my other half went bankrupt years ago just before i met him , he lost  houses and his business at the time but he said it was the best thing that ever happend to him    he was pissed of cos he had a couple of hundred quid in a savings account and didnt get it out at the time as they freeze  any bank accounts for 3 years and put it in the local papers  but he got it back when the bankrupcy was lifted  
but it was years ago and his credit rating is perfect  945 i think last time i checked  and he has no problems in getting loans, credit cards, ect now  

back then you were bankrupt for   6 years but  it might be 3 and at one time they were talking about it being one year   but it only shows on your credit file for three years and then its not showing as credit checks only go back 3 years unless its for a coperate loan and you want to borrow mllions so after three years you can start to build up your credit file again
  
Stupidist thing is that you have to pay to go bankrupt though  
          

If your going for a iva or dmp then  im pretty sure your house wont matter unless you have  a lot of  equityt in it and they might require you to realease it in order to pay a lump sum toward the iva  towards the end  but if your credit is no good and you cant remortage or its only going to make you more in debt then it mostl likely wont be pursued

   its only for bankruptcy that the house is an issue as its an assest  for creditors to cling to if there is equity in it  but generally theres not or very little so the OR official receiver leaves it alone
 while your on a iva and your paying it  nothing should  happen to your home from the creditors for any debt you have  your mortgage  is something else but as long as your paying it then its fine

   
 if your debt is unsecured debt ie credit cards, overdrafts, store cards loans ect then its not secured on your house     So your house and any money you may have in it is irelevant unless the credit card companies play hard ball which is unlikely once your on a iva or a dmp   Thats the whole point of a iva  unless you default on it   

make sure that none of you  unsecured creditors try to get a secured loan  which although its rare there have been cases of credit card companies turning unsecured debt into secured debt due to the terms and conditions of the orginal agreement which no one ever reads      this  is then secured on your house which mean that they can in slap a charge on your house  force you into bankrupcty  ect 
 also dont be tempted to take out one big loan which is secured on your house and its unmanagable   

the main thing is to get the interest on any credit cards store card that you have frozen and down to 0 percent that way your not stacking up more and more  debt

while you  have to pay a couple of hundred of pounds to go bankrupt that its  its a one off fee,  you dont have to pay any further debt   as its all gone -   your credit score is screwed but most likely it is anyway  and bankrupcy is only for a year now rather than 3 years  so witin 4 years you could easliy be back with a good  credit score  and you dont neccessarily lose your home if its done right
 it will only show on your credit file for 36 months and when your credit scored for anything they only check back 3 years so your bankuptcy wont show  so you will be able to start buidling up a good credit score again
 

With an iva its five years of month in month out of paying that money regardless  you cant get any credit untill your out of an iva which is 5 years and it could take a possible 3 years after the five years to repair your credit anyway so its a much longer process andif you cant pay it and default then the next step would probably be bankrupcty

you just have to work out whats better for you take your time  and dont make a rash decision   -  you dont want to go the iva route and then two years down the line realise that bankrupcy would have been a far better option     as long as you know what each option means and the final results of it then you will be fine       

 Thanks Paris for the last info you gave and also thanks to Jenny i so do appreciate all your help and time.
 Well to update am at the CAB tomorrow Friday 9.45 am to get things in the open.
 Last few days i have been getting all things together  info on creditors amounts owing and its
 not nice staring at this stuff hour after hour and doing print outs etc god its horrible.
 I have my mobile on ( Contract ) same number for years so some of my regs have used it for a long time,
 anyway phoned Orange and explained my pending situation hoping i could keep my number on a pay as you go.
 The guy was helpful and explained when CAB do an IVA  they will contact Orange and my account / contract
 will be terminated, and my number put in to quarantine for six months so when i am sorted i can approach
 Orange and try to reclaim my number on a pay as you go tariff, will be about two weeks before it goes off.

 Its a lot of messing around and i will have a barren time as nobody can contact me etc, i think my best option
 is get a new Sim on pay as you go and start using it before my old number is switched off ( your thoughts ).
At the moment i had a good deal two phones ( one husbands )  900mins each / 500 texts/ plus magic numbers
worked out at ?45 a month but that will soon end cos CAB will say you don't need these   as exp-endure
its a fair comment in my position.
Anyway see what happens tomorrow dreading it!!
Zina   xxx 

meant to mention this before as soon as you can ( before the iva is in place , youn  MUST open a new basic bank account in your  name/joint names    you need to ensure that all  your wages  are paid into that  accounts and transfer over the DDs for all the household items before  you let  the bank know there are problems.

