why does everyone appear to be against IVAs?

shelene

Hi, i have another 3 1/2 yrs left on my IVA, but went with that rather than losing my home (possibly) and so my employer was not notified as this may have affected my job. We complete an annual review and attempt to estimate the year ahead outgoings - which is virtually impossible! But i tend to try and match up on the previous years outgoings so on paper are unable to increase payments anymore.

I never have had them check paperwork or anything generally, so i put in maximum allowed for food etc. Anyone else any info what what else you able to claim for???

But generally i had no hassle from them. Also if my house goes down in value once my 5 yrs is up they wont be able to have anything else cause there will be no equatity in it!:) and that will be the end!

Useless_with_wonga

shelene wrote: »

Also if my house goes down in value once my 5 yrs is up they wont be able to have anything else cause there will be no equatity in it!:) and that will be the end!

Are you sure about this? I thought if you were unable to remortgage your IVA would almost certainly be extended by 12 Months in lieu.

Rylynn

I also understand that to be the case that they extend it by another 12 months!

I went into an IVA in August 2005, had no assets other than a car, which they cleverly told me would be taken if I went BR, which was rubbish as I have found out, I need the car for work no car no work, having just gone BR and kept the car I am a tad peed off with all the money I parted with over £5K and only £1300 went to my creditors, and the IVA company are one here people think are highly reputatable!

Due to illness my IVA failed, they left it stagnent for 18 months in the hope my illness would go away, it has not, and I can only work part time hours, so my only course was BR, and boy do I wish I had gone that route in 2005 as I would not be discharged.

After one year of paying with no wage increases I told the IVA people I was struggling the reply was basically tough luck, you either pay or fail! So we went without to make sure the rent and utility bills were paid. The restrictions in most IVAs are far more stingent than they are in BR.

If people have something to protect like a house okay but even then only 3 per cent of people should go into an IVA.

There are hundreds of companies out there now, they are there to make money! out of your misery.

BR for some is not an option due to there jobs that I understand, but I would say look at ALL the options out there if you are in debt and sinking, take plenty of advice as well, it is free from the charity debt lines. And then take a long hard look at what you are getting into, as things out there are getting worse, will you have a job next year, could sickness knock you out of work like it did me for almost a year. 5 years is a long time, and many IVAs are failing as we can see on the BR boards here, and in the press as well.

For me I was missold my IVA, I cannot turn the clock back but would urge anyone with nothing to lose, ie house, job etc to look at other options as well. It all seems to simple, and it is, they deal with all the nasty people calling you and writing to you, but remember that if you fail you will have paid a lot of money, had to live with little money and still end up having to go BR like I have.

Good luck to anyone in one, I hope you make the 5 years, but I have to say I am pleased to now be FREE of the debt as you are not FREE in an IVA for the whole 5 years as anything could go wrong that you had not counted on.

Rylynn

fathertedsfavenun

MY husband and I had IVAs in 2002 due to me begin long term sick and him being made redundant twice in 9 months. Our debts spiralled to £43k collectively (please don't judge, we had some from uni then were using Peter to pay Paul out of desperation) and we ended up with an IVA as we were told this was our best option without going bankrupt and losing our house (we had two small children).

Our IVA was almost impossible to live with and in the end my FIL offered to bail us out with a small mortgage on his home that we pay. So we offered a settlement to all our creditors in October 2004 which was accepted (can't remember the exact amount, I think it was around 27p in the pound).

All good you'd think - BUT! our IVA company called an emergency meeting of creditors when they received our final offer instructions to ask them to agree to the company increasing their fees. The creditors voted in favour (no skin off their nose was it) and our final settlement ended up being £60k due to these hiked fees - £17 MORE THAN OUR ORIGINAL DEBTS!!!

I appreciate that in those early days the IVAs were not regulated well but we really lost out. We were completely robbed in an already difficult financial situation. This is why we are so down on them from our point of view. There should be missold compensation schemes for this like you can get for certain mortgages and insurances now.

The good thing is that we do not have any credit now and have learned to live without it, but look at the price.....

Emma

vixens_mum

SHELENE, I don't know if you will be able to claim anything now as you have been in it for 1 1/2 years.
You can claim water rates, rent, council tax, insurances ( house, life, pet) also maintenance payments for repairs to the likes of hoovers or washing machine etc. travel expenses eg. work or hospital, dinners if you work or kids at school. sky or cable, phone land line and mobile, food for family and pets, gas and electric. You also get an allowance of £10 a week for gifts.

Last time I was in touch with my advisor about 12 months ago, because we had a change of circumstances, (our grand daughter left home) That left us £264 a month worse of on benefits. They said that the Bank of England said we needed £314 a month to live on for 2 of us. plus any of the above.

Our payments came down from £254 a month to £175. We still have 3 1/4 years to go.
At least I am able to sleep at nights now.

Deep_In_Debt

Rylynn wrote: »

I also understand that to be the case that they extend it by another 12 months!

I went into an IVA in August 2005, had no assets other than a car, which they cleverly told me would be taken if I went BR, which was rubbish as I have found out, I need the car for work no car no work, having just gone BR and kept the car I am a tad peed off with all the money I parted with over £5K and only £1300 went to my creditors, and the IVA company are one here people think are highly reputatable!

Due to illness my IVA failed, they left it stagnent for 18 months in the hope my illness would go away, it has not, and I can only work part time hours, so my only course was BR, and boy do I wish I had gone that route in 2005 as I would not be discharged.

