Free Bankruptcy Information & Bankruptcy Advice Australia Wide

Bankruptcy brings peace of mind, you'll be able to sleep well again, it will improve your quality of life.

(There’s a lot to read here so please save this website to favourites, and then read on.  People read and re-read what’s here).

Without going to court, or being in the papers, bankruptcy quickly enables ordinary people to get out of debt, so you won't owe anything more on your credit cards, GST and tax, unsecured personal loans, and things like that. 

As far as you are concerned these debts get cancelled, unless it’s proved that there’s fraud involved.  To my mind fraud is fraud, ie, the intent was never there to pay back the money spent.  That clearly is not the case with the overwhelming majority of people who email and ring me.  I don’t know when I last thought that I was dealing with a crook. 

Overwhelmingly you’ll virtually be debt free, quite often completely, absolutely debt free, in about a week. You can start again

Hello, my name is Fred Appleton, I’m a former Chartered Accountant and I’ve been through bankruptcy myself when, a number of years ago, I tried to diversify my business interests. The wheels fell off and it knocked me over.

For more than 12 years now, mostly in semi retirement, I have just specialised in bankruptcy and Debt Agreement Proposals. I have written this website, but only from the point of view of the person owing the money, you. In that time I've helped thousands of people, just like us, to sort out their debt problems and get on with their lives. I cover Debt Agreement Proposals, which are a bit like a consolidation loan but you choose the repayments, in Information Note 3. 

Bankruptcy gives you the chance to start again, to get back on your feet, and so be able to get on with your life.

A debt agreement or bankruptcy gets rid of the debt collectors telephone calls and harassment.

Bankrupts can earn as much as they like during the 3 year term of your bankruptcy, there’s nothing stopping you. Go out and make a "$$$$million" or whatever that is to you.  Shortly I’ll tell you how much of the "$$$$million" has to be paid into your bankruptcy trust account, but in reality its probably not much, if anything.

Bankruptcy can turn things around for you, it can be so positive.

These days, with so many people finding that they need mortgage help because they’re in some sort of mortgage crisis, and so are under what is commonly called mortgage stress, you may be surprised to know that bankruptcy and a Debt Agreement Proposal may even offer you a way to save your house. 

A Debt Agreement may be a good way to tackle this problem if the current value of your house is pretty close to what you still owe on it, or there’s negative equity.  .  If that’s the case, keep reading this website, and when you get to Information Note 3 on debt agreements, do the worksheets there, be fair dinkum when you do, and then send me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Include your contact telephone number please, and I’ll get back to you and we’ll see what we can do for you.

If you’ve got a bit of equity in your house then please go to  another website that I have written specifically on bankruptcy and houses, its address is www.bankruptcyandhouses.com.au  and rather than contact me about it, I'd like you to email an associate of mine, Alan Nicholls, setting out your circumstances and the details of your property and mortgage, your other debts including your credit card and other debt,and give him an idea of your income. 

Alan is a Chartered Accountant and a registered trustee in bankruptcy, and where Im dealing with enquiries and I think that the house can be saved, I ask the client if I can refer their matter on to Alan, as he knows more about this than I do. 

Here’s an extract of a note received by Alan Nicholls 

 
I talk about Alan more in Information Note 4. Email him from the link on the bankruptcy and houses website.

If you’d like to talk to somebody by email, then at no cost or obligation to you, the best and quickest thing to do might be to set out some details about you and your debt and send an email  to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

This is a free information and advice service so, after reading this website first please, simply tell us your problems and ask any questions. Helen Millward is a Chartered Accountant and you’ll read more about her in Bankruptcy Information Note 5. She’s been my assistant with my bankruptcy business for about the last 6 years.

Whenever I call you I'll ask you to call me back.

Overwhelmingly with bankruptcy your super is safe, regardless of how much is in it.  It’s protected by bankruptcy unless you’ve done something shonky, like loading it up with contributions just before you went bankrupt so that that money wasn’t available to pay your creditors.  That might have trouble passing the smell test.  If you’ve put money into super in the ordinary course, even big amounts, then overwhelmingly, in bankruptcy, your super is safe.  My advice is to have a good think before, while you are under so much pressure and stress, you rush in and take it out to pay your creditors.  You might need it later in life, which is what it’s there for, so bankruptcy right now might be a better option.

