www.iva.co.uk

Hi, can anyone help? I currently at the early stages of setting an IVA up, can anyone advise what I should do regarding my creditors. So far I have been making my min. payments each month never missed one & have no one chasing me for payment. Should I carry on making this payments until the IVA has be approved or should I write to them offering a token payment?? I relied heavily upon an overdraft to meet my payments & now I don't have this. I don't want the IVA to fail just because I reduced my payments to them. Thank you

Hi Kate, When we set our iva up nearly 5 years ago I was in the same situation. I had never missed a payment. We stopped making our payments once we started looking into the iva, and it felt very strange at first! It may have changed since we did ours, so check with the company you're talking to. Ours advised us to just stop payments. By stopping the payments, you will be able to save up for the first iva payment, and also not live off your overdraft (which can be liberating!) We did start to get a few phone calls from creditors, so prepare yourself for this. This stopped very quickly though once they knew we were starting an iva. The company we were with wrote to each creditor to let them know we were entering an IVA which helped. Good luck

Thank you for your reply I'll speak to my IVA company tomorrow

We didn't and started saving the amout we were expecting the monthly payments to be to get used to this budget and to have a small contingency. Make sure cars and boilers etc are serviced, stock pile things like washing powder. We were 100% sure an IVA was right for us and had 100% confidence in Cleardebt. I do not think it matters to voting.

It makes no difference to the vote. Some pay a token, some ( like me) paid nothing at all and saved a small emergency fund.

When the calls start remember that the person on the other end probably doesn't even work for your creditors but is a call centre somewhere. They are only after a payment and will spout all sorts of guff to get one.

I started the IVA process in August and it wasn't completed until very late November - I stopped making payments and put it to one side as a contingency. It made no difference to the vote at all.

When the calls started I told the caller that I was in the process of setting up an IVA and the majority of them were fine and put a 40 day notice on the account. I just kept them updated along the way. Some of my creditors did not even call or send a letter, which I was surprised about. Good luck!

I made no payments and saved the money for contingency ( all gone 3 years in) I had never missed a payment and was not brave and unplugged my phone !peace was lovely and I contemplated not plugging it back in[:)]

We made token payments of about £10 to each creditor. More for my peace of mind more than anything. Good luck

I made % payments to my creditors, and then after reading comments on here I wish I hadn't. I started my IVA journey with nothing, would have been good to save a couple of hundred pounds before the IVA payments started, just as an emergency found for any urgent repairs.

Good luck.

I was told to stop payments as soon as the IVA process had started.

It was scary. Deliberately withholding payments went against the grain.

First wave of letters were polite reminders. By the time the creditors started getting impatient the IVA kicked in.

I built up a small nest-egg for emergencies and I'm glad I did as the washing machine died last year.

It certainly will make no difference to voting whether token payments are made or not and it does not lessen the calls and letters much either. Take the advice of the posters here and try to build up a contingency fund instead.

Hi

I agree, use any saved money to get ahead of household bills, car servicing etc etc

Regards

I didn't pay a penny personally from the day I decided to enter the IVA, this was in October with IVA being accepted in the February. Got myself a contingency pot which soon depleted when a few months in the IVA my boiler went!

As others say it has no bearing on the outcome of your meeting whatever you decide.

Vincent Bond advised me to stop paying, this is exactly what I did!

I'm in the same boat, got my IP phone call tonight.

I was very nervous when the calls came in from creditors. Some were nice, others were not so nice about. Very.co.uk were truly awful and very rude to me.