Will we be accepted???

annie31

Hello,
I've been using this website for a while, and have finally plucked up the courage to post on the forum. There's always lots of helpful views and advice, so I wondered if you'd be kind enough to give me your thoughts on some of the niggling questions that keep me up at night!
We are thinking of an iva, and I'm in the process of gathering all my financial information together before we approach one of the non - profit organisations.
We owe alot. About £100k:eek: on about 12 cards, plus a personal loan. We realise the mistakes we've made, but are determined to sort the mess out.
My concern though, is when the creditors meet, do they look at how the debts built up? We have, rightly or wrongly, been meeting the minimums every month. This however, leaves nothing to spare, for a family of 4, consequently we are using the cards to live on, so in a never ending spiral.
Aswell as day to day living, we've also had a few "emergencies" over the past few months (car and boiler both going!) so have had to take cash off the cards to pay for these. i'm ashamed to say we did also book a holiday last year aswell, but this was when we still thought we were on top of everything!
How will this be viewed by the creditors? Would it affect the decision on an iva? Do they check your spending, and how far back do they look?
Sorry for all the questions, but i feel like they will think we are coping ok, and then if we suddenly stop paying, and say we can't afford the minimums, they will question our spending. It's really worrying me, and it's frustrating as we take home a decent amount of money every month. I want this to work so we can start enjoying the money we work so hard for.
We earn about £3500 a month, and after all outgoings think we could offer about £800 a month for the iva. We are currently paying about £2100 on the minimum payments. Does this sound feasible?

To_be_Free

Hi,
Can't offer you to much advice but I was the same as you covering my minimum payments each month (approx £1,000)and getting nowhere, I have been in my IVA for the past year and it is a struggle but doable. I will pay back between 40% and 50% of my debt. You can't lose nothing by ringing one of the one of the non - profit organisations.
I wish you all the best.
It does get easier.

Charco_2

Theres no such thing as a non-profit organisation offering IVAs... they all do the same jobs and all pick up the roughly the same payment for doing so - the only thing to avoid is a company that charges an upfront fee before they've put a solution in place for you. The advice should be free too!

As for your other concerns, all I can say is YES, your creditors as part of the IVA willl expect a background story explaining how you accumulated such debts but they dont scrutinise right down to the finer details. It can help or hinder to a certain extent but ultimately they will vote on the financial side of it... £800 a month would give a reasonable dividend of 37/42p in the £ to your creditors (based on debts of around £100k+loan)... that would be quite a decent IVA.

Speak to few companies and find out if its the best option for you

memberme

as part of a successful joint application for an IVA for a £200K debt purely from, Northern Rock unsecured, cards and loans....If your Ip presents it well and the proposal is realistic and looks like you can mange...then you will be accepted. Part of the iVA is to make sure you can afford those evryday emergencies or apply for a payment break if it is deadly important. The living expenses for IVA's was supprisingly generous and we are managing fine. Even manged to put a few quid away towards a basic holiday. You will have to create astory but ours was the same as every one elses i.e. it just built up and then we got to the state where on card paid another. We made some household improvemnets...and so on. This was never commented on or came up again. I would go for it because a DMP with 100K debt is just not going to work although creditors do like that you have tried. We are paying back 20pence in the pound (40 pence joint) and have to try and remortgage towards the end. As Northern Rock is involved it is a 6 year IVA. All our creditors voted in favour. We used David Mond...Cleardebt.
Hope this helps. We like you, had a load of worried and embarrassment, but all went through (after 6 months DMP). Once you haver telephoned and decided...you pay only token 1 or 2 pound payments to all creditors. Swap accounts. They don't bother you that much at all to be honest...just the odd call. Tell them your arranging an IVA and there gone for another period.

annie31

Thankyou all so much for your replies
It already feels like a huge weight off just by sharing it on here, and hearing there are others in a similar situation really helps. Sometimes you feel like the only one! I recognise its going to be a tough journey, but i feel more positive about our situation, and the fact that hopefully we have a chance of sorting it out.
Memberme, your situation sounds so similar to ours. Things just built up, and a few emergencies. Also taking time off work after having our babies, and thinking we could cope on one income. We also have a loan with Nothern Rock.
One other question, We have a total of 3 different accounts with barclaycard. Are they treated seperatley when it comes to voting, i.e just 1 vote with a big percentage, or is it 3 seperate votes? Similarly I have an Abbey card and an MBNA, separate accounts but both run by MBNA. Just wondered how it might affect the outcome.
Thanks Again

memberme

I belive each debt is seperate on the list of creditors. Each account has to have it's own entry.

memberme

We also aggrivated our situation by my wife leaving her job and having a baby.The sad thing is I even rememebr the underwritter at Northern Rock telling us how to change our finance submission to pass their scrutiny..Ah well thats life