Just thought I’d do a quick post. I'm just starting on the IVA road. Its been a long, long time coming and I’ve finally pulled my head out of the sand and faced up to the fact that I cant cope and haven’t been coping for the last 5 years or so.
I’ve been talking to CCCS and now to CCSVA and am in the process of dragging together all my paperwork, it really is scary, although very necessary, digging over the whole sorry mess. I'm just glad that forums such as this exist to offer advice and support.
My IP so far has been great and our initial calls have been very re-assuring as I had visions of budgets from hell trying to feed a family of 6 on ten pound a week.
I've been feeling really paranoid about making sure I have everything correct and am not doing anything to jeopardise my chances of a successful IVA. So far my creditors have been surprisingly understanding although Lloyds seem to have an itchy phone finger and insist on phoning me most evenings to go over the same information again and again.
Other than being 110% honest about everything, is there anything I should or should not be doing? I haven’t started making token payments yet, although I intend to in the next couple of weeks, I just need to amend a few (small) errors on my personal statement regarding income and expenditure and I want my IP to ok it all before I start making rash promises to my creditors that I end up not being able to keep.
What sort of timescale should I be looking at to get to the decision stage by the creditors if an IVA is acceptable to them, it appears for some people it is anything up to 6 months or more and others its relatively quickly.
One last question on the creditors voting, I have some Debt with Lloyds TSB and with HBOS I presume they would generally vote in the same direction (either positive or negative) as they are in fact the same organisation, does anyone have any instances of this not happening.
Thanks and sorry for the long opening post, I just have a million and one things flying around in my head at the moment.
hey diddy welcome to the forum-you will get loads of support and help from everyone on here [:)]
i cant speak for everyone but from what ive seen its usually 3 months-obviously if you have a really complicated case it will take a bit longer.
mine took 8 and a bit weeks from what i remember
i also had debt with hbos and found them great-they were the least troublesome of my creditors and they voted yes for my iva aswell
Well done firstly for realising that you had a problem and doing something about it.
You are obviously doing quite well at getting everything together and hopefully you can have a proposal come soon and put all this behind you. Make sure you are happy with everything before you sign on the dotted line.
Personally, I wouldn't make any token payments, it doesn't make any difference to the credtor voting, and you can use this money to build up a bit of contingency before you have to start paying into an IVA.
You will find that you'll get letters and calls. Either ignore the calls or answer them and be polite, tell them what is happening and put the phone down. Don't get involved in any arguments as all the call centre staff want is money. Just reply to the letters, that's all I did.
Usual time scale is 6-8 weeks, depends on whether or not you have anyting complicated.
You may find that some of your debts have been sold on before the meeting and so will have different voters.
Do you bank with any of your creditors? If so, you need to open a new bank account now. The Co-op is recommended by posters on here.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
I agree wth Jan. Don't make any token payments, cancel all direct debits etc and start building up a "fighting fund" which will make the initial months in an IVA far easier. Good luck.
I agree with Jan. Forget about making token payments. Cancel all direct debits etc. When the calls come simply tell them that you are unable to repay and are in the process of proposing an IVA. Use the money that would normally be servicing your debts to build up a fighting fund to help you through the initial post-IVA months. Best wishes.
Thanks for the warm welcome it really is comforting to know that I'm not the only one in the world dealing with this and that there is light at the end of the tunnel which with any luck wont turn out to be a train.
Thanks for the advise for changing account etc Jan, I made that move two weeks ago and went with NatWest as I don't have any debt with that company or organisation.
I think I have my paperwork all together now apart from some on-line only accounts i had which I am waiting for hard copies of statements etc. Tonights task is writing my Debt Narrative, although I have no idea what to write. I guess its like having a bad tooth, you know its going to be painful, but afterwards hopefully there will be relief.
All you do with writing down about how you got here is to simply tell the truth.
Ours was all spent on holidays, cars and consolidation loans (after which we ran all the cards back up again!)
Glad you got the account sorted out.
It is a painful journey, and one most of us on here have done, but the relief when your IVA is approved is wonderful.
Any time you need any advice or support, we are here for you and there is usually someone who can answer it, and of course we have a lot of professionals who post on here as well.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Hi Diddy,
I too am just starting out on the same road - have collected all my documents, sent them off to the IP, stopped paying the creditiors and am just waiting on the next step. So just so you know there seems to be plenty of us in the same boat. I noticed somebody mentioned setting up a contingency fund - this might be a silly question, but are we allowed to put the money we're not paying the creditors into a bank account or is it a case of saving it under the matteress?? Think what i mean is, if the creditors can see money in an account will they demand it anyway??
Nice to see you Penny....I'm having the worst week in this process ever, everything is churning over in my head, I need to relax a bit but I just keep thinking the worst, reading something into everything but as you say just a few more lack of sleeps lol!
7 year IVA completed in December 2016 - there is light at the end of that tunnel
Not long to go now Cath. I am sure everything will be ok. Melanie has an excellent acceptance rate - one of the best.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Hi all and thanks for the friendly welcome, and a special hello to Molly. It looks like were at similar positions in our (hopefully smooth journeys). I will be eagerly watching your progress and wish you all the best.
I like the sound of using the money that would go into token payments as a contingency fund to help in the early stages, i'm just so paranoid that somewhere down the road I'll get told "if only you had done this it wouldn't be a problem".
I managed to get my debt narrative on paper last night and i'm almost there with all the other paperwork. I have my next call with my Ip tomorrow PM, i assume to talk through the paperwork and make sure i'm getting it all in order etc.
Melanie - My budget so far has food down as 550 a month, but i also have allowances in for haircuts (I do my own although Mrs Diddy wont let me near her hair or the kids, and they make me walk two paces behind them when we walk down the street). I also have allowances in for School meals and the children's hobbies and pocket money.
My Ip has been great at talking me through each section and in a lot of cases raising what i had estimated originally. We have some endowments that we are cashing in to go into the IVA pot and it all adds up to approx. 42p in the £ at the moment for the creditors which i'm keeping everything crossed is a good enough offer.
One thing i was thinking about today was does anyone know how inflation is dealt with within budgets, is this taken into account at the annual review stage or do you have to show that your shopping bill really has increased by the (%) that the consumer inflation index has risen.
At the moment i'm confident that we can live on our budget, it will be tight, but tight is something we have become accustomed to over the last 3 years or so as we have tried to reduce our debt level to something approaching manageable (and obviously failing). I guess the proof of the pudding though will be in eating…..not that i've included pudding in the budget you understand.
As to annual review, you just need to put down what you spend once again. I have never had to provide receipts. The company know how much things have gone up over the year - petrol in particular is going up and VAT is due to go up as well in the New Year.
You will be on a budget, but it's amazing how you can make ends meet and the feeling at the end of the month when you have a little bit back is amazing.
As long as your allowances are enough for you, you shouldn't struggle too much.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
