Desperate for advice!

[eetu]

Hi, I'm in such a huge mess and I'm making myself ill with worry. I found this site by accident looking for a dca's telephone number and of course soon found out not to phone them. I hope so much that someone can give me advice on what i should do as i can't carry on like this. I will try to keep it short and to the point. I have run up considerable debt which i had been paying off for some time. It all got out of control and i got into more debt to pay debt. The final straw came when the tax sent me a bill for 7,500 after a one year investigation due to some mistake by my accountant which i still don't understand. I sold my house over 2 years ago, the profit of which went a long time ago. I've had no new address since then, i lived in a caravan for a while and now with various friends. i still eventually receive mail from that address and it's the only one the banks etc have. I stopped paying off the debts late last year (i tried to stall some of them by phoning and telling them that i was out of work) and then stupidly buried my head in the sand. I have a pile of bank and dca letters. Here are my debts.

Hfx loan 12,000

Hfx Loan 4,000 (original loan 18,000) (dca)

Hfx overdraft 10,000

IF overdraft 5,426 (dca asking for 426 unarranged overdraft)28 extra pm

Egg cc 6,000 (terminated)(now moorcroft)

Barclycard(Was morgan stanley and i24) 13,000 (now mercers)

Blackhorse 765 (dca, solicitor asking for 200 late payment)

Tax 7,500

 

I know its huge!

Should i declare bankruptcy?

Should i let someone else make me bankrupt?

Is there anything else i can do?

 

My only hope i think is for a new start probably away from the uk at first as i think it would be so difficult.

 

Please can somebody help me.

Thank you for reading.

[loobyloo85]

Hi eetu

 

I am sorry to hear about your current situation, debt is a horrible thing, but you are not alone.

 

Based on you living between addresses, and owing a large amount of debt, an option for you could be bankruptcy or the IVA.

 

If you were to make yourself bankrupt, you would need to make an upfront payment of £495. You would then need to file bankruptcy forms, and give the official receiver some information. Bankruptcy lasts 12 months, but depending on what type of income you have, you could be required to pay into an income payment order for a further 3 years, of any disposable income. Depending on your age, going bankrupt could have an affect on your future. It does carry a stigma attached by being issued within the newspaper, affecting your chances of getting further credit, and also certain professions, so these are things that would need to be taken into account. If you go bankrupt, as soon as you are debt free, you can start afresh away from the UK.

 

The IVA is also an option available to you. It is a 5 year legally binding agreement. If you have any disposable income left at the end of the month, you would need to propose this to your creditors by putting forward a proposal of your income and expenditure and creditor details. It is then down to the creditors to accept or reject your offer of making 60 monthly payments of your surplus amount. If they accept, you would need to make these payments for 5 years and then the remainder of your debt would be written off. Upon approval of the IVA, all interest and charges are also frozen on your accounts.

Bankruptcy and iva areon your credit rating for 6 years, however, IVA is slightly longer than bankruptcy, but does not have the stigma related.

Some IVA companies charge upfront fees, however Payplan do not charge any fees at all, so may be worth looking into.

 

I hope you manage to sort your debt out. If I can be of any other assistance please let me know. I am not an expert, but always happy to help people in a similar situation to myself.

 

Best wishes

[eetu]

Thanks loobyloo,

 

I am 40 years old and until now had a perfect credit rating and never missed any payments. I was self employed for 10 years but have not worked properly for over a year. I feel so depressed at the moment i can.t even think straight. My old accountant is asking for 500 plus costs. Is it definitely better i make myself bankrupt? What would happen if i don't? Are there any do's & don't concerning bankruptcy for a better chance of an early discharge and to avoid the 3 year pay back so that it would be a fresh start, i already feel that i'm too old to start again and i'm finding it increasingly difficult to find any reason to carry on at all.

Is there anything more i can do?

[cerberusalert]

Have a read of Bankruptcy in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia it explains bankruptcy in a bit more detail.

[ukaviator]

You need to get a copy of your every credit agreement, all transactions on those agreements to see what fees have been added, and see if Payment Protection Insurance was added. It maybe that the insurance was mis sold.

 

To get lists of all charges you will need copies of your statements. This request costs £10. If you have 2 or 3 accounts with the same bank / card company, it is still £10, not £10 per account as some banks have tried to claim. Info here:

 

The Consumer Forums

 

Have a read here to get things rolling:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/83035-guidelines-requests-original-agreement.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/162851-consumer-credit-agreements-guide.html

 

The Consumer Forums - Bank charges templates (consumer)