of it along with a copy of my forms and I then spoke to the OR who went through my personal details, checked my contact number, asked if there was a property or a car and if I had any accounts and what money was in them. She then said that they should receive the paperwork from the court by Wednesday (it was Monday) and they would be in contact.

Then I went and had a large glass of wine.

After this I still had not heard from the OR by the end of the week, or by the Friday of the following week, so I called and they said that I should have received something by then, however they have made an appointment for a face to face interview on Friday 29th at 10.30 and that I will be sent some paperwork.

I received this on Saturday so have filled it all in. My concerns are as I stated above, a big fear that they will ask me something that I cant answer, also I have earn commission of between 200 – 400 for the past couple of months, so looks like my income is more than it is – I also got a £1300 bonus in November, which after tax was around £900, I used this at Christmas, so am worried that the OR will question this. With all my bills paid this month and due to the bit of commission I have earnt, I have £160 left this month, I do desperately need a new exhaust as it has been blowing and getting worse since Jan, that will cost £170, but am hoping that the OR will let me use the money to get it. The car also needs new breaks and has not been serviced since I brought it – am I dreaming that the OR will let me have the money for this? Don’t know. I also hope that they take my figures on my basic salary (income of around £1400, outgoings £1550) and that I don’t have to pay an IPO (is it) as my commission is not guaranteed, and to be fair my desk is not taking off so I don think that the 200-400 will continue past this month. I also have not had a penny out of my ex. I did find out that he has been done for tax evasion – not good for me financially, but makes me feel better! I am going to continue to badger him for the money.

I will update once I have been tomorrow, if anyone has any comments it would be good to hear, Everyone’s case is different, but I hope that I can help. Wish me luck for tomorrow……really am starting to feel worse!

tigerfeet2006

Princess sorry but I will sit a read your story tonight once all the kids are in bed and there is a bit of peace here.

But just wanted to say have a read of this thread as Lip-stick had a face to face. Give her a PM and ask what it was like. I'm sure they won't mind. I have had a search for you and can't find anyone but I do know that people have had F2F with no problems.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=767289

homer01

hi princess, stop worrying about things with the OR - they are not there to make you feel bad more get a general idea of what happened leading you to go bankrupt. i will tell you an outline of my story, and see if this makes you feel better:

age 25, living with parents, pregnant and unemployed as of being made redundant in october, debts of 34k inc interest, car on hp which i am waiting to hear of the company when i need to give back.

debt consisted of 2k on overdrafts 4k on credit cards, 7k on hp for car (took out in june last year), 500 on next account and the rest on a loan. loan been running for a year and was used to consolidate debt from being age 18, cards and next account last used jan - went bankrupt 25th jan.

basically, all this debt was spent on crap. living, one holiday and just being stupid for years. i was scared that as i had used the c/c and next account a matter of weeks before i went b/r i would be in trouble, almost sent myself into labour worrying about that!!. i was paying my debt back every month, then june bought a new car as i had split with fella and at the time could just about afford it. in july i found out i was pregnant, and being made redundant. i was offered 5k in redundancy which went on paying debt back, which i then went back and spent to live for the next few months.

i thought i could give the car back, no such luck there, get a payment break from loan, not a chance as i wouldnt be going back to work any time soon, and my credit card insurance would apply, think again it doesnt cover maternity and you have to be claiming job seekers to qualify.

so there i was right up !!!!!! creak, rang the CAB who basically said you have no other option than to go b/r as no one will accept smaller payments and tbh i didnt have the money to offer them that. judge was lovely, court came and went then the worrying started for the OR - like you was extremely concerned about my spending habbits as i hadnt anticipated going b/r.

however, the OR rang, asked me some questions about what had lead to the b/r and what the reason was i had to do it so explained the above. he questioned a £1200 purchase from curries out of my redundancy which i explained was a dridge and tv, but that i had to seel the tv to pay for fees. he was concerned i had used my cards so close to going b/r but agreed i had not done this dishonestly and i was using them to live. he then questioned why i had paid friends and fmaily some money back, it was on the statement and i had explained any large transactions with sticky notes. at the time i was paying everyone back so it wasn't a problem.

he just wanted a general picture of what had happened over time, he wasn't trying to catch me out and on some things i didn't know what had been spent like my 20k loan i just couldnt explain as it had consilidated a large of debt from being 18. it lasted half an hour, he told me he would not issue a bro and that ipa thing wouldnt apply. he was very nice and wished me all the best for the future!!

if you don't know the answer just say so, and don't waffle or give anything away they haven't asked - as much as they aint trying to trip you up they are busy and professional. also don't be alarmed if there are pauses and silence, as they will just be writing stuff down. can't help with the ip thing sorry, and very sorry for waffling!!!!!

homer01

oh and good luck!! im sure the face to face thing wont be a problem, and in some ways it might make it easier as you can see what they are looking at when asking you questions!

xx

philnicandamy

I had a face to face interview back in march & to be honest i'm glad I had this instead of a telephone interview...the OR will allow for nerves just try and be as open and honest as you can, they are not judgemental in any way they just want to hear how you got to where you are today...they wont try to catch you out or ask any sneaky questions..if you dont know the answer just tell them and move on to the next one. At the end of the day the OR is only doing a job & they are there to help you in whats a sometimes difficult time.

That and of course your in safe hands here!

