Creditfix IVA - in DESPERATE need of help!!

Anonhelp996

Hi All,

I hope everyone is well This is a bit of a long post so sorry, but I would really be so grateful of your advice on here. 

I am looking for help with an IVA that took out almost 6 years ago now, back in April of 2019. 

To give you all some back-story, I had around 9.5k debts back in 2019, I was 20 years old. I have no assets, no savings and I do not own any properties.  Looking back, I understand that this is an insanely low amount of money to take out an IVA.

I was helping my mom take care of my grandparents back in 2019 as they were very elderly, I lived with them as I was growing up and they took care of me and by my brother, so we were very close. During that time, I ended up racking up the debt above as I wasn't able to work properly and I was concerned about my mom, so I carried on and didn't say anything.

I soon realised that I was having to pay out anything that i was earning to pay off the debts and had virtually nothing to live on. Fast forward a little, I saw an ad for Creditfix and thought they might be able to help me. My nan and grandad had both passed at this time and I was moving to London for a new job, so just wanted to put the last few years behind me and move on, but I also genuinely wanted to take responsibility for my debt as regardless of why the debt had racked up, it was still mine.

I spoke with Creditfix and they explained that an IVA would be best for me. I also spoke with them about a payment plan option that would have meant I still had to make monthly payments, but I wouldn't have been classed as insolvent. The lady told me that although I might be ablet to  do that, my debtors could still take me to court and recover the full amount at any time and I would have no protection essentially, even though i would have been paying into the plan, which scared me and I ended up going with the IVA. 

*Just to say, I understand that I should have done more research and I regret not doing so every single day. I was genuinely heartbroken and confused over my nan and grandad, and I really had no one to ask for advice as I didn't wany my poor mom being even more distressed. 

At first I was paying about £85 per month, this then rose to £170 not long after as I had received a pay rise from work. This was OK at first, but things soon started to get harder in terms of living expenses in London, but I ploughed on and paid for as long as I could without complaint. 

Last year, things got really hard for me in terms of money. My rent has gone up by over £300 per month in the last 2 years since moving alone, bills are outrageous and the price of basic food items are now insane. I emailed Creditfix last year and asked them to reduce my payments down due to the cost of living. They asked me to send in documents which I did.

- I sent my statements in October
- CF emailed to say they couldnt find them in Decemeber
- I emailed them over again, no response and the same thing, apparently I never attached any documents. Obviously I have emailed evidence to show that this isn't the case. 

I asked them how long it was going to take for them to look at reducing down my payments as I was struggling a lot, and they just kept telling me to submit the documents that I had already submitted. Anyway, I finally cracked and ended up making a huge complaint. It turns out that they had my documents all this time and could have reduced the payments when I asked for it - I have this all over email. They then told me that in order to help me, they'd need me to resubmit everything again. I said no and that I thought that was an outrageous request given the circumstances, and that I  wouldn't be submitting anymore documents to them.

I asked them again for help during these conversations, as I was having to move from the property I was living in. I was renting a room and the landlord was increasing the rent to £1200 PCM which i literally couldn't afford on an ongoing basis, especially for a double room in a house shared with 6 other people. I needed to raise around £3k to move out, I asked if CF could put my payments on hold or give me a payment break, just for a couple of months to help me raise the funds, they said no. 

My payments are due to stop in March and and I owe £1000 according to CF. I also questioned why I was having to pay them the full £9.6k when i only have £8.4k of admitted debt. To this date, no one has been able to explain that to me. My supervisor said in her complaint response that they 'still anticipate that they creditors will submit a POD for these debts'  I thought that they only had 6 months to claim the debt once CF are notified? I understand that you can end up paying more than originally owed as part of an IVA if your circumstances change drastically, but mine haven't and i cannot afford to pay them anymore that what is required of me.

Im really really struggling mentally at the moment and I don't know what to do. I feel i'm paying CF way more money than I ever should have, I'm not allowed to make any extra money as I have to give the majority of it to CF, they wont reduce down my payments even though they'll be able to see from bank statements I sent that they payments aren't affordable based on what I'm earning, i'm almost 27 and have no savings or assets to my name and i just feel so low and sad. I would never have taken this out if i'd have known what was promised for me over the next 6 years. 

