Hmmmm - maybe that's why she's getting nowhere with any c/card application. Good thought - thanks. Only six months to go!

No, it's not an IVA, BigNee - I don't think that would be possible with a bankruptcy. This is an IPA - Individual Payment Agreement/Arrangement - can't remember which, whereby the debtor makes payments to creditors for three years following bankruptcy. Doesn't apply in all/many cases because many bankrupts are often unemployed so have no earnings to justify an IPA, so their debts are written off altogether. Not so in our case, unfortunately - although also fortunately that my wife has a good job that enables us to live comfortably, if frugally. The money goes to everyone's favourite solicitors, Moon Beevor, who administer the IPA on behalf of the Trustee in Bankruptcy. The payments are divvied up between the creditors, presumably in proportion to their share of the original debt.

Thanks BigNee - I was beginning to wonder if anyone would respond! I will write to all the agencies again and get new copies of our files to see which entries have now been marked satisfied. Do you know whether some entries may remain unsatisfied until the IPA is finished? P.

Hi Folks. My wife and I both declared ourselves bankrupt in Dec 2009 in the face of insurmountable financial problems arising from the credit crunch and subsequent downturn. My wife has an IPA in place which should expire in early 2013. I was not given an IPA as I have insufficient earnings. Although I am self-employed and earn very little, my wife is a senior teacher and earns >£50k. She would like a credit card with a low limit just to be able to charge things then repay the card in full each month. It's very difficult to hire a car abroad with a debit card, for instance - she has found one firm that will do it, but they will take a €600 deposit from her debit card when she collects the car. If she'd had a credit card it would just be a case of taking the card details. So that's a lot of money tied up in the deposit that cannot be used for the holiday - or anything else- and there's the risk of spurious charges being made to it on returning the car. Even the very bottom end of the credit card market won't touch her - I don't even bother asking. I know our credit files look a mess because we recently had them all sent to us. As a result we posted notices of correction on all of them to explain our circumstances. We also wrote to all creditors asking them to mark our accounts as 'satisfied' wef the date of our discharge, June 2010. We asked them to confirm that this had been done. Some replied and said they had done so. One, a former secured lender, said they could only mark the account as partially satisfied as they hadn't got all their money back and some (including some big names) have not replied at all. Since our bankruptcy we haven't missed a payment on any service from utilities, rent etc. In fact before we were made bankrupt our records were squeaky clean for years, but this seems to count for nothing, as do the notices of correction. So I'd like to ask: 1. Where is it set in stone that credit records are kept for six years? I cannot see what useful purpose it serves, as by keeping bankrupts and thousands of others in purgatory it effectively removes them as contributing consumers, which must have an impact on the economic recovery, especially the housing market. I wrote in this vein to Vince Cable but was effectively fobbed off with the reply that it was up to the finance industry to decide to whom they wished to lend money. We are in our mid-50s and having lost our home will probably not be eligible for mortgage finance until 2015, by which time we will be too old to be able to afford the repay a mortgage before retirement (ha ha - what retirement?). 2. Where can we get impartial advice that will include looking at our credit files to check that all entries are legitimate and fair? 3. Should we have the notices of correction removed from our credit files as they don't seem to be doing any good? 4. Is anyone running a campaign to get the law changed so that credit file entries are removed in a more sensible time-frame - say three years, rather than six? 5. Why do credit files not contain positive information from utilities, local authorities, insurers, landlords etc so lenders can see that you are currently up to date with all accounts? They only seem to contain bad news. 6. The credit reference agencies insist they are just impartial recorders of information and that there is no such thing as credit blacklists, but plainly this is not true as a) they can give you a credit score and b) if your credit file looks bad then blacklisted you definitely are, because all lenders use the agencies and base their decisions on the information they hold and your credit scores. Thoughts, suggestions gratefully received. Thanks very much for reading this lengthy post.

Aha - thanks!

OP?

