It can be very hard for the insolvent debtor to choose the best option when faced with a choice of entering an IVA or petitioning for bankruptcy. One approach is to weigh up the pros and cons of each solution from one’s own perspective, bearing in mind that the other interested parties, particularly creditors, may have a different view of the matter. Following are the principal pros and cons of both options looked at not just from the perspective of the insolvent debtor but also from the perspective of creditors, the state and the insolvency practitioner.
(more…)If we cannot pay our bills as they fall due there is often a price to pay in terms of creditor hassle, hounding and harassment. Credit card providers in particular seem to be the most aggressive in pursuing debtors by letter, phone calls and other means. Can we do anything about it?
(more…)In the current recession many of us are faced with the dilemma of what bills to pay when we have insufficient income to pay everything. We tend to pay the creditors who send us the most threatening letters or phone us most frequently or aggressively or who call to our home or who shout the loudest. We make pressurised decisions but are they the right ones?
(more…)To become qualified as an Insolvency Practitioner (IP) in the UK, one needs to have a certain minimum number of hours of experience of working in an insolvency practice, currently about 600 and to have passed the Joint Insolvency Examination Board (JIEB) examinations.
(more…)Discharge from bankruptcy in the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) is automatic after one year, in most cases. ‘Discharge’ means that you are no longer a ‘bankrupt’ person one year after your bankruptcy commenced. A typical exception would be for example a person who was made bankrupt for a second time, where the discharge period could be longer than one year.
(more…)People who are considering petitioning for their own bankruptcy are sometimes concerned that they will lose everything they own. This is not the case. Items such as books, dvds, plants, cutlery, crockery, stereo and such normal household artifacts are of no interest to the trustee in bankruptcy and the bankrupt will be allowed to retain these and all such normal items.
(more…)Recently published statistics estimate that the cost of rearing a kid from birth to twenty one years old may very well be up to £200,000. We will assume that you are in an IVA and turn out to be pregnant. The prospect of attempting to continue your IVA during your pregnancy and especially after the birth of your child might be a problematic one. The undoubted happiness of getting a new baby has got to be tempered with the inescapable fact that monetary challenges may very well escalate. Nevertheless, plenty of consumers in IVAs have skillfully overcome the difficulties presented in these particular situations.
(more…)In a word, no! We are talking here about renting a private residence from a landlord. Such arrangements are normally documented in a written rental agreement which is freely entered into and signed by both parties – the landlord and the tenant and is in accordance with the law.
(more…)There are some advantages to consolidating your debts into one consolidation loan. For many people it is enticing to have to make just one monthly payment instead of many. Making multiple payments to a variety of creditors in respect of a number of different accounts is time consuming, particularly when funds are tight and there is not enough money to go around. You have to decide which debts are ‘priority’ ones. These you must pay. For the rest you simply have to make do with whatever you can afford to pay, even if in some cases it is less than the contractual amount that you should be paying.
(more…)Just because you have debts of £20,000 or more doesn’t necessarily mean that you have financial problems. For a start you may have a good income and sufficient disposable income to make the contractual payments on your loan agreements.
(more…)RTE television lately featured several Irish partners who were drowning with debt basically because of having taken out vast mortgage loans at the height of the building bubble from 2005 to 2008. There are certainly over 45,000 home mortgages now in arrears of three months or greater in Ireland. Around an additional 35,000 homeowners have renegotiated the repayment terms of their home loans through rescheduling of home loan payments, changing to interest only mortgage loans, prolonging the timeframe of their home finance loan or agreeing a payment holiday with their mortgage loan providers.
(more…)Persons who declare bankruptcy after 1st December 2010 face having to pay more of their disposable income to their trustee than before.
(more…)The big freeze is having a catastrophic effect on people and on their physical and financial health. A number of people have already died in the UK and Ireland after falling to the ground close to their homes. They were generally elderly people who were living alone. Further casualties are expected even as the thaw sets in. Hospitals are inundated with patients seeking treatment for broken bones following slips and falls.
(more…)There are some advantages to consolidating your debts into one consolidation loan. Having to make just one monthly payment is one of them – rather than having to make multiple payments to a variety of creditors in respect of a number of different accounts. A big advantage is that you have just one creditor to deal with rather than many creditors and so managing your finances is simplified. It is also likely that your credit rating will improve particularly if you include all of your credit card accounts in the consolidation. On top of these advantages, the monthly repayment on the consolidation loan may be lower than the sum of the repayments on the multiple loans.
(more…)Unless you are a hermit, the chances of avoiding Christmas debt completely are slim. Research shows that at least one in two adults in the UK will incur debt over the Christmas season and be faced with addressing these debts in January.
(more…)Believe it or not, in certain circumstances you can enter an Individual Voluntary Arrangement IVA), even if your disposable income is zero. In the current recession many people have lost their jobs and those lucky enough to secure a new job sometimes find that their new salary is substantially reduced from before.
(more…)Most of us have personal money worries and want to do something about them. We know that there are solutions out there. The problem we have is that while we know that we need to do something, we don’t know where to begin and some of us do nothing. There are four principal options available which should always be considered. There are further options also but we will not consider these for the moment.
(more…)It has long been standard practice for creditors to require some part of equity in property to be released and contributed by debtors who own such property and who enter into Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs). The debtor may already have anticipated this requirement and addressed any equity in their property in the IVA proposal. One of the benefits of an IVA is that the debtor does not usually lose their home which they will almost certainly do in Bankruptcy.
(more…)Fear of failure inhibits many people from taking action to address a problem. People who find themselves insolvent can baulk at entering an Individual Voluntary Arrangement for fear that they will fail to make it work and that they will be worse off than before. If you do take the plunge what is it like and what happens? Once you enter into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement with your creditors you receive a copy of what is called the Chairman’s Report of the Meeting of Creditors.
(more…)Recently published figures estimate that the cost of rearing a child from birth to twenty one years of age can be up to £200,000. Let us suppose that you are in an IVA and become pregnant.
(more…)