In the UK, when a debtor owes a sum of money in excess of £750 to a creditor, he can be made bankrupt by the creditor applying to the court for a bankruptcy order to be granted against him. This sum can comprise of debts that are due to a number of creditors who may petition the court as a group for a bankruptcy order, not necessarily a single creditor.
Bankruptcy is an option that can be considered when a debtor cannot pay their debts as they become due and their financial affairs become untenable. Although bankruptcy has a bad stigma and is publicly advertised, it should always be considered, even as a last resort and a debtor can apply for a bankruptcy order on his own behalf, even if creditors are not willing to do so. Debtors who are made bankrupt will usually remain bankrupt for one year, after which any debts relating to the bankruptcy are removed.
Many debtors now enter into 'Individual Voluntary Agreements' (or IVAs) as an alternative to bankruptcy. If a debtor's financial difficulties are temporary and he is likely in the future to be in receipt of funds which may pay all or most of his debts, he can talk to an insolvency practitioner with a view to obtaining such an agreement.
Through an IVA, proposals of repayment of debts are put forward to creditors, which can include banks, building societies, credit card companies and debt collection agencies, such as the CapQuest Group. Mostly these proposals involve either a lower monthly repayment or in some cases, a reduced final settlement amount. In order to succeed, however, the arrangement must be supported by at least 75% of all creditors affected by the IVA.
Despite the 'softening' of bankruptcy laws by the Enterprise Act 2002, the popularity of IVAs has grown in recent years. The Enterprise Act 2002 effected changes in bankruptcy law which many experts thought would see the end of IVAs, as it was generally regarded that bankruptcy would be seen as an easy way out for many debtors. However, even after a debtor is discharged from bankruptcy, many banks and other financial institutions will be aware of the debtor's financial history and this may affect any borrowing capabilities in the future.
Personal insolvencies are at record levels across the UK, with just over 26000 bankruptcies and IVAs in the period April to June 2006. These figures represent an increase of 10% on the first quarter of 2006, and 66% over the same quarter in 2005.
However, before any decision is made as to which route to follow, it is vitally important that a debtor seeks advice from a solicitor, insolvency practitioner or local Citizens Advice Bureau. There are also many specialised companies to be found the internet that are available to the debtor who can help to arrange an IVA or provide advice on how best to proceed in dealing with their financial situation.
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/author-articles/10629/1.html
Friday, November 2, 2007
What Are The Consequences of Filing For Bankruptcy?
Bankruptcy may be your quickest way of getting relief from your unbearable debt, but it is also the most damaging action to your credit ratings. Let us review the consequences of filling for a bankruptcy before your make up you decision to go for it.
1. Hard to Obtain Credit
Bankruptcy restrictions apply from the moment the bankruptcy order is made and it is a criminal offence to break them. These restrictions will make it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain credit. If you wish to buy a house in the future, there will be a two-year waiting period after the Chapter 7 case is discharged before you will be deemed eligible for a home loan. When a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case is involved, the waiting period is twenty-four months after the debts are paid off in full. During that two-year period, you will need to have been employed steadily, have no negative entries in your credit file, and kept debt under control.
2. Negative Impacts If You Are In Business
You will not be able to be a director of a company or hold certain offices. You will also have to inform any people you do business with the name in which you were made bankrupt; this may has negative impact on your company's reputation and may discourage your potential customers to do business with you.
3. Lose Your Assets
You may lose your assets which include your home and anything of value. And some percentage of your income will be paid to creditors for 3 years. A poor credit rating due to bankruptcy will follow you for 7 to 10 years. The bad credit stated in your credit report will cause you hard to obtain a mortgage.
4. Family Relationship Impacts
Financial strain alone is enough to break a relationship. The majority of couples failed in their marriage due to money. Bankruptcy may cause negative impacts to your family relationship if your spouse can't accept the fact of bankruptcy.
5. Health Impacts
You may blame yourself on bankruptcy incident and regret on your action. This may affect both your mental and physical conditions. It may cause you to have financial phobia and fear to manage your finances in the futures.
6. Higher Loan's Interest Rate
Bankruptcy filling has the most damage on your credit record if compare to other debt solutions. Your bad credit record will remain on your credit report for 7-10 years and if you are getting any loan after your bankruptcy discharged, your loan's interest rate will be higher than normal.
