Please check / advise on SOA before phone interview with for IVA

Depth_Charge

UpToMyNeckInIt wrote: »

...Not sure it is a fair question to ask a private company to assist with BR. Many gladly will, I'm sure - for a fee. That's crazy: Why do that, when CAB/debt charities will offer a service for free? No fairies required!!! In a roundabout way, this is the advice from private companies over various threads on another forum.

BR was never a consideration for me personally, but I understand that it the forms etc. can be filled in by the customer (easier said than done without professional support though I bet).

Hi

I thought for a while there that you were going to pass my comments over:)

But don't many of them keep advertising & telling us all that they are free?

Whats the going rate nowdays over there for filling in the forms?

You are right there are CABs that do the forms etc - some of them are very much experienced in doing them especially the failed IVA versions (maybe the IVA companies should donate to the CABs out of the fees in these circumstances:)

No IVA scare mongering from me, just my opinions & take as always.

Nice talking with you again UTMNII, its the truth:)

UpToMyNeckInIt

Hi DC,

Fair point: When talikng about BR or DMPs many of these firms advertise 'free' services, which cannot be the case: They make their money out of your monthly payments etc.

I think by the term 'free' they mean 'no upfront fees'.

Of course, the same applies to the charity organisations: their fees are funded by formalised donations from the creditors. However, they are (or should be) 'not for profit' organisations, so I would assume their fees etc. will be less than the private sector.

Thus if the OP is contemplating BR or a DMP, then CAB/the debt charities should be their inly port of call.

IVA's in my opinion are a different kettle of fish. In my experience, the debt charities are not impartial. They will push you down the DMP route almost every time, even if it is going to lumber a customer with 10+ years of repayments, and the possibility that the creditors are at liberty to continue charging interest or increase the interst rates whenever they want to.

I don't believe that this advise is always in the customer best interests, but it's great for the creditors, guaranteeing them a minimum of 100% return. Hence my belief that the charities are looking out for their sponsor's best intersts at all times, not necessarily mine as a customer.

More worryingly, is the fact that these exact same charities, and some CAB advisors, on the rare occasions that they agree an IVA is the best option, end up referring many of these cases (certainly for self-employed customers), to a private company - Grant Thornton (and previously, PayPlan), anyway.

Despite this, sometimes it seems the debt charities are happy to allow the misconception that their IVA's are 'fee-free' to prevail (plenty of people posting on this and other forums to that effect) - which is clearly not the case.

So, if you are going to end up with a private company anyway, it is best to shop around to see who you are most comfortable working with over the next 5-6 Years. At least these companies are honest about their fees when you ask them, and it is in black & white in your IVA proposal.

Depth_Charge

UpToMyNeckInIt wrote: »

Hi DC,

Fair point: When talikng about BR or DMPs many of these firms advertise 'free' services, which cannot be the case: They make their money out of your monthly payments etc.

I think by the term 'free' they mean 'no upfront fees'.

Of course, the same applies to the charity organisations: their fees are funded by formalised donations from the creditors. However, they are (or should be) 'not for profit' organisations, so I would assume their fees etc. will be less than the private sector.

Thus if the OP is contemplating BR or a DMP, then CAB/the debt charities should be their inly port of call.

IVA's in my opinion are a different kettle of fish. In my experience, the debt charities are not impartial. They will push you down the DMP route almost every time, even if it is going to lumber a customer with 10+ years of repayments, and the possibility that the creditors are at liberty to continue charging interest or increase the interst rates whenever they want to.

I don't believe that this advise is always in the customer best interests, but it's great for the creditors, guaranteeing them a minimum of 100% return. Hence my belief that the charities are looking out for their sponsor's best intersts at all times, not necessarily mine as a customer.

More worryingly, is the fact that these exact same charities, and some CAB advisors, on the rare occasions that they agree an IVA is the best option, end up referring many of these cases (certainly for self-employed customers), to a private company - Grant Thornton (and previously, PayPlan), anyway.

Despite this, sometimes it seems the debt charities are happy to allow the misconception that their IVA's are 'fee-free' to prevail (plenty of people posting on this and other forums to that effect) - which is clearly not the case.

So, if you are going to end up with a private company anyway, it is best to shop around to see who you are most comfortable working with over the next 5-6 Years. At least these companies are honest about their fees when you ask them, and it is in black & white in your IVA proposal.

Hi

If Im honest (and I basically am) then I cant argue with some of the points you make but not all.

Genuine free independent, impartial advice where possible is where I stand.

At the risk of going over old ground on this thread I will leave it at that.

Hope you and 'some' on the other side find this a fair and balanced post.

My opinions and take as always

UpToMyNeckInIt

For informaton.

Some kind soul has put the Stepchange Budget Guidelines back on the net.

Not easy to find, so here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7LabJy69BP1M0gxeHQ1SDFiN1E/edit

Hopefully, the OP and others will find this a useful reference.

Depth_Charge

UpToMyNeckInIt wrote: »

For informaton.

Some kind soul has put the Stepchange Budget Guidelines back on the net.

Not easy to find, so here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7LabJy69BP1M0gxeHQ1SDFiN1E/edit

Hopefully, the OP and others will find this a useful reference.

Hi

As !!!!!! Emery (at least I think it was him) used to say....

