iva vs debt consolidation some help needed

fran2491

hiya all in march this year me and my hubby got approached by the bank to consolidate are debts as they noticed we were haveing probs with our payments, so instead of paying out 800 a month we are now paying 300 which suits us fine, we have now been aproched by the debt consolidation agency again asking if we would like to consider an iva i would just like some info on iva`s and peoples experiences the company we are with is called gregory pennington,any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated tar all fran:smileyhea

the-muffin-man

If you're comfortable paying the consolidation loan and the timescale of it, I'd be tempted stick with that. IVA's can be very restricting and Gregory Pennington only stand to make a small fortune out of you in fees.

Bohemian_Raspberry

If you're comfortable paying the new consolidation loan I'd definitely stick with that, we only considered an IVA as we were struggling every month to make payments to our creditors and we had more going out than coming in. As a result of that we now realise that an IVA isn't the best option for us so we're taking the BR route instead.

My be worth posting on either the debt free wannabe or IVA forums to get their advice as this forum is more BR related

Charco_2

I spend more of my time on the IVA board and although it's quieter over there, this question really probably is better over there.

As people have already said though, if you're you're comfortable with the consolidation re-payments and the duration of the loan then stick with it - i imagine an IVA would only cause problems at this stage.

If you're dealing with a consolidated loan though, it does beg the question, what are you dealing with Gregory Pennington for?

fran2491

Charco wrote: »

I spend more of my time on the IVA board and although it's quieter over there, this question really probably is better over there.

As people have already said though, if you're you're comfortable with the consolidation re-payments and the duration of the loan then stick with it - i imagine an IVA would only cause problems at this stage.

If you're dealing with a consolidated loan though, it does beg the question, what are you dealing with Gregory Pennington for?

its all a bit confusing for me gregory pennington are the company who consolidated all our debts for us, as of yet we have not been told how long the repayments will take as at first halifax were messing us about and still are to date, but by the amount we are paying back its going to take years,i found it a bit strange as to why they were ringing asking about an iva, all i could think is they would make more money out of us, its just all very confusing for me

Ivorydawn

Sounds to me like you are on a Debt Management Plan, if they had arranged a consolidation Loan for you you would have a loan agreement with an exact amount and specified repayment schedule.

You really dont seem that sure, I would get some independant free advice from someone. There are lots of organisations that will advise you for free but a DMP could take a very very long time.

Hope you get this sorted

Rgds

fiveyearplan

You need to get clear what exactly you are paying and how many payments you have to make. You must have signed some sort of paperwork.

CLAPTON

Just to clarify

-a consolidation loan is simply a loan usually over a long period so the repayments are relatively low that you use to pay off all your pre-existing loans
you haven't defaulted on anything and so you don't need a debt management company.

- a debt management plan occcurs when you can't make the contractual minimum payments, so you default on the debts and make reduced payments.. you can managemnt this yourself or use the (recommended) free companies like CCCS Payplan or CAB or go to a company that charges like pennington (not recommended atall)

-an IVA is a contractual type of debt management plan but is very inflexible but does suit some people expecially if you own a property and want to avoid bankruptcy and losing the house


Now its not entirely clear exactly what you are doing... maybe you could clarify


and post up an SOA format here
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

fran2491

CLAPTON wrote: »

Just to clarify

-a consolidation loan is simply a loan usually over a long period so the repayments are relatively low that you use to pay off all your pre-existing loans
you haven't defaulted on anything and so you don't need a debt management company.

- a debt management plan occcurs when you can't make the contractual minimum payments, so you default on the debts and make reduced payments.. you can managemnt this yourself or use the (recommended) free companies like CCCS Payplan or CAB or go to a company that charges like pennington (not recommended atall)

-an IVA is a contractual type of debt management plan but is very inflexible but does suit some people expecially if you own a property and want to avoid bankruptcy and losing the house


Now its not entirely clear exactly what you are doing... maybe you could clarify


and post up an SOA format here
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

im confused now lol we were told we were taking out a loan to cover everything so a consolidation loan but basicly whats happening is we are paying gregory pennington each month and they are paying the people we owe,it was my hubby who arranged it all, and only recently he has arranged it so they will speak to me,when we first started out we were told to defualt on all payments hence the letters started pouring in and we do still get some now plus endless phone calls,on our statements it shows they are getting paid but not very much,the fact that they told us to default on the payments is making me think we are actually on a debt management plan,my hubby is away until 2moro as hes in the army but i will find out where all the paperwork is when he gets back and go through it all,we dont have our own house and rent at the mo,and we dont have and real assets im really unsure what to do now, are they just trying to get us to go with an iva to get more money out of us, or have they realized its going to take us years to pay off our debts this way,i really am a little cluless when it comes to this sort of thing and my hubby is even worse can anyone shed any light

spikeisbroke_2

i had an iva but defaulted and was made bankrupt last week-the best thing i have done in years. i was told by my OR today that they get lots of people saying they were signed up to an iva when they shoulnt of, and its a way for them to make a fortune out of you.stick with what your on if you can is my advice

Deep_In_Debt

fran2491 wrote: »

im confused now lol we were told we were taking out a loan to cover everything so a consolidation loan but basicly whats happening is we are paying gregory pennington each month and they are paying the people we owe,it was my hubby who arranged it all, and only recently he has arranged it so they will speak to me,when we first started out we were told to defualt on all payments hence the letters started pouring in and we do still get some now plus endless phone calls,on our statements it shows they are getting paid but not very much,the fact that they told us to default on the payments is making me think we are actually on a debt management plan,my hubby is away until 2moro as hes in the army but i will find out where all the paperwork is when he gets back and go through it all,we dont have our own house and rent at the mo,and we dont have and real assets im really unsure what to do now, are they just trying to get us to go with an iva to get more money out of us, or have they realized its going to take us years to pay off our debts this way,i really am a little cluless when it comes to this sort of thing and my hubby is even worse can anyone shed any light

Doesn't sound like a consolidation loan, sounds more like a dmp.

An IVA is probably not suitable for you.

If this is the case, then please contact CCCS, Payplan, or CAB who will advise and run a dmp for you at no cost to you. Gregory Pennington will be taking a fee from you, therefore, you will be taking longer to clear your debts. The ones I've mentioned won't, so every penny goes towards clearing your debts.

GP as far as I am aware, don't do loans of any sort. I had the misfortune of crossing their path a few years back, where they tried to "hard" sell me a dmp and an IVA.