iva vs debt consolidation some help needed

crowman19

Deep_In_Debt wrote: »

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.

This is IMHO the best advice you could take.

CLAPTON

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

Charco_2

Debt Management is an INFORMAL arrangement... unless you have paperwork to say otherwise (unlikely), i imagine you could simply stop paying GP and get in touch with CCCS - it will take a while to get a meeting sorted with CCCS so perhaps make contact with them first, then wait for your meeting and discuss it all with them before starting to ignore GP.

**If you move away from GP before starting to get stuff sorted with CCCS then your creditors will just start hassling you again in the meantime - which I'm sure you dont want!**

Again, Debt Management is an INFORMAL arrangement... there are no guarantees that interest and charges will be frozen, it is up to the discretion of your creditors so while GP (or CCCS for that matter) may promise that your accounts will be frozen, there is no real way to enforce this. A creditor who freezes the account now, could unfreeze it in 6 months time, or ANY time! (thaw it? unfreeze it? whatever!)

The best idea is that (although you are getting a company to step in to represent you and they are getting paid to do this), YOU should watch ovewr their shoulders still anyway and keep vigilant! If a bank doesn't freeze charges and interest then remind them of their responsibilities under the TREATING CUSTOMERS FAIRLY agreement which they should be signed up to.

fermi

This may get more help on the DFW board. I'll move it over.

fran2491

hi all im still in need of help on this one we decided to stick as we were and we are in a debt man plan at the mo still with gp,today iv had a call from them again regarding the iva and im beggining to think it might be the right solution for us,curently we are paying 380 a month to gp and they are paying the creditors for us,as things stand today it will take us over 10 years to get our debts paid off! its just seems to be never ending we can just about afford to make the repayments at the mo,im really considering the iva route but for me it just seems all to good to be true,gp are basicly just trying to sell it to me hard sell as im sure they will make someting out of it hence why they are so keen to go down the iva route, im really unsure what to do on one hand i would rather boudget for 5 years and write off some of our debt than stay the same for the next 10 years and there no guaranty things will be over in 10 years as halifax are messing us around with the interest situation. can some one please explain the pros and cons of an iva as iv googled it and its just coming up with peeps trying to sell them or maybe direct me to a site with some info tar for any help peeps:lovethoug

chevalier

an iva is a formal agreement. all of your creditors have to agree to it. this is because they are agreeing to write of some of your debt for you. BUT if you default on the IVA then you will be made bankrupt. I don't think GP should be recommending this to you because it may be a problem as your OH is in the armed forces.

A debt management plan is an informal arrangement which you can get done for free PLEASE phone CCCS or Payplan before you do anything else. their numbers are at the top of the forum here.

they will give you IMPARTIAL advice which is what you need right now

RAS

fran

You are plainly very vulnerable and not very well informed about the implications of the arrangements that you have already made with Gregory Pennington. I am quite frightened for you in that if you thought you had a consolidation loan with the bank and you had agreedto a Debt Management Plan with a fee charging debt advisor.

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

BEFORE you do anything else you must talk to a free debt charitiy who can help you understand the difference between consolidation, debt Managment plans and Individual Voluntary Arrangment. See those listed here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan#help

As a start if you stop paying fees to Gregory Pennington and use a free DMP provider, your debt free date will come forward by about two years.

Please read this guide to IVAs by Martin.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/pdf-iva-guide.pdf

Has Gregory Pennington explained to you that an IVA is a form of Insolvency like bankruptcy? And that you have to declare that you have completed an Insolvency arrangment whever you are asked when applying credit, for the rest of you life.?

And have they explained that the fees they will charge for running the IVA will start at about £6,000?