"Oooo, you are awful, but I like you"

Wonder if anyone will dare put up those other set of figures mentioned in the IVA protocol?

Just a bit of well meant humour UTMNII that I am quite sure you will get.

DC

cheesedoffwithdebt

milliemonster wrote: »

Sorry I disagree with the above, £150 a month is enough for an iva, most companies will now accept a minimum of £100 a month.

Have a look at stepchange guidelines for amounts you can claim in an iva to get your figures right, regardless of what your mobiles are costing, if you are tied into a contract and can prove what your bills are there is o reason they won't be accepted, it may just mean your I and e will need tinkering with.

Having a brief look at your soa, the figures are totally wrong with what you should be claiming in an iva so you do need to speak with someone professional to go through it properly, for instance, £200 a month for 2 adults and 1 child is far too low, you should be allowed around £380. That's just one example.

Fuel is not too high, ours for 2 vehicles is £400 a month and was accepted with no questions asked. Clothing should be around £60 a month, you haven't claimed for hairdressing, Internet, charity, newspapers, meals at work, school meals, emergency house repairs, pocket money, car maintenance etc, this is why you need to speak with the professionals.

An iva is different to a dmp in that you are not trying to scrimp as much as you can to free up money to pay back your creditors, you are trying to set a realistic liveable budget that you can stick to for 5 years, so the allowances are more generous.

It may be when they look at your figures. There just isn't enough left over to do a viable iva, but please don't cut back your figures to the bone to try to create a disposable income to get an iva as that's just heading for disaster

totally agree with Milliemonster-I am half way through my IVA and money is definitely getting tighter and I do try very hard (I even write a blog about my money saving experiences!!).If you are expecting another baby your expenses will go up again- to be very honest as you don't own a property have you thought about bankruptcy?

You would not lose your home as you don't own one, just a thought but an IVA is a long commitment. However, what I would add is that it's still better than a DMP if you want to get out of debt because the interest on your debts is frozen-this is not guaranteed with a DMP and neither is the acceptance of your creditors.

You are absolutely right to be tackling this problem now- well done- oh and yes, the mobile phone is very high. I now have a T Mobile phone for £7.99 a month, they did me a deal when I nearly left them to go to Tesco mobile- there are much cheaper contracts around for you than what you are paying.

Best of luck with this.

FiatFan_2

Depth_Charge wrote: »

Hi

As !!!!!! Emery (at least I think it was him) used to say....

"Oooo, you are awful, but I like you"

Wonder if anyone will dare put up those other set of figures mentioned in the IVA protocol?

Just a bit of well meant humour UTMNII that I am quite sure you will get.

DC

Would that be the Common Financial Statement trigger figures? How much influence would they make? I thought looking in the IVA protocol it would give some figures, but just references CCCS/CFS material instead

Depth_Charge

FiatFan wrote: »

Would that be the Common Financial Statement trigger figures? How much influence would they make? I thought looking in the IVA protocol it would give some figures, but just references CCCS/CFS material instead

Hi

The CFS trigger figures are not made public - overall they are more generous than the Stepchange ones so I understand:)

IPs and IVA Companies would or should have access to the CFS I would hope especially given that they are clearly mentioned in the IVA protocol, it would be strange if they did not really!

Within the debt advice industry / sector expenditure guideline & trigger figures are currently a very hot potato indeed.

I understand that only last week at a fairly high profile
conference / meeting in London the subject of the CFS was debated and there are moves to unify the sets of figures.

From what I have heard I think the MAS were raising the point and that the big players such as CAB, National Debtline & Stepchange are looking at this.

The advantage of having a universal set of figures is a no brainer for advisers and debtors alike.

What makes me smile is the Common Financial Statement (CFS) is supposed to do excactly the above and is currently used by agencies like the CAB.

http://www.cfs.moneyadvicetrust.org/

Why any agency or provider would not wish to use or at least refer to these figures is a puzzle to me - but I can think of a few scenario's:)

Advisers have to be able to give accurate advice on all options and solutions and diffferent sets of figures do not always allow that.

My opinion is that not having a universal set of figures can undermine advice.

Some of them have a problem with this and they know it.

It is entwined all though the sites and policy.

Just the way I understand the issues and take as always

Depth_Charge

Hi again fiat fan

Just to add that the Common Financial Statement (CFS) is used in Debt Relief Orders (DRO'S).

A Debt Relief Order is a formal insolvency solution.

How can using the CFS be acceptable in DROs but not in bankruptcy (another formal solution)

There are other areas of debate concerning the CFS as you may have read on here.

Nobody is saying allowance figures are an excact science

Its a subject that has at last come to the forefront as far as debt advice is concerned and not before time in my opinion.

Too many people are entering formal solutions or are stuck in debt payment agreements & arrangements and are still really struggling, it has to stop, we are supposed to be getting them out of debt, giving people & families that genuine fresh start etc.

It is also called independent, impartial advice!

My opinions as always

FiatFan_2

Thanks for those explanations DC, I think there is a lot of info pre debt solution you just can't take in at the time and once the relief of being sorted has come then you start to see more of the pro/cons of either your chosen solution or the others available.

I know everyone's arrangements are different, but I am still surprised by how much the advice and agreements do vary even within the same provider.