i am plucking up courage..mainly through encouragement from folks on forum....thanks..... Believe it or not your IP is there to support you as well as your creditors. Remember they want there fees payed first! As this usually occurs within the first two years of your IVA it's in their interest. You...

It is often possible to have an allowance for smoking in an IVA, but for your own health and financial benefit I would try and see if you could cut down the expenditure on that particular area. I doubt most IPs would be sympathetic to make allowance for smoking. I'm sur ethe majority will not. Scho...

Do you actually get an allowance for contingency or do you jsut have to save some yourself? Your IP generaly allows a small disposable income, of anything between £180.00 to £230.00 a month. This should be for the odd night out general living expense that sort of thing. Without it I'm sure most IVA...

If your having difficulty with paying an unforseen bill, then contact your IP. Within reason they should allow you to push a payment forward a month. Savings are a bit tricky. If you happen to come across money during the IVA, then you must make your own judgement as to whether you should declare it...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/10/bcnhouse410.xml Their warning came as Barratt Developments confirmed it was cutting more than a thousand workers – the fifth house builder this week to announce major job losses as a result of the dramatic slump in demand for new hous...

My husband is in the contruction trade too (steel fixer), and I am keeping everything crossed that he won;t be laid off (he too is self employed). We cannot get rid of our car, he needs it to get to work - and getting rid of mine would make no difference to me...I work from home so don't need to dr...

Well I've been doom saying for over a year on this forum. First Plus have shed 3/4 of it's work force, and will be taking no new business from August, retaining an operation to maintain it's current customers under their aquisition by Barclays. Nearly 10,000 people in the building trade have lost th...

I think most people in IVAs are on interest only. I had a repayment mortgage once...i paid £1,000 a month for the first 36 months (over £36,000) and my mortgage went down by £3,000 !!! Repayment mortgages are designed so that the first few years you are literally just paying off interest and not ca...

I absolutely agree jpj - we should not kneejerk, as there is still an enormous amount of wealth in the domestic property market in this country. Try telling that to Barrat homes they've lost more than 40% of their share value last week and are now negotiating with the bank prior to further expected...

Tiny, I wouldn't feel jealous of most of your friends and neighbours. The chances are their already running up huge debts of their own or soon will be. I've been in my IVA with my wife for nearly a year, and things have really improved. I still have enough left at each month to save for birthdays an...

Just think, if it wasn't for people such as us on the forum, the banks would be broke. Whats the old saying, a bank will lend you an umbrella in the summer, then ask for it back when it rains? He's been a loyal customer with them for most of his life, and this is how they repay him. Understandably ...

Unbelievable, Unbelievable!. I've just got off the phone from my father, who's 68. He's been with the Halifax for most of his life. He's had a mortgage with them for 25 years, and had a platinum credit card, which he's used occasionally, to benefit from various points and awards given away with the ...

ok I'm going to play devils advocate here. Habit is very difficult to break. Don't take this as a criticisim, but many of us, who become laden with debt, become obsessed by it, it dominates our lives. The problem over the mid and long term, is knowing how to deal with this, and how to completely cha...

I'm sure like many people, many of whom have never even heard of an IVA, I was living in denial for more than five years, relying on easy credit believing that life was good. I feel no shame at all for my circumstances, In fact I feel very proud to have taken steps to gain back some power and indepe...

"So to some extent I'd welcome tight regulation, regular review and ensure there is a solid complaints procedure" John - do you actually realise quite how tightly insolvency practitioners are regulated, how often we are reviewed and how robust the complaints procedure to our regulatory bodies actua...