IVA worry

A question about : IVA worry

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone on here could help me with a possible problem. Basically back in January 2007 I entered an IVA agreement with DebtClear on a 60 month agreement.

Over a given ten years I had ran up Ј37k of credit card debts, 99% of this wasn't for anything other than simple living costs. I don't drink,smoke,go out to eat, go out to watch movies etc, I basically work each day, come home eat go to sleep, get up and go to work.

Outside of this I began to suffer health wise due to worry, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and at a youngish mid 30's ended up taking 9 tablets a day to stop me from having a heart attack or stoke.

Anyhow, my worry now is that like many others my job is under review due to the economical down turn in the retail industry. I have looked around and will continue to look around for a possible second job if my currant one falls through, but living in a small costal town it's not easy. Plus if I find something outside of where I live the travel costs will put me into minus figures with my IVA. If I was to lose my job what would happen with my IVA, and is there a possible way to avoid such a situation.

Thank you for any advice offered, and I can give more information if asked ok.

Best answers:

• Okay mine failed due to illhealth, I went into the IVA in August 2005, paid in for 16 months and then became too ill to work. The company I was with suspended it for 18 months hoping I would get better and get back to work full time In June of this year they realised that was not going to happen, it is unlikely to happen for over 2 years, so they failed it.
  Now I can say most companies if you miss 2/3 payments they fail it, I was lucky as if they had failed it when I was so ill not sure what would have done.
  I have now gone bankrupt in fact only last Wednesday, should have done this in 2005 but we live and we learn.
  Have you a home to lose, what are your financial circumstances? post up and SOA and lets see if people here can give you some advice in the meantime please phone the Nat debt line and your local CAB for professional advice.
  Sorry to hear of you problems, but please do not think you are alone as you are not.
  RL
• Hi,
  Thanks for the quick reply, I don't have a home to lose as I rent, that also brings me to another point. My rent review is in Decemeber, which basically means it will go up, and even if it's by Ј50 a month it just makes things hard.
  As for my financial circumstances, well my I think this is right:
  Incomings:
  Basic Wage: Ј1050.00 per month
  Average year to date with overtime Ј12,810.00
  Outgoings:
  Rent Ј550.00 per month
  Council Tax Ј120.00 per month
  Electric Ј30.00 per month
  Gas Ј10.00 per month
  Water Ј20.00 per month
  Home phone Ј30.00 per month
  TV License Ј12.00 per month
  Car Insurance Ј27.00 per month
  Fuel Cost Ј20.00 per month
  NHS prescription payment Ј10.00 per month
  IVA payments Ј266.00 per month
  My g/f pays 20% of the rent, and shares some of the living costs, but she only does 16 hours a week due to lack of work in the area.
  When I applied for my IVA the numbers were slightly different and after the first year when I did my review I expected a reduction, but nothing happend.
• As you don't have assets to protect, then an IVA is not suitable for you. So the majority of your money has been paying DebtClear and not your actual debts.
  What are the terms and conditions of DebtClear? Can you get out of it and go on a dmp instead where your creditors will receive ALL your money and not just a proportion? CCCS, CAB and National Debtline can help with this for free.
  Ok, your debts might take longer to clear on a dmp but with some sensible cut backs you can do it. I was told an IVA would be good for me as it would take me 9 years to clear my debts on a dmp but in 10 months have managed to reduce that term to just under 6 years and my debts were larger than yours and I;m a single person!
• On £37k of debt is it all in your name?
  I would seriously look at BR unless it is gonna afect your job, you have no assets so the IVA was not the best move, which mine was not either and now I am BR instead, and can say the relief is major.
• I will have a read through the T&C, as it was sometime ago I agreed to them. I know they made me sign something to do with the fact I cannot become bankrupt...
• Hi PaulinhoT,
  As well as following the good advice so far, first and foremost keep in touch with your IP about all of your circumstances, don't be fobbed off. There is a very good specific IVA forum out there where IPs as well as people like me and you (just completed IVA this year) also give extremely good advice, and can often make use of contacts within the industry to get things moving when IVA customers hit problems. PM me if you would like the link to it.
  Above all try not to worry too much, there is always a solution.
• Thank you.
• Moneysaving plumber I know you have completed your IVA but remember not ALL people will ever be able to any MY advice would be PHONE the national debt line and speak to them, do not simply take advice on some IVA site please.
  Yes there is always a solution I hope you are not on some mission or worse have some other agenda to say IVAs are wonderful as for people like me they were not something I should even have considered as has been proved by having to go BR.
  I will once again say that only THREE per cent of people are right for IVAs as per Martins post whose this site sits in the name of, and he is one man I totally have faith in, as he is not out to make a cent out of me, the only thing he has done for me is give me peace of mind and this site helped me to see where I can save a few bob here and there, and in todays climate that is good to learn about.
  RL