In Summary
Not all are apparent when considering bankruptcy and not all will apply to you. It is certainly worth familiarizing yourself so that you can make an informed decision when choosing whether or not to go for bankruptcy filling. And it is worth to get consultancies and advices from finance experts to see whether the bankruptcy is your only option; who know, you may find alternatives to this option and bankruptcy can be avoided.
About the Author
Cornie Herring is the Author from http://www.StudyKiosk.com. "StudyKiosk-Credit Basics" is an informational website on credit basics, debt consolidation and bankruptcy.
1. Hard to Obtain Credit
Bankruptcy restrictions apply from the moment the bankruptcy order is made and it is a criminal offence to break them. These restrictions will make it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain credit. If you wish to buy a house in the future, there will be a two-year waiting period after the Chapter 7 case is discharged before you will be deemed eligible for a home loan. When a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case is involved, the waiting period is twenty-four months after the debts are paid off in full. During that two-year period, you will need to have been employed steadily, have no negative entries in your credit file, and kept debt under control.
2. Negative Impacts If You Are In Business
You will not be able to be a director of a company or hold certain offices. You will also have to inform any people you do business with the name in which you were made bankrupt; this may has negative impact on your company's reputation and may discourage your potential customers to do business with you.
3. Lose Your Assets
You may lose your assets which include your home and anything of value. And some percentage of your income will be paid to creditors for 3 years. A poor credit rating due to bankruptcy will follow you for 7 to 10 years. The bad credit stated in your credit report will cause you hard to obtain a mortgage.
4. Family Relationship Impacts
Financial strain alone is enough to break a relationship. The majority of couples failed in their marriage due to money. Bankruptcy may cause negative impacts to your family relationship if your spouse can't accept the fact of bankruptcy.
5. Health Impacts
You may blame yourself on bankruptcy incident and regret on your action. This may affect both your mental and physical conditions. It may cause you to have financial phobia and fear to manage your finances in the futures.
6. Higher Loan's Interest Rate
Bankruptcy filling has the most damage on your credit record if compare to other debt solutions. Your bad credit record will remain on your credit report for 7-10 years and if you are getting any loan after your bankruptcy discharged, your loan's interest rate will be higher than normal.
In Summary
Not all are apparent when considering bankruptcy and not all will apply to you. It is certainly worth familiarizing yourself so that you can make an informed decision when choosing whether or not to go for bankruptcy filling. And it is worth to get consultancies and advices from finance experts to see whether the bankruptcy is your only option; who know, you may find alternatives to this option and bankruptcy can be avoided.
About the Author
Cornie Herring is the Author from http://www.StudyKiosk.com. "StudyKiosk-Credit Basics" is an informational website on credit basics, debt consolidation and bankruptcy.
Get To Know The Bankruptcy Filling Process If This Is Your Option
Filing for bankruptcy is a very personal decision. Heavy debtors may choose to file a bankruptcy if they see no other way out from their heavy debts. By declaring bankruptcy and filing a petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the bankruptcy filer will be protected and relief from debts under the Bankruptcy Code.
Bankruptcy filing should be you last option if there are no better options available, because the consequences of filing a bankruptcy will follow you for 7 to 10 years. If bankruptcy is your only option, then by understanding the process of filing bankruptcy will get you more prepare to face it. Bankruptcy procedure and exemptions may vary from one state to another state. This article will walk through with you the general process of filing a bankruptcy.
The first part of the bankruptcy filing process is collecting your personal financial information. This includes your existing secured and unsecured debts and tax returns for past two years. Prepare all your deed documents which include real estate you own, car title, land title and other loan documents. You may want to order your credit report, it will provides you some helpful information on your past records.
Then, you either assign a bankruptcy attorney or you can choose to file the bankruptcy yourself. If you choose to file the bankruptcy yourself, you need to get the bankruptcy forms (you can get these forms online) and get them fill up. You have to fill in your current financial status and recent financial transactions (within last 2 years) into the bankruptcy forms. At the mean time, you need to decide to file under what type of bankruptcy; there two commons types which are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, chapter 7 bankruptcy is the preferred one, but not all are eligible to file under chapter 7. If you choose to file under chapter 13, you need to enclose your proposed repayment plan with your petition. Once the bankruptcy petition is completed you will need to file the petition with your local United States bankruptcy court. If you have assigned a bankruptcy attorney to handle your bankruptcy case, the attorney will help you and guide you through the above process.
