IVA and the implications on your credit file

vickypollard82

I'm just after some advice really. About 2-3 years ago, an IVA was added to my credit file due to an old student account I had with Barclays. I hadn't used the account in couple of years and they had added charges each month, I paid irregularly over the years but always kept it under the overdraft limit. anyways it goes over and they ring me to arrange paying the account. They ask me series of security questions that I kept getting wrong, eventually after a couple of months of them ringing me, finally find out they were asking me questions about another account I had with my ex. Anyways I speak to this guy on the phone and arrange to pay £50 a month to clear the balance, all agreed, at the end of the call he mentions issue with server and it running slow, but if any problems, be back in touch, don't hear nothing again and then month later I get a letter from debt collection agency, agree to pay £50, unawares that I now have an IVA - then after a few months I cleared the whole amount. but now my credit score is shocking, I have some credit and I have always paid everything on time and before this IVA my credit score was very good. I contacted Barclays bank and basically told it was my fault and that they had no record of them arranging it over the phone, I requested notes from the system as surely it would of been recorded, got told they cant go back that far and don't have the information of FOI. So what do I do? no matter how well I pay my current credit and clear things off, my credit score stays down until 6 years after? even though I paid this debt off over 2 years ago, so basically I cant get any credit (good deals anymore) for another 3 years? it shocking and I think really unfair!

Any help or suggestions be much appreciated

[Deleted User]

You credit score may stay down, but your credit history will improve with time, which is what matters. 

It's neither shoockin nor unfair that someone who manages credit badly doesn't get the same offers as someone who doesn't, as lenders assess borrowers on risk.

Stay on track with your current credit and time will do the rest.

vickypollard82

I get what your saying, but I look at my credit file and my history shows that all my credit has been paid off or payments paid on time, not a missed payment, and then this one credit account that shows as IVA, then shows it’s been paid off in full, Which I paid off a couple of months later, it still stays on my credit file for 6 years?? That’s a long time to have sh*tty credit. Then it sort of looks pointless in doing it, as I could of decided to pay this debt off over 5 - 6 years as the IVA comes off after 6, it’s like there’s no point

vickypollard82

If it went to an underwriter they would look at my file and go never missed a payment, history shows reliable payer, just this one file were it wasn’t but can see all paid off in full. No it doesn’t work like that, I just knocks my Experian credit score from 980 to 589

mwarby

It’s the fact you got the IVA in the first place which is the problem, to most lenders an IVA and bankruptcy are the same risk wise. It doesn’t matter if you went bankrupt or in an IVA for  £10 or £10 million it’s the fact that your finances got bad enough that an IVA or bankruptcy was the best option

mwarby

I’d this an IVA or an arrangement to pay? It seems odd to have an IVA for one debt

if it’s an arrangement to pay, it’s still serious as it shows you were unable to meet the contractual terms of your account. 

vickypollard82

I don’t know know, It was a collection agency, I didn’t know the implications after it getting passed from Barclays to arvato. I just started paying and then after a few months I had extra money and paid off the balance which was £750, it was a £1k debt and I’d never not paid anything, Barclays arranged a payment plan and then messed it up, got no letters or emails about the next course of action, just when I got the letter from arvato. On my credit file it shows accounts settled and on this one I paid off shows account satisfied.

so what’s the difference? 

mwarby

An IVA would be under ‘Public information’ on credit karma (transition) I find it difficult to believe you entered into an IVA in the way you described 

settled means repaid in full
satisfied means repaid but not in full, the amount remaining has been written off. Would normally have default connected

settled is the normal way an account would close, satisfied implies insolvency of some sort 

[Deleted User]

vickypollard82 said:

 No it doesn’t work like that, I just knocks my Experian credit score from 980 to 589

Then just tell people it's 980, since we've established a made up number doesn't matter.

sourcrates

I think you are refering to a "CCJ" (county court judgement) an order issued by a court to pay a debt, either that or an "arrangement to pay".

An IVA is an Individual Voluntery Arrangement, a debt solution, which is a form of insolvency, used to repay your debts when you are unable to, it would require you to have entered into this agreement with an insolvency practionaire.

It is not something that could happen without your knowledge, usually you would have to have multiple debts totaling many thousands of pounds, you would have to apply for this arrangement, and have it agreed by a meeting of your creditors, i believe you have got your terminology mixed up, IVA when it should be CCJ or AP.

Edit ;

Reading between the lines here, appologies but your post is a bit garbled, i think you are refering to an arrangement to pay marker currently added to your credit file, by the creditor when you agreed to pay the £50 per month to the debt, and the effect this is now having on your credit file.

Is that correct ?