The beginning.

The beginning seems a good place to start with this. No rambling moans about my life and why it messed up, just a few lines about the position I find myself in and where I am at with trying to get back on track.

The plan for this Blog is to check in and write everytime something of importance happens, or if anything about the process strikes me as odd, unfair or just strange!

End of the line.

The end of the line for me came on a Friday. Months and months of fighting to keep up the repayments on the 18k of debt I had managed to aquire had left me stressed, ill and basically at the end of my tether. I had gone through the options, IVA's, Equity release on my property, arranged payment plans and none of them worked for me. I had tried to keep up my payments but a period of unemployment took all my savings and left me, well, broke.

So I was on benefits (eventually), no job, no future I could see and most importantly, 18k of debt (plus another 11k I will go into later) that wasn't getting any smaller! The letters and calls had increased, we were getting at least ten a day from collection agencies and worse still we were beginning to get visits from the agencies themselves which scared my wife to death. Every time we got a call or a visit I conned myself that I could sort it, it would be sorted and everything would be ok.

The Friday in question started brightly enough, I had just that week secured a job and thought things were looking up, it was a lovely day and I was up bright and early for an important meeting. But my mood changed immediately I started down the stairs, a note pushed through my letterbox looked very ominous.

It was from a bailiff. An unpaid debt had finally caught up with me and opening the front door I saw what I feared the worst, the car had a bright yellow clamp on it wheel.

I was mortified, neighbours were out and about and alreay I had been given a few odd looks from one or two wondering what was going on. I grabbed the letter to see it was in relation to a £300 debt. For a £300 bill they had clamed £5k worth of car! I was both humiliated and furious in equal measures, I had a meeting to get to, if I didnt get there I would lose the job I had only just managed to get!

I called the bailiff and explained I needed to get away asap, 'I'm only around the corner Sir, I can be there in 5 minutes.' he said, managing to sound like it was the most normal thing in the world to wake up to your car being clamped.

True to his word 5 minutes later the bailiff appeared at my door with the paperwork needed to release my vehicle and a jolly attitude like all was fine in the world.

Was there any way to release the car without making full payment? No. Was there any way to set anything up? No. Why clamp a £5k car over a £300 bill? It was his job, naturally. I had no option but to pay the full amount, wiping out the very last of our money in any account and leaving my family with what was in the cupboards for the next week and a half until payday. 

Standing there, in my own front room with a bailiff sitting on my sofa making a payment via debit card to get my car released was the tipping point. The point I realised not only could this not go on but also the point when I decided I could not let it go on!! The stigma attached to Insolvency, the problems I had foreseen and dreaded just had to be the only way to get clear and maybe, just maybe start again.

The bill paid, I wished the bailiff a good day and set off to work, on the way back I would call into the local County Court and find out how I went about making myself Bankrupt.