Once you have submitted your petition to the bankruptcy court, you will be immediately protected under the bankruptcy code. Your creditors are not allowed to make direct contact with you or making a claim to any of your property from the date of filing. About 1 month later, the trustee will call a first meeting with all your creditors and your creditors' lawyer. Objections are typically resolved by negotiation between you as the debtor and your creditors. If there is no challenge raises in the meeting, you should receive a notice from court after 4 to 6 months stated that your bankruptcy has been discharged; otherwise, if compromise can be reached by all parties, a judge will intervene.
In Summary
Bankruptcy filling is a long process, it may takes up 6 months to a few years if a court case involve. You must be prepared to face it and if you have no confidence to get through yourself, it's better to assign an attorney to handle the bankruptcy process.
About the Author
Cornie Herring is the Author from http://www.StudyKiosk.com/creditbasics. "StudyKiosk-Credit Basics" is an informational website on credit basics, debt consolidation and bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy filing should be you last option if there are no better options available, because the consequences of filing a bankruptcy will follow you for 7 to 10 years. If bankruptcy is your only option, then by understanding the process of filing bankruptcy will get you more prepare to face it. Bankruptcy procedure and exemptions may vary from one state to another state. This article will walk through with you the general process of filing a bankruptcy.
The first part of the bankruptcy filing process is collecting your personal financial information. This includes your existing secured and unsecured debts and tax returns for past two years. Prepare all your deed documents which include real estate you own, car title, land title and other loan documents. You may want to order your credit report, it will provides you some helpful information on your past records.
Then, you either assign a bankruptcy attorney or you can choose to file the bankruptcy yourself. If you choose to file the bankruptcy yourself, you need to get the bankruptcy forms (you can get these forms online) and get them fill up. You have to fill in your current financial status and recent financial transactions (within last 2 years) into the bankruptcy forms. At the mean time, you need to decide to file under what type of bankruptcy; there two commons types which are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, chapter 7 bankruptcy is the preferred one, but not all are eligible to file under chapter 7. If you choose to file under chapter 13, you need to enclose your proposed repayment plan with your petition. Once the bankruptcy petition is completed you will need to file the petition with your local United States bankruptcy court. If you have assigned a bankruptcy attorney to handle your bankruptcy case, the attorney will help you and guide you through the above process.
Once you have submitted your petition to the bankruptcy court, you will be immediately protected under the bankruptcy code. Your creditors are not allowed to make direct contact with you or making a claim to any of your property from the date of filing. About 1 month later, the trustee will call a first meeting with all your creditors and your creditors' lawyer. Objections are typically resolved by negotiation between you as the debtor and your creditors. If there is no challenge raises in the meeting, you should receive a notice from court after 4 to 6 months stated that your bankruptcy has been discharged; otherwise, if compromise can be reached by all parties, a judge will intervene.
In Summary
Bankruptcy filling is a long process, it may takes up 6 months to a few years if a court case involve. You must be prepared to face it and if you have no confidence to get through yourself, it's better to assign an attorney to handle the bankruptcy process.
About the Author
Cornie Herring is the Author from http://www.StudyKiosk.com/creditbasics. "StudyKiosk-Credit Basics" is an informational website on credit basics, debt consolidation and bankruptcy.
Five Ways How A Credit Monitoring Service Can Help Post-Bankruptcy Individuals Rebuild Their Credit
If you are bankrupt and rebuilding credit, it will be helpful to monitor your progress as you add more positive information to your credit report. And one way to monitor your progress is by using a credit monitoring service.
When you declared bankrupt, you know how hard it is to raise your credit score again. At this point you know that you should take extra care and precaution in keeping your credit score safe from, or else you might become the next victim of identity theft. Bankrupt or not, you don't want it to happen. But now that you are bankrupt, nothing will undermine your efforts in rebuilding your credit faster than having your identity stolen.
