www.iva.co.uk

I am thinking of taking out an IVA but would like to know,
If My employer needs to know and what affect would an IVA have on my Bank account as I have heard the Halifax bank can close your account if you have one?

Hi and welcome,

Depends on your employment but not normally.

If Halifax is one of your creditors then I suggest you change and don't touch HSBC or First Direct with a ten foot barge pole - they will close your account.

If you haven't already done anything then I suggest you speak to a few companies - Vincent Bond (details under ask experts a link on the left hand side of the page) can be contacted for some free advice.

Some banks do close accounts if they find you are in an IVA. Halifax were one of my creditors and my bank -- they kept my account open -- although, to be on the safe side I didn't use it and opened one with the co-op.

It is also advisable to open a "safe" account with a bank which is not linked to any of your creditors to prevent them trying to offset any debt with the funds in the account -- they are not allowed to after the IVA has been granted, but some have tried and some have closed accounts without notice.

First Direct and HSBC often close accounts whether a creditor or not and are particularly IVA unfriendly.

Hi

I can heartily recommend Barclays for a basic Iva friendly account.

I opened it with them after my Iva started as I got fed up with coop banks rather naff online services and lack of branches.

Barclays were one of my creditors but they still gave me the account. I told them I was in an Iva when i went in to apply.

No need to tell your employer usually unless your job is in banking or finance related, then you might have to. What is your job?

For an iva company look for those that participate regularly on here

With regard to employment as well - if you work for the Police or the Armed Forces you would need to tell them.

I had no problem getting an account with the Co Op - I was honest and told them I was entering an IVA. Branches are limited, but they've recently upgraded their online banking and it's pretty good now in my opinion. I'd like to open a basic savings account too if it's allowed.

You may find that the Co-op won't let you as they think you should not be saving whilst in an IVA! You can always open a second normal account with them.

I had a co op cashminder account throughout my IVA and had a separate savings account with them too

Co-Op can be a bit techy about savings whilst in an IVA -- I opened a savings account with the Yorkshire Building Society (not Bank!) who have a good range of accounts with online access.