www.iva.co.uk

This time last year, my Husband and I found ourselves in a financial situation that was no fault of our own.
We were advised an I.V.A. was the best way forward, what a load of rubbish. It is the biggest scam going, for so called "Debt Specialists" to make a load of money out of desperate people. We have been in an I.V.A. for 9 months now and this last year has been one of the worst years of our lives. If you are in a situation where you have the potential to possibly better your financial situation then an I.V.A. will definately not be the way to go. Believe me, you get advised on all the so called good points about an I.V.A. but you won't be told about the bad points if you are fortunate enough to better your circumstances. All along I had told the IP that there was a possiblity in the future for me to earn more money and at no point did they tell me that once the agreement was signed then every extra penny goes to the I.V.A.
Today we have had a meeting with Barry Pitt from Jefferson Hobbs who has just taken a hugh weight of our shoulders.Please anyone considering an I.V.A. look into a Debt Management Plan first. We are in the fortunate situation that we have made contact with Jefferson Hobbs who have helped us out of a bad, ill-advised situation and we now no longer have this huge grey cloud hanging over our future for the next 5 years.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I think that most of our posters will disagree there, myself included.

A DMP was going to take way too long to pay off, whereas I am happy to pay across as much as I can to be debt free in a set length of time. I took out the money, I expected to be able to pay it back but circumstances meant that I couldn't. I shall pay back what I can.

A reputable IP will explain everything to you, and it will all be noted in your proposal.

I completely disagree. An IVA is an excellent solution for many people, and while it isn't suitable for everyone, neither is a DMP, which is why it's important to research all options thoroughly.

Be wary of Jefferson Hobbs - they trawl the insolvency register and offer 'advice', despite knowing nothing of your case. There are quite a few posts on here about them in the past.

Totally agree!

Most of us on here will be happy with our IVA. Any company that professes to know you circumstances before your speak to them, is to be ignored.

I'll agree an IVA isn't for everyone but neither is bankruptcy or a DMP. I didn't enter my IVA without knowing everything that about it and my IP explained everything about uplift payments etc., It took me a long time to make the decision to enter an IVA as I know I didn't get into debt overnight and knew I couldn't solve my problems overnight either so it wasn't until I was 100% certain did I make that final commitent. It's not an easy option and neither is bankruptcy but I know 100% it's the right commitment for myself.

Totally agree Lesley. It is all about what is right for us at the time.

Any company worth their salt will advise you of everything.

I totally disagree with the original poster. As is said so often on this forum the starting point is getting advice from 2/3 IP's and good ones will explain all options based on individual circumstances, the decision is then yours. Personally I think it is important to choose an IP who speaks your language and understands what is important to you, after all you would not think about spending all that money over five years on anything else without researching it.

Too right!

I think most of us agree with you.

Relieved wrote:

This time last year, my Husband and I found ourselves in a financial situation that was no fault of our own.
We were advised an I.V.A. was the best way forward, what a load of rubbish. It is the biggest scam going, for so called "Debt Specialists" to make a load of money out of desperate people. We have been in an I.V.A. for 9 months now and this last year has been one of the worst years of our lives. If you are in a situation where you have the potential to possibly better your financial situation then an I.V.A. will definately not be the way to go. Believe me, you get advised on all the so called good points about an I.V.A. but you won't be told about the bad points if you are fortunate enough to better your circumstances. All along I had told the IP that there was a possiblity in the future for me to earn more money and at no point did they tell me that once the agreement was signed then every extra penny goes to the I.V.A.
Today we have had a meeting with Barry Pitt from Jefferson Hobbs who has just taken a hugh weight of our shoulders.Please anyone considering an I.V.A. look into a Debt Management Plan first. We are in the fortunate situation that we have made contact with Jefferson Hobbs who have helped us out of a bad, ill-advised situation and we now no longer have this huge grey cloud hanging over our future for the next 5 years.

And just what are these kind folks at Jefferson Hobbs charging you for their services?

You have founnd that an IVA which you agreed upon to start with wasnt what was required after a change in financial circumstances so you can hardly come onto a support forum lambasting the system which you thought was great when you signed up to it!!!

You will struggle to find many people on this forum that think its great that a company profits from trawling the insolvency register and cold calling people telling them the IVA was a mistake!

Best advice is to make sure the IVA is right for you by contacting more than 1 source of help. A dmp or even bankruptcy may be the right thing to do.

Paul

and from us, we are only just setting on the road to an IVA and we feel completely one hundred perent that this is the way for us to go. Never at any time do we feel that we have not been given all the informatoin we need.

I think perhaps the first poster is maybe an employee of this charlatain company and looking to make others think they are great. Not something we are interested in.

We were in a DMP before we went in to an IVA. While in the DMP our debt went up and up because our crediters wouldnt freeze the intereast or charges AND it would have taken us a life time to pay back. I cant remember if we had reviews but I cant believe that we would have been able to earn loads without having to tell our DMP adviser.

I am very glad that I read this, I have a debt management plan and was about to embark on an IVA. Thank you

Relieved wrote:

This time last year, my Husband and I found ourselves in a financial situation that was no fault of our own.
We were advised an I.V.A. was the best way forward, what a load of rubbish. It is the biggest scam going, for so called "Debt Specialists" to make a load of money out of desperate people. We have been in an I.V.A. for 9 months now and this last year has been one of the worst years of our lives. If you are in a situation where you have the potential to possibly better your financial situation then an I.V.A. will definately not be the way to go. Believe me, you get advised on all the so called good points about an I.V.A. but you won't be told about the bad points if you are fortunate enough to better your circumstances. All along I had told the IP that there was a possiblity in the future for me to earn more money and at no point did they tell me that once the agreement was signed then every extra penny goes to the I.V.A.
Today we have had a meeting with Barry Pitt from Jefferson Hobbs who has just taken a hugh weight of our shoulders.Please anyone considering an I.V.A. look into a Debt Management Plan first. We are in the fortunate situation that we have made contact with Jefferson Hobbs who have helped us out of a bad, ill-advised situation and we now no longer have this huge grey cloud hanging over our future for the next 5 years.

Don't discount an IVA just because of this post, it's definitely worth consideration as it's much more secure than an DMP.

A colleague of mine is entering into a DMP that she will be paying for 10 years, and yet she said she didn't want an IVA due to credit rating being affected, However, last week she was refused a consolidation loan due to her credit rating. I explained that while she would have bad credit now for 10 years, she could have paid an IVA and rebuilt her credit rating in probabky less than 10 years. We compared DMPs and IVAs, and her allowances are a lot less that mine, and she has 2 older children living with her, whereas ours is just for 2 of us.

I did tell her this, but she seemed adamant that a DMP was what she wanted.

plasticdaft wrote:

And just what are these kind folks at Jefferson Hobbs charging you for their services?

[/quote]

It's a good point. Have they managed to secure an interest freeze from the creditors, and is the DMP realistically going to pay off the debt in less than 5 years?