Otherwise, as soon as the bank know, they may wait until the next lot of money comes in and then freeze the account, taking all that month's money to offset against the debts. This is legal, so they need to take action to avoid it.

The new basic account needs to be with a bank that has no association with their existing one. It does not need a credit check and they may be able to open it on-line.

they have changed it then i remember reading something about that it was going to happen but that was a while ago   
 
 my other half  went bankrupt in sept 1998 but  it was for three years but approx  6 months after the bankruptcy was lifted and he was discharge he was able to open a mainstream bank account and begin building his credit back up to what it is now 

it  took 3 years from the time the discharge was lifted  to get it to the point where applying for a loan would just sail through without going to underwriters  ect  credit cards took approx  1 year and we just kept spending and paying  it of each month so that they raised the credit  level up
     
your right that it stays on your credit file for six years however  and this is what i find weird back then, credit checks
would  only go back three years as standard 
  When you asked   for credit they wanted to know where you have lived for the past three years  if they were to ask where you lived for say 4 years then the bankruptcy would show up  but as they only asked for three years  and other half was past three years post bankruptcy its didnt show

 ( although  maybe now they have wised up to this loophole  cos  some ask where you have lived for  6 years not 3 )
 

Bankruptcy is currently only 12 months for the first time, and it WILL show for 6 years on your credit rating.

http://www.experian.co.uk/downloads/consumer/bankruptcyV6.pdf

Also no matter what people say you cannot have it removed from your credit report without paying the initial debt in full either.

not being rude but how much equity do you have in the house,  is it a joint mortage or your alone  is it not possible to remortage to take out the equity and  pay off the debt that you owe   if you sold at say 65k how much would you be left with after fees ect
 

if you dont have a lot of equity or not enough to pay of the debts  then this is my opinion  i would go bankrupt  and i would plan it out so that it wasnt to traumatic for meand that i ended up reasonably ok    

it will most likely be the credit cards that go for a charging order  there is a little known clause that  allows credit cards to turn unsecured debt into secured debt or charges on house owners

realistically you owe 25 k worth of debt min 

you have a mortage on which can have a charged slapped on it and a forced sale where you will probably end up owing money to the bank   ( this will cost you time and money and more stress )

  if you are left owing any money to the bank once the house is sold  for your mortgage its called a shortfall  -  If there is a shortfall on your mortgage and its repossed then they will chased you for it up to 12 years ( it might be \six now ) but they will chase you and the debt will keep increasing as they wack interest on top  

you will most likly end up going bankrupt anyway as you owe 25k + the difference of the shortfall which could easliy be another 30k + interest depending on what the house sells for   
    
  ie mortgage is 100k  gets sold for 60k either through a forced sell or by one of those who buy for cash  (they always undersell you wont get market price for never)    your mortgage company  will then chase you for the difference of 40k ( shortfall)  cos your mortage was 100k and that  you owe them the difference     

if you sell to one of those cash places you will be lucky to get 70k more like 55- 60 if they are feeling generous  and  you still owe the bank the money  if its less than what  your mortage is  then you wont be no further along than you are now  no home still owing  40k  plus the debt you have       
those places are horrible  they will ask you to pay upfront fee for this and that and they will get you down to rock bottom price trust me they are scum  they prey on people in your situation
    
at the very worse if you lose your home manage to come out of it not owing anything to the bank and dont go bankrupt then you will still owe the 25k of debt anyway  so virtually same situation, no home but still in debt     

other half went bankrupt back in 1998 for over 300,00k  several houses and business years ago  one house he bought for 68k they sold it at auction for 38k  a flat that he had he bought for 48k they sold it at auction for 27k  
they have no interest in you,  however cos he went bankrupt he didnt have to pay anything but...... they then chased his ex wife for the money  instead as she was joint signatury she ended up having to go bankrupt as well

meant to add that in order to put  a charge on your house they have to issue a ccj first they cant just go to court and slap a charge on it  its unlikely as well that they would force you to sell as its mortgaged
it dosnt mean that you will lose your house/ be repossed but .... once your on that route its a slippery slope     

Do you have enough time and money to spend in order to get the  house tarted up  will that not  get you into even more debt central heating isnt cheap to install 

Sometimes you just have to know when to let go and walk away  the stress isnt worth it 
 

dead right , whenever i get a problem i think well theres always someone out there worse of than me  thats for sure
lightbulb moment i think its called 

Hey listen the main thing is........no matter how bad it seems (and it may get worse before it gets better) you have started to TACKLE it, and that is  a huge step in the right direction

How can somebody like us set up a regular payment plan when self employed and have no idea how much we will earn each week. It's straightforward if you have a set wage.