Apr 30

Is there any way you can avoid bankruptcy? Yes, there are several ways of avoiding this financial meltdown. All you have to do is know about them through this article and put them into use. Believe it or not, you’ll be surprised at how these simple steps can actually change your life.

The first one is to seek help from your bank. If you have been unemployed recently because of your company’s need for retrenchment, you should contact your bank and tell them about it. Most of the time, we let our banks take charge of our loans and bills such as mortgages, electricity bills, phone bills, and a few others more.

When your bank is informed early about your recent unemployed status, they will give you six months official consideration. What does this mean? It simply means that they will take care of your outstanding bills and loans for six months until you can get another job. It is a sort of bank insurance you, as a bank client, automatically have. You should bear in mind however that this kind of action is under the sole discretion of the bank. If you are a good payer and depositor, your bank won’t hesitate to give you this deal. But if you always have a bad reputation of late bills payment, then your request might be declined.

Another way of avoiding bankruptcy is making a list of all your debts and the monthly required payments you should be paying. This gives you a great overview of how much you should be earning each month to make ends meet. Of course, you should still consider the daily expenses your whole family is incurring and think of some ways to reduce it. Most of the time, a lifestyle change is the key to avoid to bankruptcy.

Is your wife’s weekly shopping spree making you loose more money? Is your toy collecting hobby getting more expensive? Are your extra-curricular activities such as traveling getting in the way of paying off your loans? Take some time to examine your current lifestyle. If your job or business can’t support all of these “wants,” you should consider disregarding them for awhile until you can splurge some money all over again when your current debts have been paid. I’m sure your family will understand if you explain to them carefully your present financial standing.

One of the effective ways of avoiding bankruptcy is to get in touch with your creditors. If you think that whatever lifestyle cost-cutting you are presently doing at the moment won’t still make enough money to pay off your monthly dues, talk to your creditors directly.

You shouldn’t demand anything from them because this might make the situation worse. Instead, you should request from your creditors for any other possible way to make your monthly payments a bit lighter. They may consider providing you with a lower interest rate or may even reassess your debt and require you to pay lower monthly payments. Again, if you have a good paying record, your creditors will be more than happy to assist you especially during this time of global financial crisis.

If you have any non-income generating assets such as an unused land or an extra car, you could always sell them to pay your debts. This should be done earlier once you have detected you are on the path to bankruptcy. If not, the bankruptcy official receiver will take these and all your other assets, including your home, and sell them for cheaper price in order to pay your debts. Don’t worry if you sold one of your real estate properties, you could always buy a new one after your financial crisis.

What can you do if you don’t have any extra assets to sell? Well, you can always get a second job to generate more income. But you should bear in mind that getting a second job doesn’t mean that you could spend more. You should stay on track and pay your current debts first before any splurging ideas tempt you into spending more. Spending more will just make your situation worse and give you more debts to pay.

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May 05

If you are thinking about filing bankruptcy, you will need to weigh the pros and cons of the situation. Of course bankruptcy is not the best option for everyone, but for most it can mean getting back on track with your finances and being able to free yourself from the debt you’re drowning in. With a little advice, it may be an easy choice.

The disadvantages of bankruptcy are that you will lose control of your assets and your credit will be scarred for years to come. All of your assets have the potential of slipping through your fingers, even your home. You will not be able to get more than £500 credit unless you are willing to disclose first tat you are bankrupt. Your credit rating will be under fire for a while, and this will set you back in trying to borrow money.

What is the most disadvantaged is the fact that your bankruptcy will be made public knowledge in the newspapers. This, for some profession, can cause you to lose your job. Certain job markets will not let people work for them while they are bankrupt.

There are, however, advantages to filing for bankruptcy if you are in the position where you will need to do so. If you file for bankruptcy, you will have all of your debts written off. For most people, that means that they will become debt free within a year. Also, if you rent a place to live you will be able to continue living there and paying rent, even after all of your debts are written off at the end of the period of bankruptcy.

And if you decide to file for bankruptcy, then you decide that this choice wasn’t right, there are options where you can annul your bankruptcy order. You can do this if you can prove that the bankruptcy order should not have been made, the creditors agree to an individual voluntary arrangement, or that the court is satisfied that you have paid all of your debts or they are guaranteed that they will be paid within a certain amount of time. If you the order is annulled, you will be able to return to pre-bankruptcy status.

There are also restrictions on filing for bankruptcy. You will not be able to obtain more than £500 in credit without disclosing the bankruptcy. You cannot carry on a business with a different name to hide the bankruptcy. You will also need permission from the court to form or manage a company. Some professions are also restricted to work while bankrupt, and you have to notify any bank when you open an account that you are bankrupt.

