thinking of iva but few questions!

UpToMyNeckInIt

Good points milliemonster.

From what I have read on other forums, low-dividend IVA's being reported of 7-9p/£ getting routinely approved.

I believe there are now even IVA firms who specialise in IVA's where the customer has less than £100pcm available to pay creditors, and where the total debt is at the lower end of what some deem viable for an IVA.

I suspect the source of this misleading advice knows their stuff, but either works for CAB, Stepchange or some other such organisation who will only 'approve' the IVA route if you meet Grant Thornton's criteria and / or the CAB's Advice Guide. (As a general rule, that's fine, but everyone's circumstances are unique, and may be less likely to suit self-employed customers).

Still think the OP has the full range of options open to them, and need to research all thoroughly.

glenandemm

hi guys thanks so much for replys, i really do take all the advice in.
i never ever wanted to go down a route of paying less as ive always believed in paying back something youve borrowed and the last 3 years have really been a struggle and ive got the bills down to £13k from near £20k but its just getting harder and harder each month with the rising living costs and the kids growing and eating more!
my wife also has around £10k of debts that shes basically paying through family tax credits we get as my self employed income is so low so we was wondering would it be worth putting all our debts together and putting them into an joint iva, all our benefits and whatever wages i can earn over the month go into the pot and we pay our priority bills first like mortgage house bills and putting food on the table which we get a great shop from aldi each week for around £40-50 compared to when we used to go asda or sainsburys etc and pay around £80-90 seriously!!
i reckon together we would have around 20-25k of unsecured debt, mainly cc od and loan?
if an iva would be the most sensible choice to do what sort of payment could i expect to pay a month over 5-6 years?
the only other option is to rephone our cc companies which are now not the original companies, we deal with people like idem,csl,wescot etc and we pay around 30-50 each card and when we phone them they say they cant accept lower payments, i understand theyre lower payments then normal cc payments but because we have so many they all add up to one big payment!
ive just had to miss my natwest od payment this month as i was paying £50 interest and not being able to pay anymore off the od and now im over the agreed od and theyre charging me £6 a day but when i spoke to them theyre really unhelpfull and say they cant stop the interest like my c cards, so ive decided im not struggling to pay just the interest now and i'll let the account go even more overdrawn then maybe theyll help me out as they must be thinking if i can keep paying the interest then im ok!
just not sure where to go from here at the moment, i just want everything in one place and one monthly payment without getting idem or csl phoning me 4-5 times a day?

UpToMyNeckInIt

Difficult to advise without specific figures.

Anything left after deducting what is deemed 'reasonable' expenditure (as per the Stepchange Budget Guidelines 2012), from your net income (usually determined from your last set of accounts/tax returns if you are self-employed), is your IVA payment.