Iva help please

Legacy_user

Hi, I'm new here in just looking for some advice please.
I have quite a lot of debt £26,000 ish including my car.
I have plodded on for a long time, I split with my partner the beginning of the year and I am a single mum now to three children. It has got the point now where I am scraping by, I do manage to pay the minimum on all my debts but living is just so hard.
I finally decided to see if there were any options for me. I filled in a form online and was told an advisor would be in touch. The next day I got a phone call and text and email from a company called right hand finance. They called me and text me several times but I was working so did not manage to speak to them until a few days later. I spoke to Allan who went through all my debts with me and told me about an IVA which is something I'd never heard about until now.
He was very reassuring, did a credit check and went through my outgoings etc. He then told me he could get me an iva for £160 per month for 60 months, after that the remaining debt would be written off and I'd be debt free.
This sounded too good to be true. He said I could keep my car separately from the iva and continue to pay it.
He said I'd need to seen bank statements and open a new bank account separately which I have done.
I then called him as I did some online research into ivas. I had some concerns with what he had told me. I asked him how he knew the iva would be accepted, he said he has a list of creditors who accept them? I then asked if the £160 payment was fixed or likely to change, he then said it would be fixed for the 60 months. I Wass concerned about stopping paying my creditors as he advised me to do, but he said they would be unable to contact me as it is illegal if I have an iva.
The company is part of apeture debt solutions apparently. I am very wary and I'm not sure if this all seems correct.
Any insight would be very much appreciated..
He is calling to tomorrow with updates.
Thanks for reading.

MovingForwards

Without knowing income/outgoings no one can fully advise you.

Also sounds like you are looking at doing an IVA through a company which you pay them (they take a monthly fee from the payment you make). Look at a charity like stepchange as they help for free (less any charges to set up the IVA, if any).

sourcrates

Hi Luckstay,


There are 3 regulated debt solutions available in the UK.


(1) Bankruptcy
(2) IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement)
(3) DRO (Debt Relief Order)


and one informal solution, which is a debt management plan.


There are fee`s associated with all the 3 regulated solutions, Bankruptcy costs a fixed fee, currently £680.
A DRO costs £90, (you would not qualify for this as your debt is over 20k).


The fee`s for administering an IVA though, vary widely, as there are no fixed amounts for this service, usually it is whatever the IP chooses to charge, although what they told you about the workings of the arrangement is pretty much true, except about your payment not changing, you must tread very carefully when picking an IVA, they are not right for everyone.
The arrangement can be extended indefinably, to 6,7 years or more, depending on circumstances, that is why it is essential you take advice from people who are not trying to sell you something.


Without knowing your full circumstances, its impossible to advise further on this.



What i would suggest is getting some independent free advice from both Stepchange who are a free to use debt charity, and National Debtline, who also offer a free service to you.


Links to there websites are in my signature, take advice from them first before committing to anything, a lot of these private debt management companies get paid vast amounts of money for selling IVA`s, and there advice is not always in your best interests.


You can of course always complete a statement of affairs here as well, post it up, and we can advise properly on your options, and explain a little bit more about them for you.


http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

PrettyKittyKat

The main thing that jumped out at me is where you have been told that the £160 payment is fixed and won't change, this is untrue.

If you work (not applicable if your only income is benefits) then you have an allowance of how much you can earn each month before 'additional monies' need to be paid, this is based upon the income from wages that your £160 payment is based upon. The rule on additional monies is usually the first 10% you keep, after that you need to pay 50% of the additional into the IVA (however you should always check your own individual IVA as some creditors put modifications on regarding this which the IVA company would discuss in full with you). So you still get a benefit to keep a proportion of any addition wages, such as overtime or a bonus.

Each year your income and expenditure is reviewed. If your disposable income has increased then your IVA payment will increase, this includes reviewing incase in any benefits etc and reviewing increase in bills. Usually the increase in your payment is only 50% of your additional 'disposable income' so again you still get a benefit to keep 50%.

It is important to note you will never repay more than 100% of your original debt plus the fees of the IVA, so if your circs greatly improved (I have seen this in an IVA due to huge promotion or inheritance) then it would finish as soon as you have paid 100% of the debts listed on your IVA plus the fees).

Sadly there is not as much flexibility the reduce the payment, as the creditors will accept the IVA based upon an expected return (more if obviously a bonus to then, but less would not be!). IPs often have discretion to allow a payment break here or there, or a 15% reduction (but that wouldn't be overly helpful on a £160 payment), and if the change was drastic there is the possibility of going back to creditors to vary the terms.

The main thing is the ensure that the income and expenditure budget is realistic, and your circumstances are stable so you feel you will be able to manage the payment for the 5 years.

Craig1981

to add to the previous advice given:
Aperture is a legit company, based in Northern Ireland, used to be Grant Thornton IVA. I had my IVA through them. did my 5 years with no issues.
which company have you used who gave you all this info?

fatbelly

I'm not seeing anything in your post that would shout 'IVA' as a solution, but we would really need more detail, which we could see if you did a soa.

An IVA is insolvency for someone who has assets to protect, such as property or a business.

I'm reading a bit between the lines here but it sounds like you are on a lowish income and have a collection of non-priority debts under 20k, plus a car on a fairly expensive finance arrangement.

If so, I think you have better options still available rather than declaring insolvency.

All IVAs carry fees (nominee and supervisor) and sometimes this distorts the advice given when you are asking an organisation that stands to receive these if they sign you up.

foxy-stoat

Do your PPI reclaim first before you do anything else. If the refunds will clear a good chunk of the debt will it be manageable?