In Information Notes 3 and 4 you’ll also read about Nick Crouch, another Chartered Accountant who I ask readers to call direct if you consider that your matter is in the larger business category and so you feel that my website may not be so appropriate for your problem, particularly if you are in Sydney. After Nick, or Shabnam, a partner of the firm, has spoken to you, come back to me and I’ll do the paperwork for your bankruptcy. If you like you can send an email setting out your worries and details to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and Nick or Shabnam will get onto your matter that way. A recent high profile job handled by Nick Crouch’s office was the liquidation of the company that owned the Sydney Kings basket ball team.

If you go bankrupt through me or Alan, your bankruptcy will be very private, it’ll not be in the newspapers.  Almost nobody will know if you go bankrupt, you’ll be anonymous.  If you go bankrupt using this service, you won’t have to go to court either. 

Here's a testimonial, quite unsolicited.

and another one...

You'll read that as far as you are concerned, bankruptcy will cancel your debt on things like credit cards, store cards and mobile phone debt , on unsecured overdrafts and personal loans, your personal income tax and GST debt, any personal guarantees debt, on other loans debt, and if you're in business, your unsecured business debt too.

Tax debts get cancelled.

If you are also involved as a director of a Pty Limited company some of the company tax debts can become yours.  These however become cancelled too.  Director Penalty Notices are a real issue. If this is part of your problem then I suggest that you email Alan Nicholls at  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it He’s got a good section on this problem on his website www.nichollsco.com.au

Bankruptcy doesn't cancel Centrelink debt, Child Support debt, some HECS debt and loans to do with your higher education (there's a special term for it), or court imposed fines. You'll read about these, and traffic fines, which are a special case, in these pages.

Earlier I encouraged you to go out and make a $$$$million dollars.  Well, to find out more about this print out and read Bankruptcy Information Note 1 and you'll see that as a bankrupt you can retain a good slice of your income too, as after tax and after business expenses and after Child Support, the minimum amount that you can earn and keep during the (normal) 3 years of your bankruptcy is about $812.00 a week. If you have dependants, it's more, eg. with 3 dependants it's $1072.00 net per week).

I’ve seen a bankruptcy website say that there are restrictions on how much a bankrupt can earn.  That’s garbage, there are no restrictions on what income you can earn.  Go out and make a million $$$$$$$, don’t let bankruptcy slow you down if you’ve got it in you to get going again.  That particular website, which I thought was trying to put bankrupts down a bit, was really trying to get you to become involved in what is called a Debt Agreement Proposal, because there's good profits to be made by the promoter if you do so (and you might end up staying poor and miserable).  You’ll read about them in Information Note 3 in this website. They'll keep you broke. .I don’t think that they are all that they are cracked up to be.

In Information Note 1 I tell you what you’ll have to pay back to your bankruptcy while you are bankrupt if your income goes over a certain amount, but that’s different to telling you that there are restrictions on how much you can earn as a bankrupt.

Later on you’ll read more about traveling overseas if you are bankrupt. There's a huge amount of wrong information about this in the community, and on other websites wanting your business (Print out and read Information Note 4). Despite what some websites and accountants might say, in about 10,000 bankruptcies I’ve only known of a few cases where the person going bankrupt had to hand their passport to their bankruptcy trustee. Overwhelmingly you don't. If you do, you get it back again to go overseas.

If you are reading this website from overseas then there is a toll free number to ring and find out about this.  I list the ones to ring that I know about in Information Note 4.

Throughout these pages I talk about your credit rating a lot. Bankruptcy and a Debt Agreement Proposal and a Personal Insolvency Agreement all damage your credit rating with the commercial credit rating agencies for 7 years so you will find it hard, but not always impossible, to get a loan again in that time.

Although the normal banking and finance companies may not want to lend to you again after your 3 years of bankruptcy is up, and while you've still got the balance of your 7 years bad credit rating in place, there may be companies termed as Alternate Lenders who may help you. We can all see what a mess the banks have made of what they were supposed to be good at, and I think that they were probably headed for bankruptcy too until the government stepped in with our money to prop them up.

A mortgage or finance broker may be able to help you out here. The other day a client in the real estate industry told me that he had noticed that the banks were now starting to lend on mortgages again, but the borrower had to have a decent deposit, say 5% to 10%, and a good savings record over the last 3 months (and they even count your rent paid in looking at your savings record).  So there’s a bit of light in all the chaos. 

At the end of your bankruptcy in 3 years time, the whole banking and financial world will probably be different, and there’ll be thousands more people going through bankruptcy along the way by then, so if you’re looking for a car loan or a housing loan then, while you’ve still got some of the 4 years of a bad credit rating, just see what’s around. The more deposit you’ve got, the more that you’re likely to be helped. If I’m asked this sort of question I always answer that you’d need to be worth lending to during this period.