While you can do the monitoring yourself, using a credit monitoring service can be advantageous in helping you recover from bankruptcy and rebuild your credit.
Here are the following reasons.
1. Credit monitoring services usually monitor any inquiry made on your credit report and why. This helps you detect if there are any unauthorized activities being done under your name.
2. Credit monitoring services also monitor if there are any new accounts being opened in your name. One of the ways identity thieves use your information and leave you with debt is by getting a hold of your name, address and Social Security Number for them to open new accounts using your name, run up charges in that account and leave you with more debt. This delinquency will be reported on your credit report, which will hurt your credit score more. But by monitoring closely your credit file, you can protect yourself from the further damages of ID theft if you know once when someone has opened a new account in your name.
3. Credit monitoring services monitor if your mailing address on your credit card account has been changed. Identity thieves can change your mailing address, and have your statement sent to the new address so they can get more of your financial information like your credit card numbers, and run up charges on your account. And because those statements are sent to the new address, it will take long before you become aware of it. Through a credit monitoring service, you will monitor of there were changes to your mailing address.
4. Credit monitoring services monitor if there has been an increase on your credit card limit. Identity thieves can also request for an increase on your credit card and run up charges on your account. This can in turn leave you with large debt and a worse credit score if you cannot pay it on time.
5. Credit monitoring services are very convenient because you are just a mouse click away from accessing your credit report, instead of monitoring your progress yourself. This makes it a time saver as well, especially if you choose to have their email alerts delivered to your inbox on a daily basis whenever a change happens to your credit report. This will make it easier for you to see if there are any inaccurate information being added so you can correct them as soon as possible, which can help improve your credit score.
So you see, using a credit monitoring service offer many benefits to you if you are bankrupt and are rebuilding your credit. Just study what they offer and choose one that suits your needs best.
About the Author
For a comprehensive guide on bankruptcy and rebuilding your credit after bankruptcy, visit http://bankruptcy.onlinemoneytips.info .
When you declared bankrupt, you know how hard it is to raise your credit score again. At this point you know that you should take extra care and precaution in keeping your credit score safe from, or else you might become the next victim of identity theft. Bankrupt or not, you don't want it to happen. But now that you are bankrupt, nothing will undermine your efforts in rebuilding your credit faster than having your identity stolen.
While you can do the monitoring yourself, using a credit monitoring service can be advantageous in helping you recover from bankruptcy and rebuild your credit.
Here are the following reasons.
1. Credit monitoring services usually monitor any inquiry made on your credit report and why. This helps you detect if there are any unauthorized activities being done under your name.
2. Credit monitoring services also monitor if there are any new accounts being opened in your name. One of the ways identity thieves use your information and leave you with debt is by getting a hold of your name, address and Social Security Number for them to open new accounts using your name, run up charges in that account and leave you with more debt. This delinquency will be reported on your credit report, which will hurt your credit score more. But by monitoring closely your credit file, you can protect yourself from the further damages of ID theft if you know once when someone has opened a new account in your name.
3. Credit monitoring services monitor if your mailing address on your credit card account has been changed. Identity thieves can change your mailing address, and have your statement sent to the new address so they can get more of your financial information like your credit card numbers, and run up charges on your account. And because those statements are sent to the new address, it will take long before you become aware of it. Through a credit monitoring service, you will monitor of there were changes to your mailing address.
4. Credit monitoring services monitor if there has been an increase on your credit card limit. Identity thieves can also request for an increase on your credit card and run up charges on your account. This can in turn leave you with large debt and a worse credit score if you cannot pay it on time.
5. Credit monitoring services are very convenient because you are just a mouse click away from accessing your credit report, instead of monitoring your progress yourself. This makes it a time saver as well, especially if you choose to have their email alerts delivered to your inbox on a daily basis whenever a change happens to your credit report. This will make it easier for you to see if there are any inaccurate information being added so you can correct them as soon as possible, which can help improve your credit score.
So you see, using a credit monitoring service offer many benefits to you if you are bankrupt and are rebuilding your credit. Just study what they offer and choose one that suits your needs best.
About the Author
For a comprehensive guide on bankruptcy and rebuilding your credit after bankruptcy, visit http://bankruptcy.onlinemoneytips.info .
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