Phil

*lou_lou*

Hey princess,

You are an incredibly strong person having coped with what you have so far. It must be so hard to think positively at times like this, but just remember that the OR (is that right?) is a human too, and all you can do is tell the truth. You've come so far and turned negatives into positives (have a good partner, and are now more able to see the wolves coming) and have discovered the wonderful world of moneysaving. From here on in, it's going to be a struggle, but look on this as a new start, and with the help and support of your family and your partner and lots of little money saving tips you can start again. Sorry if this post appears a little naive (i haven't been in this position) but it seems like from now on things can only get better with some research and support from those around you

good luck and remember that you are a strong person xxx

G-G_4

wow - that is one long story you got there..

i think you will be fine.. i can't see anything that looks that bad to be honest...

please try not to worry so much xx and good luck for tomorrow x

Scarlett.1974

Wow, what a story, you've had some really difficult times haven't you?

I can certainly relate to your feelings about your interview tomorrow and I know nothing I say will help much, but I just wanted you to know we'll all be rooting for you and sending positive vibes for it. Do let us know how it all goes won't you?

Best of luck,
Scarlett xx

Princess9

i thought that now my hangover has cleared, i should post the details of my OR interview yesterday. At the moment I still dont feel the relief that I thought I would, mainly becaue there are still some unresolved isues, yesterday aftrwards I still felt quite stressed, probably because it was such a build up. feel happier today, see how the decisions go!

So, got there at 10.15 for the 10.30 interview, armed with a very large file. Was greeted on reception by a very bubbly smilely lady, told me to help myself to coffee and said that I had enough time for a visit to the ladies after declining on the coffee due to my bladder activity already that morning! All quite relaxed and i felt at ease.

My interviewer then came to greet me, smiles and a friendly handshake, he took me to one of teh interview rooms, told me that i looked nervous and said not to worry, take a deep breath and relax. All that we did was go through the form that i Had filled in for court, confmred all of the persoanl details, went through all my accounts, asked which ones were open and closed, asked where the cheque books and cards were so i exlained that they had all been returned. He also said that he has no interest in anything that i have in my home as they are basic living items.

He then asked me if anyone owed me money, so I hadnt really considered or planned it, but told hm that my ex owed me around £5k from the money that he had spent on my credit card. I said that i have asked for the money but that I cant seem to get it out of him. he raised his eyebrows and said 'well we will certainly try' he asked me for his last known address and i said I didnt have it to hand but that | could get it, and i offered to send to my OR the paperwork that I had sent to my ex with the breakdown of what he owed me and he said that it would help a great deal. I was quite pleased with this, I felt that finally he would not get away from leavng me in the stuation he did, with the debt that he did.

we then went through each of my creditors and i had to explain when the debt was incurred and what the debt was for, i explained about my loan consolidadtion etc. he was happy with all of the answers and also agreed with me that you dont realise at the time that you could get into this situaton.

We then went through my secured debts, starting with the car, he went through what would happen to the car if it was not on hp, said that it would be sold (even if it is an essential item) and then i woudl have been given £2k in order to buy another. As it is on HP amd the value and the amount left to pay means that they will probably tell the car company that the will not be doing anything with the debt and then t would be up to the car company to decide whether they would be happy with me to keep the car and continue with the payments. So, as it stands at the moment I still dont knwo what will happen to the car, although after speaking to peugeot prior to my court date, they said that as long as the paments are maintaed, they would send me a default notice when the received notfication, but if I could aford it then they would be happy for me to keep the car. He also told me that as my car payment is £25 a month, only a porition of this may be able to be applied in my I&E.

With regards to my home, as it is a shared ownership property, this is the first time that they have come accross thsi type of arrangement in BK'y. So he has written to both my housing association and the mortgage company and I am awaiting a decision as to what will happen, he said that he was sorry that he could not give me a definitive awnser at this stage but that he would keep me posted along the way.

We then went through my expenditure, I included everything that the CCCS said that I shodul be claiming for and also from advice on this site. He queried the internet and I exlained that I do use it for loggng into work from home but that there is no provision in my wages for this from my work. I also said that I realised that sky was not an essential item, but that I currently do pay for it so included it, he said that was fine and also said that it was teh minimum package that i could have at £15. He said that he would take the figures away and work out if I woudl need to pay for the next 3 years.

He also discussed with me early discharge, he said that after 3 months i wil get sent the same paperwork that I filed in this time for my I&E and if they are happy then they will apply to thecourt for ED.

He then asked me to explain how I got into the situation in my own words, when i had finished explaining he siad that did i feel that i had lived beyond y means or was it that thewithdrawl of the job offer and relationship breakdown that caused me to end up in this situaton. I said that my credit cards were always higher than I would have liked them to be, but that it was managable and it was that job/relationship breakdown that was the main cause.

During the whole interview teh OR wrote everything down, and at the end I had to check each sheet and sign each and initial any mistakes. he then left the room whle i checked the statments, took copies of some of my paperwork along with the origionals of my credit card statements. he did not look at or take my bank statements for the past year that i had taken and made no comment as to the money in my account after my bills had been paid (looks like i can get that exhaust!!) he then said that he will be in contact witinteh next few days to let e know if and how much i need to pay.

So all in all it was pretty painless, i did feel a bit of an idiot explainng it all, but i think that was more about me rather than the questions that I was being asked. He made the expereince as pleasurable as it possibly could have been.

i will update when I had the decisons, and thanks for everyone's posts x

stressed_out_6

Glad you survived your interview hunni. Big hugs, the worst is over now, hold your head up high and tell yourself that you are a survivor and you should be proud of yourself. xx

tigerfeet2006

Glad that it wasn't as hellish as you thought it was going to be. I hope you get some answers for the other things quickly and your not hanging around wondering to long.