Bankruptcy is a choice that should not be made lightly. If you are thinking about it, weigh all of your options first. There are many different pros and cons to the filing of bankruptcy, but only you and your creditors will be able to determine whether this is the best option for you or not.

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Mar 05

It is a well known fact that even through you plan and budget for your life, sometimes things happen which you did not have any way to pre-plan for. The reality of life is that people loose their jobs, businesses go out of business, illness and death happens in families, and the list goes on and on. While there are no certainties in life, you can do the best to always plan for the unknown. However, what happens if your unforeseen event happens when you are just starting out? Or, what happens when your unforeseen event happens when you are just starting to recover from yet another catastrophic event? It is in this time in your life where bankruptcy can be the financial tool with is the answer to your problems.

Bankruptcy is a Financial Tool

While bankruptcy has always been a tool used by businesses without much stigma, the same cannot be said for individual bankruptcy. Here in the U.K. the act of someone filing for personal bankruptcy does have a stigma attached to it. Thankfully, people are starting to realize that bankruptcy is simply a financial tool which is necessary for individual people to use, just as it is necessary for businesses to use.

Bankruptcy was designed to offer people, and businesses alike, a fresh start at their financial lives. What bankruptcy does is allow all of your non-secured debt to be discharged while allowing you to keep a reasonable amount of your assets intact to allow you to continue to live your life. This makes bankruptcy a valuable financial tool to use if you are in a position where you are likely to improve your financial situation from this date forward. Bankruptcy essentially clears off the financial slate of your life and allows you to start over from scratch without any debts dragging you down.

The Negative Effects of Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy does not come to you as an option without costs. There are costs of the process itself, as well as costs to your credit rating for many years following your discharge of debts. You can basically count on bankruptcy ruining your credit rating for six years. However, even during this post-bankruptcy six year timeframe, you can begin to slowly rebuild up your credit rating. Ultimately, once the six years has passed, then you will be in good standing again with your credit scores and able to move on with your life.

Whether or not bankruptcy is right for you is strictly a personal choice; however, it is vital that you keep in mind that bankruptcy is a financial tool which was designed to give you a fresh start if you need one.

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Jan 25

Bankruptcy can be a choice as a debt solution when you are not able to manage your debts. UK bankruptcy act was established in 1988, for individual and company directors who found difficulties in dealing with financial or trading positions. Bankruptcy makes you free from over whelming debts so that you can make a fresh start although some restrictions are attached to it. About bankruptcy you have to make sure that all your assets are shared out fairly among your creditors.

A court issues a bankruptcy order when a bankruptcy petition is filed either by you or by your creditor who owe at least 750 pounds by you. It can also be filed by a supervisor or any one bound by Individual Voluntary Arrangement. When a petition is filed, the court issues bankruptcy order and it can not be cancelled even when you don’t acknowledge it.

Once a petition is filed, your assets fall under the control of the Trustee which can be either an Official Receiver who is an officer in the court or a licensed Insolvency Practitioner. This Trustee is now responsible to recover your assets and liabilities and also to minimize the repayments to the creditor.

In this way after the bankruptcy order your creditor can no more pursue you for payments.


Duties of a Bankrupt

  • Once your bankruptcy order has been issued by a court, you are supposed to produce a list of all your assets and debts to your Official Receiver or Insolvency Practitioner within 21 days.
  • Your increased income or assets must be declared to your Trustee.
  • If you are going to obtain a credit of 250 pounds or more from a person, you should inform him of your bankruptcy.
  • You are not supposed to make any direct payments to your creditors.
  • To attend the court is mandatory for you to give reasons for being in debt; otherwise you can be put to legal punishment.

Effects of Bankruptcy:

  • It directly affects your professional life as you can not act as a Company Director after being announced as a bankrupt.
  • Your business life is also affected as you can not trade in any business without informing concerned persons about your bankruptcy.
  • You can be publicly examined in the court.

Advantages

  • If you go bankrupt, your debts are taken away from you and you are no more supposed to repay them.
  • Your assets like car and house might be at risk but household goods are saved and no one can deprive you of them.
  • You can be discharged from bankruptcy after a year and all the restrictions are lifted automatically.
  • Your payment plan lasts not more than three years with the court which is less period as compared to IVA.

Disadvantages

  • You are required to pay extra money to the court as a fee for three years.
  • Bankruptcy affects your credit rating badly as the record of your bankruptcy remains on your credit file for six years.
  • The social stigma attached to bankruptcy, you feel like being a criminal which you are certainly not