Creditors hassling and IVA up in the air

[lem]

We have had 6 calls from Egg today, the first creditor to start hassling us and they are insistent they will not stop calling until we give them our 'county cort number/interim order number/reference number' ???, hubby only spoke to them yesterday, gave them Tina's number etc but today they say nothing is on their system.

Can anyone tell me what these numbers are that they want????

We have called Tina (Mel's team) and have left her a message. Tina had said last week that one of the administrators would call us this week to arrange a telephone meeting with melanie but we have heard nothing? I'm getting worried now as to what's happening as it all seems to have gone quiet and now we have creditors starting on us i feel alone.

I know these things can't be rushed but I'm just a bit in the dark as to what's happening now and what should be happening/timescales etc??? I'm worried that our creditors are going to start taking court action against us and the IVA isn't going to be proposed in time to stop this action, please reassure me!!!!

[Shining]

Hi lem, I'm with Melanie and her team and had a similar problem with some of our creditors wanting a reference number, Melanie treats all her clients by name and we don't have reference numbers. I used to recite Melanies name and address to them. x

[gzzb]

Lem

First thing - Relax.

The number that i think they are talking about is the reference number from the court of your iva. If its not got there yet you wont have one.

The calls will stop quite quickly after your proposal is dealt with.

I know what its like, as does everyone else that is reading your post and posting on here. It feels awful, that you are out of control.

Egg, as will all your other creditors will take a commercial view over your debts, they don't really have much choice if you cant pay them back.

Bear in mind if you cant afford to pay them back as it stands, why would they pour money into court proceedings and then petitioning for bankruptcy where they will get next to nothing if anything at all.

You are putting forward an offer that probably gets them two to three times the amount of money that they would get if you went / they made you bankrupt, what deal would you take if it was you that was owed the money ?

Good luck

[Adam Davies]

Hi
Have you a reference number from Mel at all ? if so use this. Once a creditor has a reference number they will often update their files and give you space
Regards

[Shining]

I've never had a reference number from Mel, unless things have changed Mel and her team just know who you are when you ring, a very personal service. x

[nepensioner]

Hi Lem
I used Mel's magnificent team too, and as has already been said, they do not give numbers as know you by name, however it was suggested to me that if creditors insisted on a number just to make one up, this satisfied them and got them off my back for a while

[lem]

lol at nepnensioner! quite like that idea of making up a ref number! trouble is whenever I ring lately, I can't get to speak to anyone, leave a message and no one gets back to me so I am feeling a bit left out on a limb, they must obviously be snowed under at the moment. I could just do with an update really on how things are going as I'm worrying that I've been forgotten!

[Shining]

You won't have been forgotten lem, I'm sure, they'll be working behind the scenes to perfect things for you. Melanie may be on later to reassure you x

[lem]

Thanks Lesley. I am so sure you are right and have to remind myself there are many people out there like us at the moment needing help and assistance from Mel's team and bless them they seem to work 24 hours a day 7 days a week for us they are so committed to helping us. I think with it just being very quiet this week on the IVA front and as we are still very much at the beginning of the process and now we are starting to get hassled I'm just worried our creditors are going to start taking action against us for not paying anything.

[antm]

I wouldn't worry too much about your creditors, they will try allsorts to get you to pay, normally when you have nothing to give, just need to stand your ground and let mels team do there job, they have a big reputation and im sure will deal with your IVA professionally, sometimes these things do take time.

When i and others on here have said when a creditor calls and asks for security questions just answer a few wrong, they can't discuss things then, lol or just be firm and polite and answer the same every time.

[andrea1968]

when they used to ring-say my name and ask me to confirm my details back to them i would just say no-at the end of the day they may say they are so and so company but we never really know whose on the other end of the phone-put it in writing was all they got from me and all letters they sent were answered.

[St75]

Hi lem

once you start the ball rolling there seems to be a bit of a lull for a few weeks as the team are doing the work behind the scenes. It seems like ages when you can think of nothing else all day, but it will only be a few weeks in reality.

And a few weeks isn't long enough for your creditors to take you to court, as they must first serve a default notice and allow time to remedy breaches (i.e. pay arrears) and most creditors don't send default notices until you have missed a set number of monthly payments (usually at least three). And, it won't take three months to get your proposal drafted so long as you forward all requested info. promptly.

So, please try and relax, and not worry. You are tackling your debt head on, so feel proud that you are brave enough to do this, instead of burying your head in the sand.

And, please keep using the forum for advice as it often provides a lot of people with peace of mind.

[leaKybrain]

Hi Lem i too am with Melanie and actually have my creditors meeting next week. So far from the day i picked up the phone to next week it will have been exactly 3 months. In all that time i haven't paid one creditors, so thats three payments missed for them all. so far all I've had from them is letter after letter chasing the missed payments, I've had very few phone calls and assume that as they all say Not Avail on caller ID that these are HSBC from foreign call centre. We don't answer any of the calls.

It will take a while before before it gets to a really serious stage with missed payments. Its only now that i am getting letters saying that they are 'about' to put a default on the file.

The process is quite involved, but this is roughly what we went through

Call to Tina one day, second call the next with SOF, decision within a few days as to viablity.
Following week call from Case Admin Tamsyn, we talked about paperwork we needed to get together and this took about a month as we had to get house valued and statements in.
Once she had put together the file it went to the Proposal Team and they then put it all together for proposal and then we had phone meeting, this took another three weeks. Just less than a week from talking to Tom to talking to Melanie.
Proposal sent next day, we checked same day received and returned. Meeting called which is from 16 days of receipt of signed proposal
Which is next weeek.

This is a really rough guide to how long it took but from what I've heard this is quite a good turn around, my sisters took 6 months.

They are really really busy at the moment and I say this simply because I know that they have at least two other creditor meetings the same day as mine....and thats just us few.

Please don't worry to much, the best thing is to ignore the phone, programme Tina/Mel numbers in to your phone soyou know its them ringing and take it one day at a time.

In all the calls we had and never answered, I was caught out last week with Studio rang (first time in three months) I hadn't realised it wasn't a local number. They asked to speak to me, of course I said yes, they said of 'address' and I said yes, they then told me they from Studio and could I confirm my DOB, I said no. She then got a bit shirty saying she needed to confirm my DOB before talkign and I said 'I'm not confirming, I don't know you are who you say you are, Goodbye' and put the phone down.

[nepensioner]

Hi Lem
If you have opened your new bank account, set up your DD's and arranged for you pay to go to the new account and sent in all your docs now is the time to chill!!! Personally I found this the worst time but had to agree that there was nothing else for me to do but trust the professionals, and learn to be patient.
They are just phone calls and cannot harm you. As has been said it is unlikely any court action will be taken when they realise you are applying for an IVA. It does take time for your IP to collect info from creditors so just take the chill pill and you'll be fine[:D]

[kallis3]

Lem,

Don't let the bullies get to you because that's all they are and you are strong enough to stand up to them.

Things are moving now and I'm sure Mel will be on later to reassure you.

Your creditors won't have time to start any sort of action against you.