Iva _ not going so well !!

amenra

Hi There eveyone , I wonder if i could get some IVA advice from you all.
About 4 years ago we enrolled on a debt management program with a company called Gregory Pennington , we had around 27,500 pounds worth of debt.This had built up over a few years after i was made redundant and tried to make a living being self-employed.Myself and my partner were paying 360.00 per month between us.Anyway , after about 2 years an IVA was suggested at a cost of 200.00 pounds per month , over 5 years.
Obviously , this would reduce our debt over 5 years and reduce our monthly payment to 200.00.(lifeline)
The IVA was setup and managed by a company called Freeman Jones who promised to monitor and resolve any issues we were having, they would give us "piece of mind"
We have just completed a very hard first year on this IVA and have missed a couple of payments due to the economic climate changes and reduced salary's.At about this time , Debters statements started to arrive indicating that NO payments had been received.
I telephoned Freeman Jones , who told me that in the first year , they would keep all payments for administration reasons , but, it appears that my debters have received NO payments from before the IVA either , are we mugs ?
When a payment is missed Freeman Jones ring us 5 times a day on the home phone and mobiles and they send us texts demanding we ring them , which we do , then they make us feel be-littled and force us to make double or single payments we really can not afford.
In all honesty i don't feel we can make the required payments at all , our outgoings are minimal and we seem to have nothing left at all , by the time we have paid them.
We are really concerned as Freeman Jones are making our life a misery and constantly berate us about the fact we will be made Bankrupt , if we don't comit to the IVA's payments.We are trying , but times change , we don't have the ability to pay this amount each month , nowhere near.
We feel that our Rent and Council Tax are our priority , but we keep "robbing" from these amounts to pay Freeman Jones.When we do ring them , they belittle us and make us feel like failures , are we over reacting? All they say is you signed a contract.
But our Debts seem to be no diffrent in the last 5 years of Debt Management and IVA being involved with these companies.
We really feel that we should ask for all our money back and we should just deal with everyone ourself , can we do this? What are we to do ?
Although the total Debt is high , some of the smaller Debts are for only 120.00 pounds , we could have paid these off over 5 years by now!
I have lost confidence in the companies , but we fear the legal consequencies.We took all our Debts out in good faith that we could meet the repayments , but salary reductions have boxed us into a very tight corner ?
Can anyone hear give us some good advice..
:-(
Worried.

little_miss_muppet_face

I did an IVA about 10 years ago, all my payments went to the creditors, i did not miss any payments as i believed if you did your agreement was cancelled, sorry i cannot help you, but just wanted you to know that from my first payment my creditors received something.

amenra

Thanks I appreciate your experience , we are really concerned that our IVA is somehow not the best option we could have chosen - But Thanks.

mia1830

Hi,

I am no expert on this as I am only getting my on IVA set up myself and have done nothing but ask questions on here and elsewhere to make ure we are doing the right thing. I have just come off the phone with the IVA company I am hoping to go through, the girl told me that if our circumstances change at all when the IVA starts we need to let them know for example, washing machine breaks down, reduced wages etc. Did you let your IVA company know that your circumstances had changed? Its a bit worrying if you did and they didn't help you out. The girl said to me the main thing is communication and I hope this is true.

I have also read on here some IVA companys take the 1st years paymnets towards there fees though I'm not sure if this is right, to be honest I probably should have asked that question but I'm just so glad to be getting some help, I just hope I don't regret it.

