My own personal journey in my IVA with BE has been rocky, but I want to post on this to give confidence to others.
I started our IVA journey with very little knowledge, I was passed from there sister company to BE. My original I&E was done with the sister company & looking back I was given abit of bad advise. I was told to end my mobile phone contracts (in total between 2 people - $40) & go on Pay & go at $20 a month for 2. If I had know I would never be able to get a phone contract again, or the fact it could help my credit rating through & after the IVA, I would of not done it.
Our IVA was quickly approved & we set of on our Journey, 3 months in with no time to save for the car MOT we hit a $500 bill for it. We had only managed to scrape up $200, I was fortunate to have family that helped even though they did not know of the IVA. Little did I know you could contact your IVA company for help I thought thats how things were ment to be.
6 months in we were really struggling & it was when I started to look at this forum - thank goodness I did! I finally plucked up the courage to post & ask questions about our I&E, only to have the forum confirm we were living on a budget that was extremely unrealistic. The relief I felt finding out we were not supposed to be "suffering" under an IVA was huge & you encouraged me to get a fresh I&E done with light of a small pay rise. Which i did but was made to feel by my account manager at the time, that I had to beg for the increases. We got them but to fit round our IVA payment. things eased off alittle. A year later & still struggling n feeling like thing were how they should be - hard! Hubby got another payrise but slightly bigger. I again came onto the forum n talked about it n the struggles we were still having. As we were 2 years in n Id not had my hair cut for a year n struggling n no assets, Bankruptcy looked like an option as we were just to exhausted to carry on, feeling punished for ending up in an IVA. The forum gave me courage to call them for another I&E review. We got a call from a new Account Manager whom was brilliant, he spent time on our review went through things carefully, gave us back the allowance for mobiles (20-40) saying they should not of been reduced, our I&E was finally at a level of being realistic (food was at 200pm increased to 400pm for a family of 4, electric from 30 -49pm & Gas from 30 - 89pm) a huge sense of relief that we could continue & still manage the IVA payments & not fail.
My confidence has recently been boosted again with them, as they took note of a fresh I&E that I posted in, & they have looked & sorted it no question. I also had a problem still understanding one of our creditor modifications - which I was given a direct number to a lovely man whom explained it & said I could call him back anytime I get worried about anything.
Im heading into our 3rd year review n I know they have had some terrible reports & Im afraid i can agree with some of the regarding customer service. Ive had my troubles BUT they are getting better & Im proof that they are. Fingers crossed for my next 2 years n hope BE find this a positive post as I really feel they are getting better. & thank U to the forum for being here.
Last edited by
MrsKnight on Sat Mar 12, 2011 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Final IVA payment made in April 2013, never ever thought we could do it or get through it but we did! X
An IVA.co.uk Mentor is someone sharing from their experiences of dealing with debt
Lyns x