HELP NEEDED IVA, OR Bankruptcy

skintandscared_2

One point on the above post - you cannot have ANY credit whilst on a DMP or an IVA. There is no point having a clean credit card for emergencies because you are not allowed to use it.

hotchips

to Jdmcx - your situation sounds similar to ours !
I dont know why anyone bothers with iva or bankruptcy ! Do it yourself!
in 2003 my husband closed his small business because it was not making money! our debts at the time was £20K, we desperately tried to keep paying bills etc but it was just impossible and we got pestered with letters and phone calls. Finally we went to CAB and they worked out our income and expenditure and what we had left to pay creditors (which wasn't much!)
the amount we had been paying was ridiculous compared to what we should have been paying. We looked into things further on the CAB website and used their letters to write to creditors to explain our situation and unbelievably all but one wrote back saying no problem! all but one stopped the interest and even the one that didn't has halved the rate!.However since 2003 our income has dropped year on year ( between HB/CTB /WTC/ and CTC etc going up and down) and over that period of time we have managed to reduce our creditors payments from £630 a month to just £230.
The only downfall of doing it yourself is that the agreement is only for a 6 month period at a time, but all they do is call or write to you and you tell them that you cannot increase your payments and send an income an expenditure sheet showing your financial circumstances, and if they try to say that you can afford a certain amount, say that you have taken advice from CAB and that they have told you how much you should be paying to your creditors. i would rather have sorted my debt myself than have a company do it anyway! and atleast you know the amount you are paying them is going directly to them! we are happy with they way we have done things, it sounds like if you enter into an iva or bankruptcy that you cannot change your payments, or the downfall comes from your living expenses (like food) and why should you suffer even more at these hard times?
dont get me wrong we see that any debt we have has to be repaid and that it was our fault we got into it in the first place and we intend to pay every penny back, but we will not starve or live in poverty just to satisfy our creditors, our own welfare comes first , and we do not feel guilty anymore about not being able to pay what we should be! life is too short!
interestingly though since the credit crunch and just this morning one of our creditors that we owe £1100 to phoned us and offered a settlement figure of £580 ! and of course we had to tell them that we wouldn't even be able to find £50 never mind £580! but it just shows how desperate these companies are to get money! and we have them at an advantage right now!
So please go to CAB first! they can advise you who will do an iva, but ask them to work out your income etc and see what they tell you you should be paying to creditors first. Hope it all works out for you!

happyinflorida

If you've got no assets at all, then bankruptcy would be your best bet.

Have an appointment with CCCS - get a financial statement from them and all the advice you need.

skintandscared_2

One thing you will need to do before going bankrupt, if that's what you decide to do. You will not be allowed to go bankrupt if your outgoings exceed your income. You MUST be able to show that you will not end up in the same boat again and that you will be able to live within your means post-bankruptcy. You really need to go over your SOA with a fine toothcomb and work out where you can cut expenditure so that your income covers all your essential expenses. If you need help with this there are some real experts on the DFW board who would be happy to help. Best of luck.