Mobile phone arrears after IVA

xxvicxx

Hi,

Me and my husband have been in a joint IVA for almost 1 year now and earlier this year, due to a few circumstances outside our control as well as just becoming used to living within a budget, we missed a couple of payments on my mobile phone bill and are now in around £350 of arrears. Vodafone have set a “promise to pay” arrangement with us but are not taking the payments when they are supposed to and then are saying it’s our fault! I wish I could just cut all ties with them as I am finding it all so stressful! What would happen with my IVA if I stopped my Vodafone service and just got a PAYG sim but would, in effect then have a debt with them which they would have to persue me for? Can debts be added to an IVA after it’s been set up? Will the IVA fail if this happens? Any help would be appreciated!

sourcrates

Hi,


If you want to add a debt to your IVA, it may be possible to do so.

If the debt is less than 10% of the total already included, then your IP should simply be able to add the debt to your arrangement.

If the debt is larger than 10% then a formal creditors variation meeting will be necessary to approve adding the debt to the IVA.

Speak to your IP as soon as possible.

PrettyKittyKat

The debt is post IVA start date so can not be added to the IVA, regardless of the 10% sourcrates mentions.

As it is under £500 you are (most likely) not in breach of your IVA so the IP's finding out won't cause it to fail.

It is your responsibility to ensure additional payments are taken so as frustrating as it is you do need to keep a check on this. The last thing you want is for vodafone to make the debt any higher with charges etc!

As you have got into difficulty with the mobile phone a PAYG SIM may be a good idea anyway, however, are you able to come out of your contract with Vodafone?

Have you got the money to pay the £350 off? You will need to pay it, ideally asap. It could be possible to explain the situation to your IVA company and ask if they would authorise a payment holiday so you could pay it off and have the situation dealt with. This payment would then be added onto the end of your IVA. It is the IP's discretion whether they allow this.

xxvicxx

I am tied into my contract with Vodafone and only wish I could just go to a PAYG phone! We don’t have the means to be able to pay it off in a lump sum either unfortunately. I think I am just going to have to bite the bullet and call my IVA provider to see what they can do to help. Thanks for your advice.

foxy-stoat

Maybe calling the phone provider up and see how much it will cost you to get out of the contracts - your phones must be worth something secondhand. Can you sell stuff to clear the arrears.

Does sound like you need a pay and go sim rather than a direct debit that you can easily miss.

PrettyKittyKat

Asking about buying out is a good idea. Or check how long till you can come out and plan to come out at that time.

What did your IVA company say?

MrsB_2011

I had months of issues with Vodafone billing me wrongly last year. In the end I emailed the CEO address. It wasn't hard to find, Google Vodafone CEO email address and explain the issues you have had, giving dates and times you have contacted them. The executive team will handle the complaint for you and its easier than the online chat with people trying to get them to understand what's happened. In the end I didn't pay my phone bill for six months because they kept crediting me money back, and now I have a 30% discount on my bill for the life of this contract.

Craig1981

MrsB_2011 wrote: »

I had months of issues with Vodafone billing me wrongly last year. In the end I emailed the CEO address. It wasn't hard to find, Google Vodafone CEO email address and explain the issues you have had, giving dates and times you have contacted them. The executive team will handle the complaint for you and its easier than the online chat with people trying to get them to understand what's happened. In the end I didn't pay my phone bill for six months because they kept crediting me money back, and now I have a 30% discount on my bill for the life of this contract.

thanks for the info, but not relevant to the OP. Money was not available when requested. As all direct debits are set up, they will state money to be taken out "on or soon after". would be OP responsibility to ensure funds in account for payment

OP - as suggested above - did you contact them? what was the outcome?