Positive Experience with an IVA

Giggles_Fairy

Please do consider the sustainability of your payments. If you are only paying £100 per month - what happens if your elec bill increases £20 per month, gas £10 per month, and car insurance £10 per month? Make sure you have lots of additional non essential expenditures (sports/hobbies, sundries, clothing, etc) that you are able to cut back on. Otherwise you will start your IVA and have to fail it after a year or two when your bills increase

strawberryblonde

Thanks for your concern GigglesFairy. My hubby and I have seriously considered the affordability of an IVA and as I said in my first post, my husband has got a new job which means he is earning more money and hopefully also commission which will help too.
We have to take charge of our debts and because of the size of them an IVA or bankruptcy are our only realistic options for getting rid of them.
Sitting here and not taking a positive step forward towards clearing them is irresponsible. We have had too many years of not being able to do anything about them but now have the chance to do so. None of us has a crystal ball to see into the future but as far as I can tell our financial situation is as stable as it could be and so we have to take action based on that.

UpToMyNeckInIt

wba31 wrote: »

I've added my opinions in red above. I think we both know we could argue the toss for days, or simply agree to disagree as we have both had differing experiences of SC (in this case) but NDL for myself too.

I cannot comment on IVAs and GT from SC point of view, i dont know much about them, most my clients are BR or DRO clients. I have said it before in these forums, if we cannot direct people to SC or NDL for free impartial (optional word in this conversation) advice, then where can we send them? CAB doesnt suit everybody, there is CAP (a charity who also recieve fair share contribution) or Payplan, who because they take a profit i trust less than the charities. I respect your reservations, but on a forum for people looking for help, i do not know where else people are supposed to go, which is why i fight the cause for the big 3 (CAB, SC and NDL)

I don't disagree with you as much as you may think: I must clarify that overall I think Stepchange, NDL CAB etc. are great organisations.

My only issue with SC in particular, is limited to their apparently poor advice on IVA's, and their associated arrangement with one particular firm.

As an IVA customer, I can only comment on my own experiences, and provide an opinion. But reading around, I am clearly not alone.

If DMP's DRO or BR is your option, then CAB, Stepchange, NDL need be your only ports of call - points I have made on several occasions on this and other forums.

I share your views on the up-front fee chargers - I reluctantly used one myself - not knowing who else to turn to when CCCS told me I was not suitable for an IVA. My case was complicated however, what with me being self-employed, and the £900 fee went on a credit card that ended up in the IVA anyway, so not the end of the world. I have to say though, that the company I dealt with did a very good job in putting the IVA proposal together (not £900 worth of work mind).

But PayPlan are not the only IVA provider that don't charge upfront fees. In fact there are loads of IVA firms that don't charge a bean up-front (can't name names though, without getting a telling off from the moderators).

So my advice to the OP is simple: shop around.