Save your income in the account that it went into when it was your pay packet, don’t move whats left over to another account.  I talk more about that later.

By the way, in case you are wondering how many people go bankrupt in Australia, am I the only one, then what would you say if I told you that in the 2008/2009 financial year the number was 36,479?  You’re not alone, not by a long shot.  Chances are that without knowing it, you may know one of them.  The number was up around 50,000 in the previous two years.

Back to Debt Agreement Proposals for a minute, If you don't want to go bankrupt but want to consider what some newspaper and television advertisements and web sites claim is a better alternative, called a Debt Agreement Proposal or a Personal Insolvency Agreement, then I talk about these in Bankruptcy Information Note 3. I don’t think that for ordinary debt problems Debt Agreements are all that they are cracked up to be. They still tie you up to your debt, mostly for about 5 to 7 years it seems.After paying them this upfront fee, if your creditors say no, you’ve done your dough.

This is an extract from an email that I received on 21st September 2009…….

”I entered into a debt agreement in 200X and have been paying $250 a week instalments against a debt of $56,000, plus $4000 was paid upfront to (the debt agreement salesman’s company) who consolidated the debt.  So now, from my understanding from your website 75% of the debt will go to the creditors and 25% of this will go to the insolvency company (the debt agreement administrator).  What I don’t understand is why did (the debt agreement salesman’s company) take $4,000 and shouldn’t this be in the 25% distributed to the consolidator’s fee?”

Rotten isn’t it when you’re vulnerable, but they’re pushed pretty hard.  It’s not hard to see why, they’re such great money spinners for the people promoting them.

Also, if you choose to the Debt Agreement Proposal route, make sure that the repayment arrangements being put to you are, from your point of view, workable. Because you’re going to be stuck with the repayment arrangement that the salesman will talk you into, then if you’re not completely comfortable with them, then my suggestion is that you give the bankruptcy option some serious thought.

If you find that you’re in a Debt Agreement Proposal and it’s not working for you because you’re still broke and miserable, you’ll read in this website how to replace it, and so be relieved from continuing on with the repayments, by going bankrupt. If this is you send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and we’ll help you to sort this out. Include your telephone number please.

Debt agreements and Personal Insolvency Agreements are possibly good in some circumstances, but overwhelmingly I've got my doubts with others. I don’t like the fact that with a Personal Insolvency Agreement, you’ve got to be shamed by having it advertised in both a national and local newspaper. Again bankruptcy could be a far better option. Personal Insolvency Agreements are coverered in Alan Nicholls website, www.nichollsco.com.au

A lot of people tell me that they do want to pay their debts, but they can't at the moment, and the system is just putting unreal and unrealistic pressure and demands on them. Check out what I’ve written on this in Frequently Asked Questions.

I was sent an article out of the Canberra Times (page 24) dated May 20, 2006 headed Petrol Prices, interest rates pushing more Australians into financial crisis. It gave an example of what can happen under new debt recovery laws introduced in late 2005. It seems that this law change applies Australia wide.

The example showed that a person on a wage of $600 a week could be left with just $272 after their wages had been garnisheed by a creditor, ie, after the sheriff's been around and a creditor has taken you through the legal system, you could be left with just $272 a week to live on, week after week, month after month. Today the figure might be slightly different, but not by much.  I still get emails telling me that its happening.

Isn't that just disgusting? I think that it's worth noting here that bankruptcy, or entering into a debt agreement proposal, would prevent this happening. If the person above was bankrupt, they would have been able to keep the $600 in full. Bankruptcy law is more humane than debt collection law. If they were earning $800 a week, they would have been able to keep the lot.

You’ll read in other bankruptcy websites, as a bit of a put down on us I think, that if you are bankrupt you may have trouble renting.  Note that the word may is used, not the word will.  See why I say that it’s a bit of a put down.  Again I have also noted that these websites really try to push you towards Debt Agreement Proposals. 

Look, I find that people who are bankrupt, rather than having to go through the indignity of being refused rentals just because they are bankrupt, use their common sense when filling out there personal details on estate agents forms.  I’m told that some people may say no to that answer, and so get the rental.  Its not illegal to say no, and from what I’ve been told, it seems to save a lot of hassles. I’m sure that the government would rather you got a rental than have to fall back on them for housing commission assistance, or have you sleep under a bridge.  As I said above, use your common sense in dealing with this issue.

