Is an IVA the right thing to do ?

Mandyboo75

Need help and advice, I have got myself into a situation where basically I have two loans with high interest rates and two credit cards. Now each month my wages cover my bills and the surplus I have to used to pay credit cards, then need to use credit cards to live so never paying off just building more debt. I recently contacted a finance company and there advice to me is to take an IVA, I get this will help me to reduce costs but its the impact this will have on me I am concerned about. I was advised by two people from same company so firstly the IVA advisor that the IVA would only affect the credit cards and loans that I am writing off but I can keep my other credit cards and paypal credit account and use if required (which I thought great this is what I want) then when actually speaking to the IVA practitioner from the same company when going through all questions said I would lose all credit cards and my PayPal account and not have any credit, this has left me very confused and upset and not knowing which way to turn. PLEASE HELP

Desperadoo

Mandyboo75 said:

Need help and advice, I have got myself into a situation where basically I have two loans with high interest rates and two credit cards. Now each month my wages cover my bills and the surplus I have to used to pay credit cards, then need to use credit cards to live so never paying off just building more debt. I recently contacted a finance company and there advice to me is to take an IVA, I get this will help me to reduce costs but its the impact this will have on me I am concerned about. I was advised by two people from same company so firstly the IVA advisor that the IVA would only affect the credit cards and loans that I am writing off but I can keep my other credit cards and paypal credit account and use if required (which I thought great this is what I want) then when actually speaking to the IVA practitioner from the same company when going through all questions said I would lose all credit cards and my PayPal account and not have any credit, this has left me very confused and upset and not knowing which way to turn. PLEASE HELP

Good morning and welcome.

All debts you have need to be included if doing an IVA ( had one in the past ) and you can't take any more credit while you have it. 

Not sure which company you spoke to ...was it one of the Debt charities..Payplan ? Stepchange ? 

Depending on circumstances and amount of debt there may be other options like a DMP ( debt management plan )  

The reason we went for IVA at the time was we wanted to protect our house and after a few years we then remortgaged and used equity to pay off the IVA early

RAS

There are circumstance when an IVA is a good idea, but they are mis-sold regularly because the fees are high and sale-folk can get a large introducer's fee. 

Do you own (mortgage) your own house? Or have any other expensive assets to protect?

Do you understand that this is goes on the Insolvency Register?

If not, there are other solutions that would be better.

However, you also need to understand that if you use any of the debt management solutions, you will probably be required to agree not to take out any further credit. That's the price of getting the creditors to call off enforcement action and stop adding interest.

It is also why we recommend that you build up an emergency fund between deciding to take action and actually actioning the solution.

You need to talk to one of the debt charities not a salesperson. Details below nicked from sourcrate's sig

For free debt advice, contact either : Stepchange, National Debtline, CitizensAdviceBureaux.

Mandyboo75

Thank you RAS, I rent my property and no other assets or savings. I have started to contact the companies I owe to see of that can help with payment plan. I really don't want and IVA of I can sort this myself. Thanks for the advice.

sourcrates

Which "finance company" did you take advice from ?

Was it one that sold IVA`s by any chance ?

Debt advice should only come from a debt charity, or an online forum that knows its stuff, like here for example.

You most likely googled "IVA" and up popped a whole bunch of IVA providers, who of course would recommend the same product they are selling.

How much debt do you have ? let me just explain, a little about IVA`s, they are designed for people who have massive debts, but also an asset such as a house that they need to protect, so as they can`t go bankrupt, that is where an IVA sits in the scale of things, they have there target market, but its a very small market.

Unfortunatly any tom, !!!!!! or harry, can set up as an insolvency practitioner, and there are hundreds of companies out there selling these arrangements, because the fee`s charged on them are quite lucrative, and many of them are mis-sold for that reason.

Post an SOA on here, and we can help you find a solution that does not involve insolvency.