I'm sure there will be more people along soon who can help you out better. Good luck

dancingfairy

Hi I suggest you get advice from one of the free charities that Martin recommends -try National Debtline or CCCS or your local CAB. Have you got any paperwork for the IVA that you can dig out as it sounds a bit suss to me- hopefully someone can confirm if the paperwork is genuine for you. Once you know how you stand at the moment it will be easier to move forward.
Also some of the regulars on here and the debt charities should be able to tell you how the IVA should be working.
Oh and it might be worth hopping over to the bankruptcy forum on here-once you are clued up on the ins and outs of bankruptcy the 'threat' of we'll make you bankrupt won't be anywhere near as frightening - in fact you may find that it is better for you in the long run than this 'IVA' - no more being frightened etc and you will have enough money to live off rather than constantly robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Good Luck
df

amenra

Hi ,

Thanks for that , Yes , we have kept the IVA company up to date ect,etc - And we know about the payment breaks for washing machines and car repairs etc , They do do this , but it's sometimes a very complicated process , you must send receipts etc and you will still have to send those to them to get this authorised.
I am not saying IVA's are not a good thing , i am just thinking , that our company are not the best choice , can i ask , who you are using ?
We have kept out company informed at all times and just feel we are getting a pretty poor service from them.

Thanks

amenra

Thanks DF,
That's good advice , i am just working my way around the site for info at the minute.
I don't have a fear of actually going bankrupt , but my partner does , local paper and all that , lame excuses i know , but i thought this IVA would help us , their phone calls are more abusive than the debt collectors.
:-(

mia1830

amenra wrote: »

Hi ,

Thanks for that , Yes , we have kept the IVA company up to date ect,etc - And we know about the payment breaks for washing machines and car repairs etc , They do do this , but it's sometimes a very complicated process , you must send receipts etc and you will still have to send those to them to get this authorised.
I am not saying IVA's are not a good thing , i am just thinking , that our company are not the best choice , can i ask , who you are using ?
We have kept out company informed at all times and just feel we are getting a pretty poor service from them.

Thanks

Hi, as I said we are in the begining process but we are using Grant Thornton and so far have been great but still early stages. It sounds like you haven't had a great experience and its so hard when you think you have found the solution to sorting out your debts only for it to be causing more stress, one of the debt charities would be the best next step I think and take it from there, my experience so far everybody has been very helpful and kind and non judgemental which helps so much. this forum is a fantastic source of information and there are loads of people who will help answer your questions. I hope you are able to get htis sorted out with a company who will be more considerate.

Gypsygem

little_miss_muppet_face wrote: »

I did an IVA about 10 years ago, all my payments went to the creditors, i did not miss any payments as i believed if you did your agreement was cancelled, sorry i cannot help you, but just wanted you to know that from my first payment my creditors received something.

You are obviously very lucky then, as my daughter and son-in-law have been with an IVA for 3 years and very little of the money they have paid in has gone to the creditors. They were told that everything they paid in the first year (or 2 years, i cannot recall which) would go to pay the IVA company involved (I don't know who they are). They are now in a similar position to the OP and waiting on the IVA going to court next week. It is very likely they will be made bankrupt, despite them having paid around a third of their £30k original debt - as I say, most of that went to the IVA company before any was seen by any creditors.

So, OP, you are not alone. Good luck with everything.

mtgg

HI,
We have just paid our last payments after a hard 5yrs and Our IVA will end on Monday 4th October.
We have been with Freeman Jones and they have always been very fair with us.
We always knew what there fee's were and that they would take their money first. We had £86k in debts and have been paying back 25pence in the pound.
We could of gone bankrupt, but then they would not have got anything from us.
We have needed part payments breaks in the past & we have provided receipts etc & it has been granted. But, they do need these amts to be made up. Ie if we only make a half payment the other half is made up over 18mths, so £250 would be split by 18 & this is the extra amt we have paid on top of the normal IVA payment.
Going bankrupt was not an option for us as i work in the financial industry I also work for my mortgage provider etc.

Hope things do go a bit easier. It may be worth speaking to CAB
Thanks
Clare

debtinfo

Regardless of how it is structured, if you have a genuine IVA then if you keep to the agreement then your debts will be gone by the and of the agreement and there is nothing the creditors can do to you.

What it seems that you need to ask yourself is, can you keep to the arrangement for the next 4 years, An IVA only works if you can complete it.

BTW what is it that yor partner fears about bankruptcy, often the fear is greater than the reality, for instance you mention local adverts, hardly any bankruptcies go into the local paper these days