www.iva.co.uk

Hi,
I am awaiting my engagement pack from Grant Thornton but I am having second thoughts about the IVA. Basically my gas bill £80 a month I have recently reduced it from £100 a month but Grant Thornton say I cannot put £80 as this is excessive and wouldn't be accepted as reasonable. The offer of the iva is only just making the 25p-£1 ratio but I have a feeling that is only because they are skimming off the INCOME/EXP. if they put down £60 being the max allowed for gas then already I am going to be -£20 a month without any other neccessities thats if the iva is accepted. I am concerened as to what I should do as I thought INC/EXP were supposed to reflect things as accurately as poss, just feel like this iva is doomed b4 it has even began

any thoughts from those with experience of ivas most welcome
cheers
KLG

My advice to you would be don't sign anything you aren't happy with as if you can't afford the IVA payments from the outset it will most likely fail. If you pay £80 for your gas, then you pay £80 - they need to take into account the increases in fuel costs. The expenditure that you put down should be what you spend, not what you are told you can spend.

As far as I'm aware there is no 25p/£ minimum now, so it might be worth getting a second opinion from another IP.

KLG, you should be able to pay what you acutally pay for your gas, that doesn't make sense, definitely get a second opinion. X

Thanks skippy,
I was feeling that my gas bill was excessive as the advisor was adamant that £60 was the maximum allowed. I have been paying £101 a month but got the company to review it and they did reduce the D/D to £80 ......the payments were not made up and the ip can clearly see that the payments have been £101 for the past 3 months. I will take your advice and not agree to something that doesnt reflect the truth

cheers

Hi KLG2002,

I pay £87 for my gas and £83 electric monthly, and had no problem getting that accepted.

If those are your payments, then I don't see that Grant Thornton can argue with them.

You must not enter into an agreement which does not allow you to pay for your utility charges. It is mad to say that your gas charge is excessive if that is what your gas charge actually is! There are no minimum and maximum allowances for light and heat, but you may need to substantiate the costs by providing actual bills. I suspect that you are not speaking to the IP directly but a member of their staff - so perhaps you ought to take this higher up the food chain within GT or seek a second opinion.

You could always ring around and talk to a different company. I'm sure others must have higher figures..I think mine is £60, so I'm not a lot of help to you!

Do not sign anything that you are not happy with or that you know is unrealistic. Living on a tight budget is hard enough without having to scrimp even more. We too felt bullied with regard to our I&E, and our iva has failed, though for other reasons too. If your budget is unrealistic and unaffordable you wont last 5 months nevermind 5 years!
I wish u all the luck xx

if i was u i would send them copies of your bills to prove it to them

when i move into my own place i was told to get gas and electric meters then you top up when you need to
anyone have thoughts on this or is it a dumb idea

Prepayment meters have a higher tariff and come winter they will take a lot more money from you as your useage will increase. I would recommend keeping your credit meters and having a Direct Debit as the tariff is lower and you can budget over 12 months for the winter months.

KLG as melanie says there are no limits for gas etc. They are what they are provided they can be proven. I dont think 80-100 is unrealistic at the moment depending on size of family, house etc.
Go back to your IP with latest bills, you are paying by DD so the latest bill should show if you are in credit or debit if there is a large credit it may be that you are paying a bit too much but you can discuss that with your supplier.
There is no real drive to acheive 25p dividend provided the offer is the best you can make creditors have accepted alot less. Subject to the usual suspects eg HSBC.

Hi klg only my opinion but dont go into an iva with your expenditure reduced to fit a good dividend, it will just leave you struggling to cope and with the rises happening with so many basic things at the the moment, would I fear doom you to failure. Get another opinion and make sure an iva is right for you. Our gas and elec is £127 a month and food is rising rapidly. At least a quarter of things listed in my expenditure has risen in the last 20 months since the iva ha started. So take your time and dont accept what you cant manage on.

Ang x

As the others have said make sure your figures are correct. I didnt allow for dental treatments and school dinners because I didnt know you could, and have found that it is impossible to get my IP to allow for these after the proposal was accepted and have been told to use my contingency-which I can never save anyway.Because or rising costs of everything anyway i am now struggling.I also allowed my company to juggle the figures a bit to have more chance of being approved, something else i regret as this hasnt worked out either.

All the posts on here re costs are of course correct, but I just had to tell you that my duel fuel package of gas and electric has just gone up to £172 per month!!!

Now, there are 2 adults, 1 grown up child and 2 smaller children. We live in an ordinary semi not a mansion, and I know summer has been pants so the dryer is going far more than normal but £172???

Wouldn't mind so much if I hadn't changed supplier about 8 months ago for a cheaper one.

God only knows what the winter holds.

Regards.