• I'd be interested to know what you think that mission might be :rolleyes: . I've already discussed with you that yes in my circumstances an IVA was very good. The advice sought by the OP was regardng an IVA that somebody is two years into, which I have some experience of, so I reserve the right to offer my opinion thank you very much. Please give the OP some credit for the intelligence to take opinions for what they are, opinions, and make a decision for themselves without driving our already stated advice home by reposting it in caps attempting to discredit another post, no matter how strongly we may disagree.
  The offer to provide a link, privately, to the IVA forum I mentioned is pertinent as the OP is already in an IVA, and in my opinion once in it, it is ultimately going to be a more positive outcome if it can be completed, for all concerned, but especially the OP having invested 2 years of payments into it. I know you feel a massive sense of relief now you are out of it and BR, but it is clear from your circumstances that you would not have completed it. Whether you or the OP were mis-sold it in the first place is a different issue, but once n it, especially by two years, then it's my opinion that it would be better to try and complete it if possible, and the forum I referred to may be able to assist someone already in an IVA to stay in it and successfully complete it, if that's what they want to do (if they don't want to do that then you've already pointed out the alternative). If I had an agenda as you implied I'd have been posting it all over the forum and have been banned by now probably. All I'm doing is offering an opinion to try and help from my own limited experience, just as you are.
• HELLO I was in an IVA for 3.5 years or have you mis understood that fact completely.
  Most IVAs fail in year two and three maybe you are unaware of that fact, and then leave people back to square one.. ie callers, letters and all the debt back at their door, for some this is too hard to deal with and hence we have suicides, not nice to read.
  I offer my help on here as to what an IVA is.. is it for you, here is what happened to me, sadly AND many others, and more to come as well, as the credit crunch hits and the IVA payments cannot be met, as that is the bottom line can you met them 2/3 years on, let alone in year 4 and 5.
  With BR even if I have and IPA I lose my job next week, my BR will not fail but the IPA will no longer be wanted there are very very strong differences. I lose my job in an IVA it fails as simple as that.
  If you do not agree fine, I know I have been there, and know at least if I fall down so ill like I did in 2007 no one is going to say FAILED, they are not going to say anything as I am now BR, they cannot come after me anymore.
  Maybe I am not making the case well enough put that down to the illness that sometimes has my tongue tied in what to actually put here.
  No property, no job loss, no implications to self employed,then DO NOT take an IVA would be my advice every single time, but would look at every case on its own merit, more that PP and many other IVA companies do.. they are simply NOT impartial, I found out to my demise of Ј5k paid into it and I take Martins advice here very very seriously, had I been here 2005, by now I would be an DISCHARGED bankrupt not one who took some plan by Pay Plan to make them 4 grand, sriously as I told the judge last week was not my intention, he laughed nodded and I knew he agreed.
  Other peoples misery is making mega bucks for IVA companies, never ever treat me as daft as that is one thing I am not. I just took a few years to learn
• Yes of course I understood you were in an IVA for that amount of time, and I don't recall implying that you were daft. I appreciate how passionate you are due to your awful experience, and the figures you quote, and I've actually agreed consistently with you that IVAs are sold to people that they are not suitable for, and I also agree with a great deal of what you have said on your last post.
  What I've taken exception to on this and in our previous discussion was the implication that the information I gave you on my own IVA was incorrect, based on the fact that no-one you knew of had the same experience. Well I can guarantee that was fact and am quite willing to prove it, it's a matter of public record after all, as we all are on this board no doubt . Also the implication that I will in someway gain from touting that 'IVAs are wonderful' was also unnecessary. For me it was simply the right option. Of course it was a gamble, and I was fully aware of that at the time (and was made aware of it, I wasn't sold it as a cure-all quick fix as alot of people seem to be, the supervisor was gravely serious about the implications of missing the payments), but the life of a self-employed person (which I no longer am) is a constant gamble, as a self-employed person there is simply no guarantee there will be money to pay the rent next month let alone in 1, 2, 3, years time, but several self-employed people I know have completed IVAs successfully, but that's my experience, which is valid as is yours. I won't bore the readers of this thread with my own details as to why it was suitable but I've outlined it briefly to you previously.
  As far as I'm concerned, the OP on this thread is already in the IVA and whilst endorsing everything already said I suggested they stay in touch with the supervisor of the arrangement and may wish to seek advice from others in the same boat and IPs on another forum. If the OP chooses that the better course of action is to fail it right now (even though still currently employed and servicing the payments) and go BR that is entirely up to them, but my own opinion is that whilst still employed, albeit precariously, it would be better long-term for the OP for it not to fail.
  Clearly that may be a point we have to agree to disagree on .
  I understand your point that seems to be 'well it's likely to fail anyway with the recession etc so get it over with and save yourself some pain and money', but that's a decision the OP will have to make for themselves based on the advice received, but please don't think you haven't made your case well because you absolutely have!