Well, here it is, the day has arrived. The final payment has been made and my case passed to the closures team.
How do I feel? It's hard to describe really.. Relief that it's over, that a a ball and chain have been removed from my legs and that I can walk again, a bit of excitement that my future is now mine to determine, a bit of fear until I get that completion certificate.
How did it all come to this in the first place? It just all seems so insane that I ever got myself in this state in the first place....
I didn't even know what an IVA was until a friend i was living with who was self employed told me he was in one and it seemed possible that it might just fit me too.
Then, the next day, almost as if it was fate, there was a discussion on the BBC News at 1, where I saw a certain Mr James Falla discussing IVA's and debt in general. After listening to him speak (in a very eloquent and informative way may I say), I was even more sure that this was the way forward. I went to the website of the company he ran at the time for further reading and found a treasure trove of information videos and other help.
It was time to make the decision, so I called them to discuss an IVA. To be honest I think I was more nervous about this phone call than any interview I've ever had or pretty much anything ever. Needless to say there was no need to be, they were really helpful, talked me through all of the options and took all the information. Bankruptcy was never an option for me because of work so IVA it was.
Four weeks later and I had received my Creditor's Meeting date. Panic kicked in, it had all become VERY real. Was this really the right thing to do, what if they reject my application, I even began to think about what my father would say when I told him. NIGHTMARE!!!
So, the date arrived, meeting was 1pm. My stomach was churning and churning. I had the day off but ITV was now taunting me with a barrage of loan adverts and adverts offering to wipe off up to 80% of my debt!! Aghhh!! It's 1:30pm, no call.. I don't want to call them , but I can't bear the not knowing.. Is there some problem? Eventually they called and 2 small mods were made , but I'd been accepted.... I'd been accepted!!!!! I'm not really sure how I felt at the time other than sheer relief, a million tons of weight removed from my shoulders, no more phone calls chasing payment, no more "Overdue/We are taking court proceedings against you" letters.
But what now?... 5 years.. 5 whole years... It felt like forever but I kept telling myself that it would have taken 10 at minimum to try to pay it back any other way, IF i could ever pay it back. I ended up chatting to my father about the IVA and when I did he completely surprised me and said "That's probably the most sensible thing you've done in years". I think it's definitely easier to deal with stuff like this if there are people you can confide in.
The first review arrived, the nerves came back, what would happen, would the payments go up, was everything okay? Accuma dealt with it quite well (we'll come back to them later). No increases, all okay. Wow.. would it always be this easy? Year 2 was completed exactly the same, then came a major lifestyle change. I had accepted a job in Prague, this meant the direct debits had to go and bank transfers were expensive.
Accuma told me it would all be fine to pay by card.... Until I actually tried to pay by card and was told they wouldn't accept an electron card.. A battle then ensued, I also got annoyed with various other maladministration and wrote them a complaint to which they apparently never received (along with the following 2 that I had proof they signed for). By this time I had discovered iva.co.uk and someone directed me to the insolvency register and I managed to get the email address of my IP, who, to be very fair to him was very very helpful and sorted everything (Andrew Wilkinson take a bow). I had many more run ins with Accuma administration to be fair and you can't imagine my happiness when Grant Thornton took over.
Year 3 and 4 arrived, wow I was over half way, on the home straight.. How had that happened??
I have to admit this is where it all started to REALLY drag.. 18 months .. it felt like it was still 60... Then 6 months to go.... I swear time actually stopped at this point... Yawwwwwwwwwwwwn, Every day seemed a million hours. Then i found
www.datecountdown.com and set if as my browser home page. In a weird way seeing those hours decrease kinda reassured me that time was still moving and that it wasn't some crazy dream where I was stuck in time ( I know you are all thinking i am crazy by this point). I can imagine for some people seeing the days etc might actually make it seem to go even slower..
Anyway, here I am. it's all finished, I'm still not convinced that it is really over. Maybe the completion certificate will sort that out. Having an extra £400 in my pocket a month is going to be interesting, although I think the majority of it will be going into a savings account...I can't even believe i just typed that word... lol.. savings... that will be a novelty
The other thing that needs to be said is the total amazingness of iva.co.uk. I wish I'd found it earlier, to have that support, to have a few laughs, and to be able to help people.
All i can say to those thinking about/just started in an IVA is it IS difficult sometimes. I was very lucky and had no major headaches along the way but just keep remembering how bad things were before you decided to get some help.
The forum is such an amazing source of information and support, I'd just say to people to use it as much as possible. The difference it made to my IVA journey was immense. I'm not abandoning the forum though, I'll keep posting (sadly not as often as I'd like these days) but will definitely help out where I can.
The only other thing is to say thanks to the people on iva.co.uk that have helped me out and made me laugh (Special mentions for Jan, Skippy and Helen, Lesley and Julie), not to forget the experts that helped me too.
) .. This is actually starting to sound like a goodbye speech so I'm gonna shut up now. Good luck to everyone else though, you'll get there in the end, just keep plugging away and your time will come.
)
Additional thanks to Grant Thornton who made me laugh a lot this morning and for their help over the last few years.