After one year of paying with no wage increases I told the IVA people I was struggling the reply was basically tough luck, you either pay or fail! So we went without to make sure the rent and utility bills were paid. The restrictions in most IVAs are far more stingent than they are in BR.

If people have something to protect like a house okay but even then only 3 per cent of people should go into an IVA.

There are hundreds of companies out there now, they are there to make money! out of your misery.

BR for some is not an option due to there jobs that I understand, but I would say look at ALL the options out there if you are in debt and sinking, take plenty of advice as well, it is free from the charity debt lines. And then take a long hard look at what you are getting into, as things out there are getting worse, will you have a job next year, could sickness knock you out of work like it did me for almost a year. 5 years is a long time, and many IVAs are failing as we can see on the BR boards here, and in the press as well.

For me I was missold my IVA, I cannot turn the clock back but would urge anyone with nothing to lose, ie house, job etc to look at other options as well. It all seems to simple, and it is, they deal with all the nasty people calling you and writing to you, but remember that if you fail you will have paid a lot of money, had to live with little money and still end up having to go BR like I have.

Good luck to anyone in one, I hope you make the 5 years, but I have to say I am pleased to now be FREE of the debt as you are not FREE in an IVA for the whole 5 years as anything could go wrong that you had not counted on.

Rylynn

Rylynn, I've read a lot of your posts and agree with them wholeheartedly.

I am not a fan of the company you are talking about as they recommended an IVA to me when it is not suitable and still hassle me (although I'm now on a dmp with CCCS).

I do have property to protect with a bit of equity, however, I'm not that young (but not that old either as I took my mortgage out when I was 20!) and I'm only 5 years away from paying it off and it's affordable. Couldn't see the point of adding to my debt, putting my house at risk for another 25 years and taking me into retirement. A dmp was far more suitable, and since the beginning of the year and the start of my dmp, I've managed to clear a third of my debt and the creditors are getting every penny.

Also at the time I contacted said company, my job was regulated by the FSA as I worked in an advisory role so they knew the consequences if the IVA failed.

Anyway, glad things are finally working out for you. If only we had hindsight....

Good luck.

LilacPixie

I am not against IVA's in general, I'm most against the companies who market them as a magical solution to clear all your problems. Remember the wipe out 70% of your debt adverts.

My personal experience is apply for a loan for some home improvements. Get turned down. Review financial circumstances and realise we are spending more than we earn and we must get a grip before it balloons out of control. Everything is paid on time but we were never getting out of debt. I.e £400 paid off c card to clear then that month another £400 being charged etc.

While we were talking about finances we were approached by an IVA company but they did not explain this at the time. The said they had been passed our details from the lender we had approached and were offering free financial advice to help restructure our budget.

At the time our joint household income was roughly £2100 a month, £404 mortgage, 110 c tax and around £700 in loan repayments. That left us with around £900 for living costs that we were just being stupid with. We had around 40k of equity in our home and unsecured debts of 25k. This company recommended an IVA and basically said it was our only option if we wanted to avoid losing our home.

The caller was very into the hard sell and did not want to let me/us digest this information. I told her that I did not think we had fully explored all options and would need time to discuss things. She was told we would contact her if we wanted to.

That was Feb 2008 and still we get monthly phone calls hassling us and telling us IVA is the best option despite us now running our own tight budget that along with OH getting a wage rise has allowed us to clear 12k from our unsecured debt.

The fact that the company concerned recomended an IVA to us astonishes me especially considering they are aware that we are now resident in scotland. I am now seriously considering contacting t-mobile and asking for a number change due to nuisance callers

purple-pear

People who have IVA'S please advise re: budgets allowed how do thy work out if IVA acceptable not sure what to put down for expenses tried to cut them down so IVA accepted on budget plan, but bit unrealistic however dont want to put 2 much down and then IVA is declined. Whats acceptable?

Useless_with_wonga

Same as i replied on your other post. It depends. However please don't cut your SOA down artificially in order to release more money to creditors as that will not help you to live through the next 5 to 6 years.
You have debt and like all of us here it needs addressing but that doesn't mean to say that you should "suffer" disproportianatly you have a life and you need to live. 5/6 years is a long time to be living hand to mouth and IMHO it would be unsustainable and thus more likely to result in a failed IVA.
I am not saying you can continue to spend as you have done which has resulted in this mess (and everyone else's too me included) sure you need to learn cut your cloth accordingly and learn to budget sensibly you know the old "I want that" Vs "Do i really need it" very few people could realistically live the very frugal lifestyle that artificially lowering your SOA would create.

balmk

I took out an IVA in 2002 via Harrington Brooks,a nd the IP was Mazaars. I have to say that although it was no walk in the park, my IP was extremely supportive and I made it through to the end. The best advise that my IP gave me was to be proactive; I arranged to send off my payslips monthly witha cover letter to explain how that months contribution was made up, along with my P60 when it came through. I also notified them immediately of any change in salary and ensured that I provided them with an updated income and expenditure declaration. if nothing else, it made me feel like I still had some control over my finances! I think that companies are not so much "wise" to the idea of IVAs now, but becuase there has been so much publicity, everyone involved wants their cut which makes things more difficult for the person going through the IVA process.

The really positive thing that I can take from my experience is, after having to live for years on a really tight budget, is what Useless with Wonga states; "do I really need it". I really have to justify every "non-essential" purchase, e.g. reducing clothes down to a "price per wear" to ensure that I am getting value for money.