Hopefully a quick question for you! When I went bankrupt back in October 2008 my main bank account was overdrawn and included in the bankruptcy.
About a year before I went Bankrupt I went away with work for a long period of time and for ease and not knowing how things would turn out a year down the line!) I added my girlfiend (now my wife) to my account so that she could make withdrawals over the counter if she needed to. As it turned out she never withdrew anything or paid anything into the account even after I returned, never even received a debit or cash card from the bank - but I did not take her name off the account.......
After my bankruptcy the bank contacted my girlfiend demanding that she settle the overdrawn amount but we disputed the amount and questioned whether she had to do this and they were going to review something internally and get back to her. We never heard back from them.
Fast forward over 2 years later and I have just done my credit report for the first time and the bank account is showing as Not updated/unsettled every month from my bankruptcy onwards. All other credit agreements that were included in my bankruptcy are showing on my credit report as settled.
If I now contact the bank to ask them to update the status of this to 'settled' with the credit reference agencies will I be opening a can of worms again? We can't afford to pay them if they start demanding the money again but I want the status to be correct on my credit file.
Is it really that black and white? She never even got a bank card!! But statements were addressed to us both.
Is there a time limit for them to claim this money from my wife? I am also discharged now. There is nothing on her credit report in relation to it, just mine, and they were going to come back to us to confirm exactly what they wanted her to pay as we argued the point that they could only claim the overdrawn balance and not the additional interest and over limit admin fees that they were trying to lump ontop from after the bankruptcy date - that was nearly 3 years ago and we have never heard from them!
I even received a statement (probably binned now ) some time after the bankruptcy showing the overdrawn balance and then a credit entry taking the account to zero which i assumed was them transferring the balance to some kind of bad debt account.
I really do want to get things right for our future by building a strong credit file so that one day we can get a mortgage and do not want this unsettled marker on my file - but if by contacting the bank to ask that they update the credit reference agencies they will then chase us for the money then i really dont know what to do!!!!!!!!
Joint bank account
Posted - 24 June 2011 : 17:46:14
) some time after the bankruptcy showing the overdrawn balance and then a credit entry taking the account to zero which i assumed was them transferring the balance to some kind of bad debt account.
