IVA Paid to Date

dimbers

Evening all,

I took out an IVA 2 years ago, I now don't believe it was the right solution for me as il explain below.

I have no assets, rented house, company car and debts of around 17k total. 

I now believe that a DRO would have been more suitable but we are where we are. 

I was recently sent a letter from a company named Harrison Jones and Taylor staying that they have financially beneficial information for me so I gave them a call. I was advised that there is now Government advice to IVA companies due to the cost of living crisis that allows you to apply for a paid to date solution. This would close my IVA and I'd be debt free, sounds perfect.

It was explained that if my payments were under £75 per month and that my total debt was less than 30k it would be appropriate to apply. My payments are currently above £75 but they also said that my payments should be halved which would bring them below the £75.

They offer this service at a cost of £450, split down to 6 monthly payments. 

I do struggle to keep up with my current IVA payments but would rather stick at it and for the full term of 5 years, than mess up my finances further by taking advice from this company that isn't correct. I'm also concerned that this may be some type of scam as I can't find much about this company online. They sent out an information pack via email and the company name on this is McKenzie Jones Associates LTD. 

I suppose I'm asking if anyone has any experience with paid to date? Is it too good to be true? 

Any input would be great, I'd love to clear my debts and start building my credit, but don't want to risk my IVA being terminated/extended through bad advice or worse still being scammed 

Thanks for reading

Mark

flipflopflo

I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. Why don’t you fail the IVA and then go to StepChange and apply for a DRO?

kimwp

Interesting that the criteria are the same as for a DRO....

gizmo111

Also this one has been warned about Debt elimination scam — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Grumpelstiltskin

Oh dear another lot of shysters are coming out of the woodwork, as others have said don't touch them with a 100 foot long barge pole.

Yes an IVA was totally the wrong thing to do in the first place, pity you didn't do much more research before you started it, but you are where you are now.

Getting out of it is messy and long winded but just stop paying it now and let it fail.

fatbelly

It's not really messy for the debtor. You just stop paying.

The IP has to do all the paperwork and eventually (6-12 months) the IVA will be terminated. During that period you are still protected from enforcement.

Once it's terminated you can apply for a DRO.

https://debtcamel.co.uk/end-iva-change-to-dro/

I can confirm the fee is still £90

sourcrates

On the flip side of this, you don`t need any 3rd party help, or to pay a fee to end your IVA early.

You simply write to your IP and ask if they will accept those terms, or not.

It`s free to do this, well, for the cost of a stamp, you put the proposal to your IP, they consult your creditors, if your story is convincing enough, they may just agree to take the hit and run.

I did the very same thing with my IVA when my circumstances changed, I was in year 5 though, but my creditors accepted, as you are just in year 2, it may not be so easy.

selectspecs

If you are unable to make payments, you can ask your IVA company directly to try a paid to date. you don't need to pay someone else £450 to do that for you.  In fact paying a third party 450 isn't going to help your case. Did they tell you where they got your info from? seems like a fishing expedition

alternatively even if you did try a paid to date and they said no, and you think you can pursue a DRO you can just ask your IVA company to terminate and and go for a DRO for like what, £90?

You don't need to pay someone else £450 for something you can do yourself with an email. 

dimbers

I just wanted to post a quick update on this 

I sent an email to my IVA company in November last year. Explained my situation in detail, why I'm unable to pay and included links to the government guidance on completing an IVA on funds paid to date. I also informed them that no payments would be made while they arranged a creditors meeting to put forward my case.

It took many emails with me chasing them to go ahead, I also had threatening letters and phone calls each month when my regular payment was declined. 

I was told that there was no such thing as a funds paid to date and that if there was everybody would be using it to get out of their IVA. 

Anyway, they finally agreed to arrange a variation meeting with my creditors, this was held yesterday. I called today to find that they have accepted the variation and that my account will be closed as successfully completed. 

All in all it took around 7 months from first contacting them, I made 2 years of payments in total so feel very happy with the outcome