I stand corrected Mel and I do apologise. I didn't think it would matter if it happened before you applied for an IVA.
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
@ Foggy: I wouldn't be too happy if I was one of the creditors who didn't get a share of the payout while someone else received full repayment immediately!! Still, I'm sure there's a way around it.
thanks everyone for your input - however i am now even more worried
we paid this money a few months ago before our circumstances changed and we found ourselves in this difficult position
we have both been high earners and spent a lot on credit but always paid it back and have never missed a payment, our credit use has been no more excessive recently that previous years but its the change (loss of husband job and illness) that we find ourselves in this very unexpected position.
can someone please be clear on what will happen to us re:above and also if this means we cant do IVA
I would speak to a professional lola - I apologise for any misleading information I gave but I would have thought that as you paid this off before becoming insolvent that you were ok.
Visit www.iva.com and give one or two of those companies a ring - they will put your mind at rest.
I doubt it will stop you applying for an IVA.
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
hopefully one of the experts will be along shortly to advise on a way forward. I must admit that I also hadn't realised that if you paid back the loan prior to your circumstances changing it would then become an issue when applying for an IVA. As previously said, it wouldn't do any harm to have a look on www.iva.com and call 2 or 3 of the companies listed on there to obtain further advice.
You need to speak to a couple of professionals for advice. An iva isn't the only option. You could always do a dmp for a bit and then switch to an iva. But speak to a few professional debt advisors. x
Hi Lola sorry for delay in replying but was not online. I paid my sister £3000 but in fact they didn,t ask how much I paid. It just said on my proposal that I sold some shares to repay a family loan and make payments to credit cards etc and nobody queried it. I think if you are honest then it should not be a problem. How were you to know about the preference rule I certainly didn't x
My advice is to be honest every step of the way. Don't hide anything and be up front right from the beginning - that way you will have no problems further down the line.
Seek advice from an IVA company or someone like Payplan. It might be the case that you can do a DMP initially. Whatever you do don't just jump in with the first company you come across. It's very easy to just go straight in without doing some research. Given how much worry debt causes it's so reassuring when a professional starts telling you how they will sort everything out for you that it is tempting to just go for it without shopping around first.
I would say contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau (if it hasn't been closed down yet), but my experience of them is that they are largely useless. It's hard enough getting an appointment to see anyone there, let alone anything else.
Thats an interesting statement about CAB Mattybaldy. I know in our town to get a Debt appointment its about 4 weeks. Doesn't that tell you something about people being in debt. Personally I feel CAB offer a valuable free service to vulnerable people and certainly would not describe them as useless.
Perhaps it's just my local CAB, but I found them entirely hopeless and it took them an eternity to do anything at all. Probably not a bad bet for some initial advice, but I wouldn't bother with them for anything beyond that.
You're right though, more and more people are in debt. Not entirely surprising with the cost of living in this country together with a recession, wholesale cuts and job losses.
I have to be honest though and say that, if I could start allover again from when I first got in to trouble financially, I wouldn't have done an IVA and would have opted for bankruptcy instead. When our IVA failed, we had paid in over £11k and the creditors got a poxy £3k with the rest being taken up with various fees from our IP etc.
Thank you for your kind comment nepensioner. As an unpaid volunteer currently giving 16 hours a week of my time (along with many hundreds of other volunteers)to try to assist people with all kinds of problems including money matters, I am glad not everyone thinks of CAB as useless. Many CAB's also have open drop-in sessions 5 days a week where people can come to initially to seek advice without booking an appointment.
CAB are mostly highly regarded on here and we do have an occasional poster from there on here.
Keep up the good work!
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
The CAB is like any other organisation in so much as it's only as good as the people who run it. Unfortunately, our local branch is about as much use as a roof rack on a helicopter. That's the experience of several people I know who have used (or tried to use) their services. However, I'm sure there are many branches throughout the country that offer a very good service.
I'm actually a big fan of the concept of the CAB, it's just unfortunate that our local branch is never open, cannot be contacted directly and seems to be staffed by about 2 people.
I’ll put the lid back on quickly by saying that it is very disappointing to read that your experience of your local CAB has not been a good one. It is a sad fact that some will suffer or inevitably close as a result of withdrawal of funding. However, many CAB’s continue to help clients and provide communities with a very useful service in these difficult times.
So, back to the OP’s query:
Lolagrace, it wouldn’t do any harm at all to contact your local CAB to see what they say, it is a free confidential service. Also, to reiterate, the advice as already given on here to speak to 2 or 3 professionals as listed on www.iva.com could provide you with a way forward. Explain in full the circumstances that led to your current situation, also read the reviews prior to selecting a company. I wish you all the best and hope that you find a satisfactory solution.
Surely in this instance visiting CAB is an unnecessary step. There's nothing they can say that a professional debt advisor can't and the professionals will be able to act straight away.
