Say i maxed all my credit cards out BIG STYLE and i did'nt have any other assets ie car,house,business etc can i declair myself bankrupt and walk away,what would happen?

Well, you wouldn't be able to get any form of credit for a very long time at the very least…..

Three of my customers went bankrupt this time last year. I recieved a letter last week that if I read correctly sugests that one of them is off the record? So nothing really it seems.

However, I had to pick up the bill of 12K OUT OF MY OWN POCKET which makes those customers total utter ***ts, and to do it as a way out is theft in my opinion and puts you in the same league as them.
Breathe.
Do you just not want to pay your bills?

Get another credit card and buy a flight somewhere, then go on the run! Catch Me If You Can style! Awesome!

Please tell me your not doing it to avoid paying, because if you are explain the difference between that and stealing?

Sorry Old git forget to mention this is a friend who is considering doing this to his credit card company ,plus its personal not business.
Just wondering what the implications would be?

Obviously we dont condone what hes doing in any way .but?

I'm obviously biased and bitter. It does appear that the person claiming bankrupcy gets pretty well cared for, whilst the victim gets left holding the bill.
All three guys are working and living in the same rented accomodation. They didn't have their cars taken. They just have nicer holidays now and are in the pub more.

its personal not business.

That's different then, rather than being utter thieving scum, he's just thieving utter scum.

Wow i know its bad but i was'nt expecting so much support for the Credit Card Oligarthes.Well done, you guys have great morals.
Sounds like there arent many impications.

Information on bankruptcy, and its implications here. Don't assume you get to walk away scot free (though your creditors might think you have).

Have a look at MoneySavingExpert. There's a government backed scheme which allows people in trouble to make an arrangement with their creditors, reduce outstanding interest and get themselves back straight.

AS a creditor that's how I do feel. It's never explained where the money goes, why I/we never see a single penny and how in every case (refering to administrations & Liquidations)the companies without fail come back a week later (looking and seeming) bigger and wealthier.

Oldgit, I also lost £12k earlier this year (actually £10k but it cost me £2k to go through the courts trying to get money out of her before she went bankrupt) to a b**ch of a solicitor who had us do a load of work for her knowing that:
[*]a) She was going out of business
b) There was no way I was going to get paid[/*]
I've just had a letter through from the receivers saying that there's no hope that anyone is going to get any money out of her. 😡

Go to the CAB. They will put you in touch with an insolvency practitioner who will give you a couple of options – one will be an IVA or something similar – you will go for this option because you cant opt for bankruptcy. Your creditors wont agree to this option. This then allows you to apply for bankruptcy….. The process is fairly easy and relatively painless.

I'm obviously biased and bitter. It does appear that the person claiming bankrupcy gets pretty well cared for, whilst the victim gets left holding the bill.

Ah the standard bankruptcy is easy response! I went bankrupt in January and I can assure you it is no easy way out. We had to close our family business (established 25yrs so not a fly-by-night company) due to a rapid fall in turnover and a couple of other companies going bust on us and owing us money. More by luck than judgement I managed to get another job soon after we closed but my brother is still unemployed, is about to lose his house and was nearly sectioned due to mental breakdown – so yes, its a piece of cake!

The financial implications are very wide ranging, you won't get any sort of credit for at least six years, and even if you do it will be on high interest rates. And if the Official Receiver believes the person going bankrupt has behaved fraudulently or recklessly than can have a bankruptcy restriction order placed on them which means the bankruptcy can last a a great deal longer than a year.

Your 'friend' could also have to pay the Receiver up to 70% of any surplus income for the next 3 years.

Don't get me wrong I have not time for serial bankrupts who just rack-up depts on luxury goods and walk away, or companies that constantly do a phoenix job, but there are many who have no choice but to take this option.

If your friend needs advice – as BigJohn says this is the best place…
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=136

"Neither a lender or a borrower be"
Personally i have very few debts and as a businessman I dont use bank credit.I run a Cash and Carry dealing with complete strangers and YOU take the risk when you issue credit to the thieving bastard who you never see again.Credit where credits due.

how in every case (refering to administrations & Liquidations)the companies without fail come back a week later (looking and seeming) bigger and wealthier.

there are a series of different ways a company can go bust when insolvent: administrative receivership, court receivership, administration, corporate voluntary arrangement (IVA).

Very few companies end up in insolvent liquidation. When they do, there is the classic dividing up of assets, and repaying the creditors from those (once sold – hence "liquidation").

The most common route these days is pre-pack administration. In essence, the insolvency practitioner has to market the insolvent business (at a price probably below that of its asset value often), but the reality is that the management team who drove it under invariably end up buying it back, hence the the fact that it rises like a phoenix from the ashes.

a b**ch of a solicitor

Be comforted by the fact that, if she was made bankrupt, she can never practise as a lawyer again (she will have been struck off by the Law Society). Not much comfort, I know.

I was in business with someone and we had a falling out. There were some debts in the business – about £30k when we wound it up and as it was a partnership the debt became joint and several. We agreed that we would each pay half. My partner then went into sequestration and left me holding the baby. The £30k was added to his considerable personal debt and was written off. I had to pay the J&S debt. A couple of years later, I hear an aunt ahs died and left him a fortune and nobody gets a bit of it. It makes me f*cking rage when I think about it.

I royally messed up my finances a while back, got in touch with the CCCS and they suggested either bankruptcy or a DMP (Debt Management Plan). From a purely selfish point of view bankruptcy would probably be better, but morally I borrowed the money and I'll be damned if I don't pay it back one way or another.

Well done flyingmonkeycorps. Nice to see a bit of moral fibre.

Oldgit and Shakbait. Glad its not just me then. I've written off the best part of 30 grand this year with utter ****s pulling this stunt. And obviously because I'm absolutely minted I could really afford to lose it. I'm sure this was at the forefront of their mids as they did it

Its way way too easy in this country for people to just waltz away from their responsibilities. One of the bastards who did it is still driving around in his **** big AMG Merc. How does that work then?

So… in answer to the original question. It seems very very easy indeed to go bankrupt. And there seems to be just about **** all come-back

I believe its costs quite a bit to go bankrupt £500 ?? thats a bit of a guess but I know its a few quid.
Money is a tool to help the world go around, theres are plenty of people out there who are good at seperating you from it or even seperating you from money you dont have (CC companies etc).

If your circumstances are such that you can never reasonably repay the debt, go banckrupt, return to go and try again.
If you lent money, goods or services, I presume you did it with a profit in mind? As such you took a gamble and lost do your homework better next time and stop crying about it.

Muffin-man – I want to make clear that my comments are in no way directed at people in your situation, but to those who take on a heap of debt and select to walk away from it.

Wow i know its bad but i was'nt expecting so much support for the Credit Card Oligarthes.Well done, you guys have great morals.

No, he's not stealing from companies, as if this were in some perverse way a better more acceptable form of theft, he is stealing from all of those who have credit cards – we are the ones that pay for it.

like i said cranberry im not condoning it,in fact it looks like there is somthing fundamentally wrong with the law.It still does'nt make Credit a complete necessity for modern living ,I use a Credit Card for internet purchases and for when im out of the country,if anyone wants to pay over the odd intrests thats there problem.