New to IVA, and panicking !!!

[quark2008]

Right then,
completely new to this awful situation, have a creditors meeting on the 20th June, have paid almost £650 upfront to draft the proposal,great service, though the money could have spent on debts.The repayment is going to be £520 per month.They have asked for this to be paid by the 20th, even though this proposal hasn't yet been agreed.Is that right ? I am quite panicky about the whole thing, i had no problems up until a few months ago and suddenly blam !!! I'm 40k in debt, and i'm so ashamed of it. I don't know my arse from my elbow right now, the repayment amount seems loads.

Help !!!

[sblack]

Hi,
We only paid our 1st months IVA contribution upfront, no set up fees. The monthly IVA payment depends on your disposable income.
If you could post a few more details about your disposable income the experts could probably advise better.
Thanks and good luck

[Cybus]

Could you please advise of the people that you are using. Is it an IP or an intermediary?

I would also check in the terms and conditions you should by now have received, what exactly happens to the monies you have paid up front in the event that your IVA is not approved.

If the IVA is approved, will those monies paid be classed as contributions to the arrangement?

Personally, I would never recommend going through an intermediary who is going to charge you for gathering information to provide to an IP. Always go straight to an IP, who will gather the information from you and at the end of the day will also have an informed (That's the important word) discussion with you at effectively no extra costs as it forms part of the work that they carry out. An intermediary does not have such strict regulation.

[indebtforever]

yes the payments over 60 months seem very high have you allowed enough for expenditure [:I] £31,200 (40k)have you an equity release involved also??

[iva.com]

Hi quark, For those who wish to go directly to an IP's they could do worst things than spend a few minutes checking out the reviews on our web site. I would also suggest thinking long and hard about paying any intermediary or IP before being pretty certain your IVA is going to be approved. There are IP's out there who are happy to discuss your situation and inform you of the chances of success without being paid. They don't get paid up front because they know they will get their payment when the IVA is approved, only putting forward proposals they feel confident enough will be approved so they know their work will be rewarded in the end. This also prevents the agonizing wait some people find themselves embroiled in only to find out their proposal has been rejected and they are further out of pocket. It may be a little late for yourself, but this is worth mentioning for those who are still at the very beginning of their journey.
Please do let us know who you are dealing with.
Best of luck
Susan Macdonald

[Moneystinks]

Hi just pushing this post back up as I am with Melanie and I contacted het in March time near the end and I believe the proposal should be all but done this week - I have NOT yet handed over ONE PENNY. I believe once the proposal is signed I will have to pay the first IVA contribution up front but I beleive this will go towards the debt. Hope you get this all cleared up for you. XX

[elizabethr]

I agree - you shouldn't pay upfront before you are sure of what is happening. I am also with Melanies team and have put aside my first months IVA payment just in case it all goes through.

[kallis3]

I'm with Paypal and we paid nothing upfront at all. We were supposed to send post-dated cheques for after the meeting, but we don't have a cheque book or debit card so couldn't. I just sorted out the day I wanted the payments to go out and set up the Standing Order.

I agree that £520 seems a lot. Me and hubbie have interlocking iva's with debts of over £80,000 and we only pay £615 between us.