Noted and thanks to all for input - much appreciated. Well, the mortgagee agreed to the sale and paid for a valuation it accepted and is only using 'Power of Sale' because Picture has refused to agree to a sale - but what else can they (Picture) do? They would have to wait years for the house to rise again in value enough to pay them off as well, if it ever did. The sale as it stands will not produce even enough to pay off the mortgagee in full; there will be nothing for Picture at all. The thought of having to go bankrupt again makes me feel very unwell - we made ourselves bankrupt last time and you know what that costs - we wouldn't have the money to do so again. Surely Picture could not get an attachment of earnings while an IPA was in force? The OR would not allow it, surely, as it would affect what was being paid to all the other creditors? I dare not tell my wife that; she would have a nervous breakdown. The sale of the house may yet fall through as the buyer doesn't want to pay extra for the unmortgaged strip of land. At that point the mortgagee would take possession - they already have a possession order but stayed it to try and negotiate a sale with the tenant, realising that a bird in the hand etc. I have to say that Bank of Scotland, the mortgagee, has been *spectacularly* useless in dealing with this matter. I first wrote to them about our problems in Sept 09 and thereafter faxed and wrote to them four more times before we went bankrupt. They never replied once and have claimed never to have received any of our correspondence. Even as recently as yesterday they still don't have our present address on their system as our correspondence address, despite the fax and letters all clearly addressed. I faxed them *again* yesterday with a formal change of address because I am trying to get an interest cert out of them for my tax return, which I have asked for *three* times in the past two and a half weeks. It's no wonder that HBOS went down in the banking crisis, on the basis of total administrative incompetence alone, never mind bad investment decisions!

The mortgage company has agreed to the sale. although the secured loan company has not. The mortgagee has invoked something called 'Power of Sale' so that the sale can proceed without the agreement of the secured loan co. Having said that, the mortgagee has agreed a price for the property which, as you can see from my initial post, is 10k less than we paid for the property *without* the strip of land that created the off-road parking, way back in 2004. If the house was still ours to sell, we would not be accepting such a low price, even in the current market. It's the low price that was worrying us about any future comeback from the mortgagee and the secured loan company, but others replying to this post seem to believe that won't be an issue, because of our bankruptcy. I sincerely hope they are right!

Tenant stopped paying rent - with our agreement as we knew we would have to enter IVA or go bankrupt when we gave her notice in Nov 2009, so she has saved over 11k since while the sale draaaaagggggggs on. Maybe the OR will go after her for back rent? Good to get further confirmation that shortfall will go into the bankruptcy - maybe we will get our lives back one day - thanks.

Thanks for the reply and for moving the query to the correct forum - much appreciated. We feel more reassured by what you have said, sequenci, and we definitely won't be signing *anything* from the mortgagee! We wish the OR would take over the sale of the house as every query from solicitors is a painful reminder of what we have lost, but the OR has never seemed interested. If the sale to the tenant falls through then the mortgagee will take possession at last and it won't be our problem anymore.

My wife and I entered into bankruptcy in Dec 2009. We have since been discharged. Our house in Essex was mortgaged with Bank of Scotland and also has a secured loan with Picture Finance. At the time of bankruptcy our house was rented out (without formal approval of BoS - it's a long story - we were committed to relocate to Norfolk but couldn't sell), although we had given the tenant notice. She has been trying to buy the property ever since for 240k , with our (reluctant) agreement - the house was valued at 320k in 2008 and we bought it for 250k in 2004 and have since added an off-street parking area for 4.5k which we also landscaped for several more k. This strip of land was not mortgaged and has a separate title. It is now a bone of contention as the OR wants some money for it separate to the asking price of the house. The former tenant thinks it should be included for a nominal sum (£1). The mortgage is now around 265k (was 252k before default) with all the interest and other creative charges that BoS have been able to load onto it. The Picture Loan still stands at around 72k - was orignally 75k. I have heard about mortgage shortfalls and lenders being able to pursue borrowers years later for the money - I've also heard about deeds of assignment , although not yet mentioned by BoS or Picture. I understand that secured debt survives bankruptcy but if we are ever to get our lives back we can't have 1,000s of £ hanging over us indefinitely. We're in our 50s with no savings and I am self-employed and currently earn practically nothing. My wife's good salary is taken up with supporting us and servicing an IPA with another two years to run. My understanding of Picture's debt is that it would become unsecured once we became bankrupt and it was clear that there was insufficient equity in the house to pay off BoS and them, at which point it would go into the bankruptcy and effectively be written off or at best repaid pro rata by the IPA at the OR's discretion. Can anyone tell me what the situation is and what our options are? I read somewhere that the mortgagee can only pursue us for the shortfall if we sign a deed of assignment because we are bankrupt. If we refused to do this, what would happen? I hope you have enough information to help but if not happy to answer any other questions. Thankyou.