Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability to pay back all your lenders. One can seek out for a creditor in filing bankruptcy, in order to recoup a portion of what you owe. It is carried out by a bankruptcy attorney in a legal manner. Basically gives a borrower indebted, a new lease of life. As it helps relieve the debtor off his pending debts and enables him to repay the creditor systematically, he only pays what he can afford to pay.

Basic purpose of filing bankruptcy:

Gives a new lease of life to all those debtors trapped badly in debts
Stops creditors from taking any legal action against debtors
Relieves the debtor off his debts
Repay only what you can afford
Repay in a systematic manner

Commonly personal bankruptcy is of two kinds:

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is when you discharge all your debts with the help of a court. To discharge all your debts you will in turn give up your property. It can also include items that are already paid off. However, not all debts can be discharged under this.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy helps you to get rid of debt by obtaining a court approved plan to repay back. It is usually stretched over 3-5 year period and lets you pay back your debts in an orderly manner. You get to keep your personal property and pay only what you can afford to pay till that date. So your creditor generally accepts less than the whole amount.

Unfortunately, filing bankruptcy can cause adverse credit problems for roughly around 7-10 years. It will also reflect badly on your credit history and is not favourable in terms of credit worthiness. After bankruptcy, you might be doing exceptionally well on your financial front, but you will still face problems. Every time you apply for a personal loan or home loan you will either be denied of loans or are subjected to unusually high rate of interest.

Consider bankruptcy alternatives:

Debt consolidation

Seek help to consolidate or pool together your existing debts into one single new loan, with a lower monthly repayment. The payments being lower for two main reasons:

(a) The loan is spread over a longer period of time than your existing debts

(b) The interest rate being charged is less than the average rate on your current debts.
Whilst this is not the answer for many people, it can be a useful tool during a period of low interest rates, or when there is sufficient equity built up in a property so that a second mortgage or remortgage can be arranged.

IVA

A true alternative to using a debt consolidation and bankruptcy is IVA. IVA helps you to make an agreement between you and your creditor, wherein you agree to pay back a certain amount of your loan within a period of 60 months or so, beyond which your debts are written off. Your IVA can be arranged only by an insolvency practitioner to get you out of unsecured debts of £15,000 or more.

In addition to this, your interest charges and court proceedings will stop. You wipe off up to 80% of your debts.

Bankruptcy is the last option to be considered. But once you are declared bankrupt you are likely to be trapped in it for many years. The long-term ramifications of which include being unable to access credit, be in certain types of business or open a bank current account.