How long can I expect to remain blacklisted after completing IVA ?

[luluj]

Ryan comes highly recommended and has helped many of us gain mortgages with lenders that are on the high street, despite the IVA remaining on our file .....it is worth discussing your situation with a whole of the mortgage expert/broker. Ryan's details can be found on the "experts" page..

[nomoremoney]

About the point harpic, on how long criminal records are kept, now even with this the rehabitation of offenders act 1974 allow the slate to be wiped clean for certain offences as if the crime didnt take place and searches are for less than 7 years,it is clear why this must happen to reintergrate offenders...the records are never expunged I agree. Only with the police direct searches, as an employer,does this NOT apply. Now for an iva,no such protection from full disclosure. It is unfair. Many of us want to deal with high street lenders like 99% population.......

[Niobe]

At the moment, all records are still kept and when a CRB check is done then it will show up. They are classed as 'spent convictions' but they still show up on the computer.

[nomoremoney]

With spent conviction,you can.... not declare it,and will not be accused of lieing in most cases.Employers will not delve into them. But not with police if course,if they are employers as all convictions must be declared. It is better than full disclosure,but there is no ,spent iva,which is a shame and the main point here.Causing a potential ten year freeze on credit access from high street lenders especially now........newbies to iva need to know what they are getting into....an iva from the devil....is a fair descriptions,you gain and lose. Having credit is part of life,not been able to get it is a deficency.

[KAYKAY]

Outofpocket.... please don't be disheartened. I got my completion certificate 8 months ago and life is pretty much back to normal. My credit files are clean and the IVA is gone too. In the past 8 months, both my husband and I have taken out affordable car finance for newer cars, and we have a new three piece suite. I have 2 credit cards which I alternate each month and pay off every month. I have these to rebuild my credit rating. One is a vanquis card (high interest) and the other a Post Officer Platinum Card (normal high street card - Bank of Ireland). So you see life after an IVA does exist. I just made sure I never applied for finance from any of my former creditors.

[Broke of London]

That's the point KayKay... Your iva will still be on banks' records but they weighed up your application and gave you credit anyway or you were lucky and found lenders who didn't share records with any of your former creditors. Having the iva on file doesn't mean it's the deciding factor in lending decisions.

I certainly wouldn't say my iva is the devil...if anyone really thought that they'd fail it and go back to their former life hiding from the phone, lying awake worrying about bailiffs and deciding whether to pay their credit cards or put food on the table every month.

[Pete.dn]

Appreciate the trail guys, but please don't detract from the point. I am genuinely concerned about my financial future ... couldn't really care less about what happens to criminal records to be honest.

I've apparently got a 'good' credit score, as per Experian CreditExpert. 919 apparently. Is this worth the bit of paper it's printed on?

[Rob1171]

Before My IVA I was unable to get high street credit because of my credit record. (Missed and late payments)
Now that it is 6 years since my IVA was accepted all these late and missed payments are falling off my record.
Yes my creditors can keep their record on my accounts for another 6 years for tax purposes. But then data protection act means that that data needs to be correct, up to date and only used for the purpose it was gathered for. It may not be passed to any third party.
It took me time to get into the mess I was in and it will take Time to rebuild my credit history.
Your credit score with the CRAs is just a rough guide to how likely you are to be accepted for credit with their main user, But each creditor uses their own calculations to work out if you are a risk or not.

[TheMatrix]

Yes the argument can be that the data should be kept for a specific purpose such as tax records and not be used for other purposes like underwriting after closure of the IVA the balance should be zero.

Not sure they do that though, I think they still use the old and out of date data for underwriting purposes within the group but without SARing them I've no way of finding out.

[KAYKAY]

My IVA was a godsend.... it taught me such a valuable lesson. To wake up in a morning and not have that sick to the stomache feeling when the postman approaches is brilliant. I have my life back, I am not rich, but I am comfortable and don't need to worry about the postman approaching. I am approaching the big 50 and have booked into a luxury hotel for a few days with hubby.... could not have done that before...with credit cards maxed to the limit and taking cash out on one to pay the other.... A LIFE I NEVER WANT TO RETURN TO. I wish I had learnt about IVA's a lot sooner than I did. Or maybe I should have just taken my head out of the sand.

[Broke of London]

Hi Pete! We are all concerned about our future which is why threads generate a lot of debate. But I do think your question has been answered...you will have limited credit options until 6 years post iva at least but can use this time to rebuild your credit history with facilities designed for people with an impaired financial history e.g a Vanquis credit card. Gradually you will work your way back to mainstream creditors but you probably won't be able to access new borrowing from any of your iva creditors.