dmp or iva

duncsmissh

i have had conflicting advice from payplan and national debtline, one says go for an iva the other says its risky.

i am in debt to about £26,500, loans and credit cards, all priority debts are up to date.
I have moved to a safe bank.

I earn £1467 net per month.

I live with my partner who gives me £200 towards the bills, pays half of the food bill and pays for the tv, phone and broadband. he also pays fo the holidays.

The iva option would mean payplan requesting his income and expenses, a route i really do not want to go down due to past debt issues being made worse by my ex.
I want to keep our incomes ans expenses separately, my partner took out a DRO last year due to his ex so we both have had our fingers burnt in the past.
I think payplan said that the iva in 5 years time would expect me to try and remortgage to raise equity as i have more than £5000 equity in my property which is soley mine. not sure why a mortgage company would do that for someone who has a bad credit rating tho!

The other comlication is that my partner has asked me to marry him but i need to know how that will affect my finances....


can anyone help?

Tixy

Are national debtline recommending a DMP instead of the IVA then? How long would a DMP be predicted to last? Do you expect your circumstances to change/improve signficantly in the next few years - eg are you expecting significant payrises?

Is your property/mortgage just in your own name currently?

It should be able to do an IVA yourself based on your own income & expenditure but I guess payplan either think you cannot afford an IVA based just on your own figures and couldn't afford a high enough figure each month that your creditors would be willing to accept or they think that you are paying a too high a proportion of the household expenses somehow.

On an IVA if you are unable to obtain a remortgage (and people often cannot) then the IVA is usually simply extended by a further 12months payments.

As you've had conflicting advice so far I'd go for a third opinion - perhaps try CCCS?

duncsmissh

The house is mine.

i dont want my partner to be included, he has his own issues, and I dont want him involved in this, he is good to me in that he pays £200 towards the bills, his share of the food, the tv, phone and broadband and socialising...i dont want him contributing to the mortgage because of the beneficial interest in the property... he has to travel to 300 miles twice a month to see his kids and old mum and is an agency worker so his salary is a lot less than mine. thats why im not sure about the way marrying him would affect the situation.

RAS

Who is recommending the IVA?

The reason any IVA provider needs your BF's details is because they need to prove that he is paying his full contribution to the household expenses. It does not matter what you call it.

Also an IVA would probably not count his contribution towards holidays as you are not really allowed them.

But say you earn £1500 and he earns £1000 on average, they expect him to pay 40 percent of the household expendiuture. They will take any CSA payments into account.

duncsmissh

thanks for your reply, but what happens if we split up, an IVA cannot be altered I am led to believe and if his contribution is taken into account I will be up the creek again!

from what I understand a dmp is more flexible, I can pay more if I can, and if things improve for me financially I can work more with creditors to pay off full and final settlements etc.

The reason I am in this mess is because of my reliance on previous partners financially. I would rather he move out than rely on any one again! I know a lot of couples are 'in it together' but thats not right for me.

duncsmissh

also, national debtline said an IVA w2asnt suitable for me, Payplan have said it is, I think CCCS suggested DMP which is what i originally didnt want but looking att the options it is my preferred option.

I dont know the term of the payments yet as they are calling me back tomorrow. Payplan need me to discuss this with my partner, which I have now done. As he has now dealt with his debts with a DRO he is very reluctant to give me his financial details.

Holidays may not be allowed, but my son has HIV and lives in Spain, how am I supposed to ever see him? My family all live 100 miles away and my partners 150 miles away so my partner has agreed to cover those costs,

Tixy

If CCCS and national debtline are both suggesting a DMP then this seems a sensible way forward. These 2 are both charities and will give you impartial advice. Payplan are good but are not a charity and they stand to make a lot of money out of you doing an IVA so are not totally impartial.

duncsmissh

Now that is very interesting. They just called me back as they had tried very hard yesterday to get me to do an IVA but i said i would have to discuss it with my partner. They called a few minutes ago and he was very unimpressed when I said I wanted to do a DMP and that was that, he said he had not prepared my figures so wanted to know what i was prepared to offer. I told him I thought he would advise me of that! he is now going to call me back tuesday, which will have been a week since I first made contact and I was a bit miffed... I am off to phone national debtline again!