www.iva.co.uk

i have applied to enter into an iva and am waitng to hear but the phonecalls from my creditors have now started and they have started calling me at work and i work on shop floor.It's really starting to get me down at home its nearly every couple of hours and i can never seem to get away from it is it against the rules to change my home phone number?I dont want to do anything that would jepordise me getting accepted in to an iva but the strain to starting to take its toll sorry dont mean to sound so whingey as i know its my own fault i am in this situation in the first place!!![8)]

It is not against any rules to change your home phone number, and you should inform your creditors that by continuing to call you at work they are jeapordising your job.

Thanks for that Melanie.I just feel a bit in limbo at the moment and feel like its never going to end I just wish I had plucked up the courage months ago to ask for help and not left so long but hopefully things will move along soon thanks again [^]

The endless phone calls are just SO stressful - I remember it well!!! I am now one and a half years into my IVA and although I'm finding it a struggle financially (why oh why, are the government guidlines on living expenses not updated?!?!?); the absolute RELIEF at not feeling sick every time a phone rings or when the post arrives, is one of the biggest rewards for taking the serious and difficult decision to enter an IVA.

I must admit that at the moment we don't find it too much of a struggle. We didn't take any notice of guidelines (which are exactly what they say - guidelines) we weren't even aware of them at the time.

We just put down exactly what we spent, and it was never questioned.

i changed my phone number just before i applied for iva.
stroke of pure luck on my part as then i didnt get any phone calls apart from egg and lloydstsb and they was fine(egg called quite a few times and towards the end i just just said i am recording this conversation at the beggining of call,they just said ok and i let them go through the spiel and that was that).
just as a matter of intrest how many times do cccs review i@e guidelines as surely these must alter to go with the times

kallis3 wrote:

I must admit that at the moment we don't find it too much of a struggle. We didn't take any notice of guidelines (which are exactly what they say - guidelines) we weren't even aware of them at the time.

We just put down exactly what we spent, and it was never questioned.

we just changed our i@e sheet and even with payrise last year we still £45 down on what we have to pay iva each month
plus we got teenage kids so you can imagine the juggling we have to do to keep on a level playing field,but we just get by

We were lucky that our payments didn't alter this year, despite my payrise. Hubby also had a rise in his pension and they left them as they were.

We're fortunate that we only have the one daughter who lives at home part of the week so the food bill isn't too much.

Is there a web site that shows the government guidelines on living expenses? Would be interested to see it.

Is the pay rise just there to offset living expenses? when I get mine along with back pay I have no intention of handing any over!

The government do not publish guidelines, these are provided by the Money Advice Trust or the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. Both organisations are reluctant to widely circulate these figures, as they believe that they lead some clients to be untruthful about the real levels of their expenditure - presumably if the actual expenditure is lower than the guideline amounts.

If you fill in an application on the CCCS website, I believe it will show you the guideline figures in comparison.

thanks for the support everyone!I must admit I do envy you all that you are all already established in your ivas as i am not at that stage yet and hence why i feel the phonecalls are getting to me as I don't have the tunnel yet let alone have a light at the end of it
but i must be patient!![^]

I hated the phonecalls and the letters... infact even a few months on I havent plugged the house phone back in.

It is a relief to come home and to not have to worry about what is going to be in the post. I cant believe how stressed I was at the time. I dont think I actually realised tbh...

I think you might be ok now Adam.

If it still bothers you that much, why don't you think of changing your number?

whetlor - the calls are a pain, but rest assured that the call centres can do nothing to you, so stand firm if you decide to answer them. You are on the downhill stretch towards an IVA now so hang in there.

Its strange how habits change Kallis and I just use the mobile. Would have cancelled the line if it wasnt for the need for broadband and we dont live in a cabled area.

I suspect no one calls the landline as all communication with creditors has ceased within 4 weeks of the IVA being a approved.