IVA - IS it all it's cracked up to be

denisthemenace

I received a phone call from a company about my debt, they offered various ways to solve my debt problem. One of them was an IVA. On the surface it sounds ok, almost too good to be true. you pay a set amount for 5yrs, with an annual financial review, any outstanding debt at the end is cancelled. I'm wondering whether it really is as easy as that. Can anyone help! I have a 'home advisor' coming tomorrow so would appreciate anyones input on this.

cheers

biglad

welcome, im new here myself but asked the same question when i joined.

Im now getting a DMP (debt management plan) set up as its a much better option. get in touch with either payplan or CCCS, payplan were great with me.

The main downfalls i found when looking into an IVA is its a fixed amount and can be quite a lot, and dependant on the company you could be paying upto 50% to them and 50% to your creditors. An IVA will stay with you as its wiping off debt and will be on your file for at least 6 years AFTER paying it for 5 so trying to get credit of any form is near impossible

hope this helps, sure others will be able to help more but this is what i learnt from payplan and people on here

briona

denisthemenace wrote:

I received a phone call from a company about my debt, they offered various ways to solve my debt problem. One of them was an IVA. On the surface it sounds ok, almost too good to be true. you pay a set amount for 5yrs, with an annual financial review, any outstanding debt at the end is cancelled. I'm wondering whether it really is as easy as that. Can anyone help! I have a 'home advisor' coming tomorrow so would appreciate anyones input on this.

cheers

Hi Denis

Not having experience of an IVA, I couldn't comment on that aspect [someone who understands the ins and outs of one should be along soon] BUT if that was an unsolicited phone call you received regarding help sorting out your debt I would be VERY wary indeed. BY all means meet with the 'home advisor' but DO NOT be talked into signing anything or agreeing to anything on the spot. Tell them you need to get someone to look over it for you first...

Personally I think that CAB, CCCS or Payplan would be my first port of call.

Regards

Briona

Kevicho

Yeah, any company which are advertising this as a solution will have to have something to gain

Id go with the above post and contact the CCCs or payplan, or if you havent already, post your SOA and let us see what we can do

CLAPTON

briona is absolutely right, get free independant advice from CCCS, Payplan and not from a company with a vested interest in selling you a IVA.

without knowing your full SoA its impossible to say what is best for you or whether or not an IVA is even possible. and no an IVA is a not a magic bullet .

why not post an SoA here and get some ideas from people here
see

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

donnalove

biglad wrote:

welcome, im new here myself but asked the same question when i joined.

Im now getting a DMP (debt management plan) set up as its a much better option. get in touch with either payplan or CCCS, payplan were great with me.

The main downfalls i found when looking into an IVA is its a fixed amount and can be quite a lot, and dependant on the company you could be paying upto 50% to them and 50% to your creditors. An IVA will stay with you as its wiping off debt and will be on your file for at least 6 years AFTER paying it for 5 so trying to get credit of any form is near impossible

hope this helps, sure others will be able to help more but this is what i learnt from payplan and people on here

the iva actually comes off your file after 6 years from the date you start the iva. we started ours in 2001 and finished in october last year 6 months early and will be off our file may 2007.thats it no more mention.

do not go to anyone who wants you to pay upfront fee's , cc's or payplan set them up with an ip, but will cost about £9000 that you pay in your monthly payments.

you are on a very tight budget, for 5 years,they will want payslips every 6 months(normally)any overtime or bonus has to be paid into pot(75% of),if you own property with equity they will want 75% of equity.

i will say i am glad mine is over, it was hard work as the iva payment becomes like a secured loan you miss to many payments then they will either petition for your bankrupcty if they have enough money in the pot or just leave you back to square 1 with the ip eating up most of what you will have paid.therefore not making any headway in your debts.I worried more about making the iva payments than the mortgage stupid i know but thats how it was.


donnalove
xx

biglad

sorry didnt realise that, just saying what i remembered from the payplan lady

doelani

Donna

hope you don't mind me asking but how were you able to finish your IVA 6 months early and had you much trouble getting remortgage to release equity?

I am only 14 months into my IVA but curious.

Thanks

donnalove

no i don't mind ask anything.

we found an independant financial adviser and he found us a great remortgage deal,we needed to remortgage to build a house extension as it is getting too cramped in the house,we have 3 kids 2 that have with mental dissabilities and they all sleep in 1 room getting crazy.we knew we had to put some equity in the iva pot, at the begining we had £6000 equity but it had risen to over 60 grand, so we offered them the 6 months payments +£6000 equity + a few hundred so they actually got a ex 1p in the pound.The ip said given the circumstances they would except and they did so we settled.we have a good rate as well 5.65% we pay on mortgage.

you will find that regardless of circumstances if you can raise a certain amount and want to arrange a meeting to settle and the offer is reasonable the creditors would except to get there money now rather than wait.

donna
xx

doelani

Thanks Donna

Our IVA said we had to release £26k at the end of 5 years as tehy would take the value at teh time of settling it up. Our house has risen £20k in value since the valuation and I was concerned but IVA agreement says what amount we have to give. Also in last year as well as our normal payments we have also given an extra £5600 from overtime and bonuses etc so with hoping that goes in our favour in the end.

Thanks

sparkle84

Donna do you know what happens if you property goes down in price and you don't have enough equity at the moment house prices (IMO) are stagnent at best - I deffo wouldn't have that much equity in my house to hand over??