Being bankrupt

In Singapore, recently there are many articles on people especially young ones are not able to pay down their debts. In Singapore, you could be made a bankrupt as long as your aggregate debt is more than SGD$10,000.

A bankrupt is duty bound to account for any money or property he receives after bankruptcy. He is allowed to keep a reasonable part of his income for himself and family, and then handover the excess to Official Assignee (OA) for distribution to creditors.

Depending on your occupation, you might be required to terminate your services or redeployed to another job. So note that you might lose your dream job, jeopardizing your career. You might be required to inform your employer of your bankruptcy status, and also do note that your bankruptcy status would be announced in the newspaper.

You still can take a holiday overseas but you must seek for approval from OA. The OA might require you to declare who is paying your traveling expenses.

Having been a bankrupt, your credit record is held in the Credit Bureau, keeping your bankruptcy record for up to six years. Such records might be passed to banks when you apply for loans after your discharge, making it likely that the bank would reject your applications.

For more information on Bankruptcy in Singapore, please click here.
For more information on Planning your Budget, please click here.