www.iva.co.uk

Apologies if this gets posted twice but I used the "Ask a debt question" option above and my message never appeared! So here goes again ...

I need to take control of my debts as the current economic climate is preventing me from juggling new deals and my existing credit cards are attracting punitive interest rates. It is my intention to pay back the debt I've incurred in but this is proving difficult. It's crazy and I feel stupid that in such a well paid job I have managed to get into this situation.

So here are my summarised numbers with detail added where I think it would help other forum members to give advice:-

Salary = £4600 per month less £1860 for Abbey Mortgage and FirstPlus secured loan. House is worth about £275k and there's about £35k -ve equity (Abbey = £215k, FP = £95k). No other assets and I live in England - married with one son aged 19 at university. My wife works part-time and earns about £200 per month.

Unsecured borrowing totals around £108k split up as follow:-
Loans: BkScot 21k, Northern Rock 21k, Halifax 9.5k, Egg 10.5k
CrCards: MBNA 19k, Egg 13k, Mint 8.5k, Barclaycard 4k, Lloyds 1k

I work in London so have an expensive rail season ticket that costs £610 per month.

My outgoings for utilities, car hp and other costs, phone, life term insurance, buildings/contents insurance total about £880.

I've worked out a budget with my wife and all 3 of us can live on £550 per month with say £50 per month contingency. We have already started living to this new regime and so far so good. This leaves about £850 per month to pay back to my unsecured creditors.

I've considered a DMP but even if they all froze interest it might still take 10 years to pay them all back. On reading the forums it sounds as though it can be tough keeping control of this aspect.

So, based on the above numbers and my mix of creditors, do people think that I could get an IVA accepted along these lines? What modifications/objections could I expect to hear from them? I'm willing to do a 6 year or even 7 year IVA if thats what it takes. Again reading the forums some of the creditors that I have seem unpredictable in how they react. So any advice and opinions will be gratefully received, read and considered.

Thanks all for reading this late night posting.

Kenny

Hi Kenny and welcome to the forum

It sounds like you have the makings of a very good IVA there - and thank you for posting such detailed information.

Clearly you will need to take more definitive advice from an insolvency professional to understand more about your options, but I definately think you are on the right track - and all of your creditors are generally supportive of IVAs.

Wow - thanks for the quick reply Melanie and your warm welcome. I'll take your advice and look into things further.

Kenny

It is my pleasure Kenny - best of luck with your search. And don't hesitate to ask any further questions on the forum - where you will find much support from existing and new members who are following or have followed the same process.

Hi again. I've been reading this forum for over a week now trying to piece together as much up front understanding as I can. Two aspects that I'm unclear about are to do with the secured borrowing.
1.Will FirstPlus sit tight or will they make a claim on the numerically unsecured £35k? Or is it still all regarded as secured? One of the main things is that we don't want to have to sell the house.
2. Will creditors look at the £1860 (1060 abbey, 800 FP) plus my rail ticket of 610 and consider that excessive and try and get me to move into London? We desperately want to avoid having to do this and it would also crystallise the potentially unsecured bit of the FirstPlus secured loan rate. In any case, I don't think the numbers would dramatically change.

Thanks again
Kenny

They will be invited to revalue their security - in which case they can say that the secured element is sufficient to cover the equity available to them, and the unsecured element can receive dividends within the IVA. So long as you can continue to service the securel loan repayments, there should be no reason why you cannot hold onto your property.

I don't think creditors will go so far as to suggest you relocate your family - but again you need to talk to an insolvency practitioner directly to discuss the specific details of your case - it is difficult for me to give case specific advice on the forum without having a more detailed knowledge of your case.

Thanks Melanie - I realise it's difficult not having the full facts but you've given me sufficient comfort to get a good night's sleep! I appreciate your efforts.
Good Night
Kenny

Kenny, I've deleted your other question as it did finally appear!

Welcome to the forum!

Hi Kenny
We are at the final stages of entering into an iva using Melanies team and i must admit that the advice and help weve had has been fantastic.

Pretty sure theyve got every angle covered and appreciate there are many very good IPs but i can only comment on our experience.