Is there any action I can take here against CF? 

Please help me...:) 

Fal x 

Grumpelstiltskin

You do realize you have to pay Creditfix's fees on top of your debt repayment?

You know now it was the totally wrong way to go with the IVA but you should have done more research at the time rather than jumping in to the IVA.

Many IVA's are basically mis sold but as I said the onus is on you to check thoroughly what you are signing up to

JadedAngel88

Sadly, that's the thing with IVA's, for the past 5 or 6 years you've probably just been paying towards credit fix's fee and not touched any of the debt yet.

I have no experience of IVA's, hopefully @sourcrates or @fatbelly will be able to point you on to the correct path.

I wouldn't stress too much about it, what's done is done, you are still young enough for this just to be a small blip in your history. On to better and brighter things.

Anonhelp996

Grumpelstiltskin said:

You do realize you have to pay Creditfix's fees on top of your debt repayment?

You know now it was the totally wrong way to go with the IVA but you should have done more research at the time rather than jumping in to the IVA.

Many IVA's are basically mis sold but as I said the onus is on you to check thoroughly what you are signing up to

I understand how it works now in terms of the fee's yes, and I understand that I should have done more research but I was 20 years old at the time. I still dont think its right for them to have lost my documents and be refusing to help me when theres clear evidence I cant afford the payments...

Anonhelp996

JadedAngel88 said:

Sadly, that's the thing with IVA's, for the past 5 or 6 years you've probably just been paying towards credit fix's fee and not touched any of the debt yet.

I have no experience of IVA's, hopefully @sourcrates or @fatbelly will be able to point you on to the correct path.

I wouldn't stress too much about it, what's done is done, you are still young enough for this just to be a small blip in your history. On to better and brighter things.

Yeah I get that, its more the fact that i've esentially begged them to lower my payments given my circumstances and they just wont. Even if they lower them, they'll still be collecting more than my admitted debts.

Grumpelstiltskin

You could have at any point just stopped paying them and let the IVA fail.

Anonhelp996

Grumpelstiltskin said:

You could have at any point just stopped paying them and let the IVA fail.

OK...Yeah i'm not really sure how that would have helped me if I'm honest nor is that something that I ever wanted to do. All I want is to be in a reasonable situation, where Creditfix dont lose my documents and where they have, at least an apology and a look into the documents that they had the entire time, and then reduce my payments accordingly. 

Maybe I just need to make a formal complaint about the entire the process and see where that gets me. If I lost a customers bank statements at work i'd probably be called in for a disciplinary. 

sourcrates

An IVA is a form of insolvency, and is therefore governed by the insolvency act 1986, they can only reduce your payments by a maximum of 15%, any more than that requires a creditors meeting to approve.

You are allowed to budget correctly in an IVA, but the emphasis is on giving the creditors the maximum return possible, sometimes at your expense.

These companies by their very nature can be the devil to deal with, and essentially they may be incompetent, but technically have done very little wrong, however if you want to complain, you are free to do so.

As your income increases, so do your payments, and you can end up paying more than the original debt when you factor in the fee`s and other costs associated with IVA`s.

By March this will all be just a bad memory, look on it as a learning curve, never get into debt again, and never sign up to anything you don`t fully understand.

RAS

And meantime, at least ask for a 15% reduction in payments, as that is allowed?

And look at anything you can do to tide you over the next few months? Don't expect Credit fix to be quick with your completion certificate, but do get them to confirm the last payment and clue up on credit clean-ups.

sourcrates

The thing with payment reductions is that the payments you miss, just don`t go away, you are still 100% liable for that money, and they have to be made up at the end of your arrangement, so reducing your monthly payments can be a double edged sword.

It may help you short term, but that money is still owed to the arrangement, it does not just go away, it is still required to be paid and has to be made up after your IVA was due to end, thus extending it for an even longer period.

This is one reason why IVA`s are extended sometimes to 7/8 years or more in some cases, because any reduced payments have to be accounted for and made up in order to obtain your completion certificate, this is one area of an IVA where people just don`t understand or where unaware of their obligations, and it also explains why IP`s are reluctant to agree to payment reductions.