++ bristol bailiffs alert ++

[fat hamster]

Each to their own, but personally, I think I'd rather just go bankrupt than let stress gnaw away at me for six years. Draw a line, get it over with, and (-hopefully) learn and move on.

The alternative of constantly worrying, and having to be dodging bailiffs and the courts for years would just be too much prolonged stress for me!

It wasn't that stressful, TBH!

I've not had to deal with any courts or bailiffs, because I made it clear to my creditors at the start that I was a single mum living on benefit in rented accommodation, and that I didn't own or earn anything anyone could take off me.

After that, all I had to do was STFU!

(I did, for other reasons, change my address and phone number a couple of times about seven years ago, which may have helped.)

What I do have is an enormous box full of letters from debt collection firms, which I'm saving in order to create some kind of artwork. Maybe one day I'll do my own "council" version of the KLF money-burning thang.

 

[Sunspots]

It wasn't that stressful, TBH!

I realise everybody will deal with it differently, and when it comes to debt, some people can keep the stress levels in perspective. Some things just stress me far more than other things, and money is one of 'em!

What I do have is an enormous box full of letters from debt collection firms, which I'm saving in order to create some kind of artwork. Maybe one day I'll do my own "council" version of the KLF money-burning thang.

Yeah, video it and you can tour the country, exhibiting it prankster-style at places like The Arnolfini. If you can get enough funding, you might even make money!...

 

[fat hamster]

I realise everybody will deal with it differently, and when it comes to debt, some people can keep the stress levels in perspective.

To be fair, I was terrified when I first realised I couldn't pay my debts. They were almost all student debts - even 10-12 years ago, the banks just threw cash at you if you were a full-time student, and I'd bought into a load of hype about getting a full-time, high-paying IT job which turned out to be completely unrealistic.

It was actually my Lloyds bank manager who gave me practical advice about what to do. His bank had just taken all my benefit without warning to start paying off a loan (I was in tears when I went to him ). He told me where and what to write, and to get another, very basic, bank account with a different bank set up quickly before Lloyds foreclosed on me.

Around that time I also had a really excellent session with an NLP therapist in Bristol, who literally talked and walked me through the whole process of giving up fighting for some illusory credit rating. The stress pretty much evaporated there and then, and became just a bunch of old feelings, irrelevant and in the past.

But what really sticks in my mind was the bank manager saying how much better I'd feel once I'd given up trying to service debts I couldn't afford, and how lots of other people had already gone down that route and found it helpful. And sure enough, Lloyds froze the interest on the loan and my overdraft, and accepted my offer of £1 a month with very little fuss. So did all my other creditors. And I did fell much better.

As it turned out, I defaulted on the £1 a month arrangements a year or two down the line after I moved house twice in a year and lost the plot a bit for other reasons. No-one chased me after that, probably because it cost them more than £1 a month to service the payments anyway.

 

[Isambard]

If you're facing the bailiffs because you maxed out on your credit card or catalogue for luxury items you really didn't need or couldn't afford, the political case for not letting in the bailiffs weakens quite a little.

That's PARTLY true Munkeeunit but you have to recognise as well how much as we are pushed to consume things we don't need.

Not only that but the expectations in society have risen. When I was a wee lad going to America on holiday was beyond the wilsdest dreams of most people but nowadays not uncommon. To "keep up with the Jonses" it is no longer "god enough" to do a week's holiday on the Dorset coast like we used to, so people get their credit cards out and............

I can't believe the Council Tax systrem is so going, should be a local income tax imvho.

 

[DaveCinzano]

i don't feel guilty in the slightest. i contribute to society. amelia court fucked me over. they took more than they should have from me, and created a ripple effect which turned over my carefully-constructed budget.

no regrets, no apologies

and any bailiffs hoping to leach off my misfortune can go fuck themselves

 

[Isambard]

and any bailiffs hoping to leach off my misfortune can go fuck themselves

Put your finger on the pulse there KRS, they are the bloody parasites on society.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Put your finger on the pulse there KRS, they are the bloody parasites on society.

i don't think it's as simple as that. the problem is the system which allows - no, needs - legalised burglars to terrorise the poorest of our communities.

 

[Isambard]

Similar to the way that capitalism NEEDS unemployment?

 

[Sunspots]

Similar in the way that capitalism NEEDS unemployment?

Ah, you beat me to it!

 

[Isambard]

I must admit to reading this recently in a brochure from the S*P: All these "financial services" like when utilities are very quick to sell on the debts of unpaid domestic bills don't actually contribute to society but they do, throught the upwardly spiralling costs create a surplus value that the debtor has to pay and get nothing in return. Almost pure profit?

 

[WasGeri]

I think going bankrupt is a very bad thing and should be avoided where possible. Not only do they have access to all the money you have coming in, but is makes it very difficult to obtain credit in the future. Which doesn't just mean getting a credit card/loan/mortgage but can also affect your tenancy as some places will not let to bankrupts. After all, you never know what is going to happen in the future.

 

[munkeeunit]

That's PARTLY true Munkeeunit but you have to recognise as well how much as we are pushed to consume things we don't need.

Not only that but the expectations in society have risen. When I was a wee lad going to America on holiday was beyond the wilsdest dreams of most people but nowadays not uncommon. To "keep up with the Jonses" it is no longer "god enough" to do a week's holiday on the Dorset coast like we used to, so people get their credit cards out and............

I can't believe the Council Tax systrem is so going, should be a local income tax imvho.

I should say, that if these credit card companies and corporations are dumb enough to lend us loads of money thinking they'll get it back, they're the ones to lose the money, not us.

I'm just saying that there are grey areas. Like the grey area between what we perceive as poverty and need, and what it is really like to live on a $1 a day!

but just because all of us inhabit a few grey areas doesn't mean we deserve to be punished like sinners, and have our stuff knicked by heavies.

Always fuck the bailiff, when our number comes up.