In bankruptcy, don’t break the law, but use your common sense.  Another point worth thinking about is not to go bankrupt owing money to your service providers.  If you do life will become just that much harder. Before you go bankrupt pay things like gas, electricity, telephone, rent etc before you go bankrupt, even if it means that you use the money that you were going to use to make a payment on your credit card.

As a general rule if you decide to go bankrupt and you want use my services then there are two main choices, and their prices range from $143 to $396. I cover this in Bankruptcy Information Note 5 so print this Note out too please.

Because I’ve been through bankruptcy myself, I think that I’ve got a pretty good idea of how you’re feeling right now, worried and awful.  You probably feel that you really could do with some help, but you’ve got no money.  That’s how I was anyway, so, I’ve tried to keep my above prices realistically low.  They haven’t changed in years as they cover my costs, and I live ok. 

Feedback from people who have checked out other bankruptcy websites tells me what other services who advertise on the internet charge.  One seems to charge about $1,800 and another $2,500 for what my service does for $396. We do hear of higher figures than this as well.  They're just the greedy preying on your ignorance and fear.  

Others say that they’ll do your bankruptcy paperwork for free, but as I come across these sorts of people from time to time let me tell you that there a no free lunches out there. 

My service will get the paperwork done and send you bankrupt, mostly through the government so that they can become your bankruptcy trustee, or if we think that you’d be better off to do so, we’ll suggest that you talk to Alan Nicholls or Nick Crouch.  There’s more on this later on in the website.   

If you’re not too sure how to do get and print out this additional information, just put your mouse pointer on the relevant Information Note listed at the side of the main menu, or where it is highlighted in the course of the narrative on the website, and left click twice.

Please save this site and then print out and read the whole website, all 40 or so pages first though please before deciding to make contact about going bankrupt as it also covers things like gambling, company directors and secretaries, compensation monies being free from bankruptcy, being in business while bankrupt, taxation, an insite into the debt collectors, buying your way out of bankruptcy (called annulment) objecting to the decisions and actions of your bankruptcy trustee, family law and property issues, and saving the house and your car and household goods and furniture.

You don't have to become a paying customer to make contact with any of us, as this is a free information and advice service. Don't feel uncomfortable about making contact if you just want information, or something cleared up, but I think you should print out and read the whole website first please, so that we both know what you want to really find out. 

If after considering your options you decide to go bankrupt and you wish to use one of the services that I offer, simply email   This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it as appropriate and one of us will get the ball rolling for you.  Generally speaking you can be bankrupt and out of debt in a week or two.

Up until now bankruptcy has probably been new and frightening to you, and there's a staggering amount of misinformation and pressure on you out there about it. As you read these notes I'll simply try to give you information and answers. Because I’ve been where you are at now, you’ll identify with a lot of what I say, you'll feel much better.

You might be interested in reading this testimonial that came to me, unsolicited, in April 2006.

No mention anywhere of the so called “stigma of bankruptcy” is there?  If people worry you by rabbiting on with  the stigma bit, take it from me, they’re not talking from the heart, but just from either the training manual, their hip pocket, or as is quite often the case with friends and relatives, they don’t know what else to say. For friends and relatives, just give them a print out of this website to read, or give them the website address www.fredappleton.com.au   

Here’s an extract from an email to me from a lady who used this service to go bankrupt. It may strike a cord with you and where your about at at the moment.

(It took me a bit longer for the feeling of Relief, peace that this lady refers to, to happen, about 3 to 4 weeks I’d say.  By then I’d realized that the phone calls and harassment had stopped, and that the roof hadn’t caved in) 

If you’ve been getting some Rudd Money, and you have been using it just to make credit card payments while you’re waiting to win Lotto to save you from going bankrupt, maybe you should just use the money to pay things in advance like rent, electricity, telephone, more food etc.  Then if you’ve got too much overwhelming debt and you decide to declare yourself bankrupt, you won’t have to spend this money for a while after you go bankrupt, so you’ll be in front that way.

Print out the testimonials in Bankruptcy Information Note 6, they are worth reading too. They're all real, and are just a sample of what I regularly receive.

As I've said before if, after reading all of the information on this website you feel like getting in touch so that one of us can help you to sort out your situation, by all means do so.

You're under no obligation if you make contact. If you don’t have email then you can make contact by post.  The address is Fred Appleton’s Office, PO Box 588, Helensvale QLD 4212

If you’re an accountant or a solicitor and you think that my website could be a useful information tool to add to the links shown on your website, then by all means please go ahead and establish the link

And thanks for coming to my site, at the end of the day I hope that it helps.

Fred Appleton

Click Here to Read the Frequently Asked Questions