AAAAAHHHHHELP

[chocs]

Hi
I AM VERY SCARED AND COULD DO WITH SOME ADVICE
i stumbled across this forum during my frantic search for help
i have just been sent a letter stating that i am to be served with a bankruptcy petition for a £9,000 loan
to be brief my partner and i owe around 30k debts some of which are many years old
we have been juggling life kids stress work and debts for the past 18yrs and feel that it has now cought up with us
i am VERY SCARED AND HAVE RUNG IN WORK ILL TODAY AS I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO
we both work and own our home of which i dont want to loose as we have been settled here for over 15 yrs
i rang financial guardian yesterday and they advised an iva with a remortgage at the end of the 5yrs [there is little equity in our home as we remortgaged last year to clear some debts and do some long awaited work on our home]
i then rang chiltern finance and they offered a dmp at £400 per month for the next 6 yrs and have told me to ring the company dealing with my bankcruptcy and see if they will accept this plan chiltern said they would recive £126.00 per month
i was made redundant 2 yrs ago and sunk into a deep depression this is how this debt and the others got ignored i have recently gone back to work in a new job and we were in the process of trying to get our debts back in control i now feel i am being kicked back into the gutter of despair
CAN ANYONE ADVISE PLEASE
oh forgot to mention this debt is in both our names but the bankcruptcy has only been served on me

[Oliver]

If you have an income from work and are insolvent (can't afford to live and pay your contractual creditor payments or do not have the assets enough to sell and pay the debt off in it's entirety) then an IVA could be a potential solution for your debt problem.

You should either contact 2-3 companies (the ones on this site are all reputable) and discuss this further or post some more details on this site so we can advise you.

You will need to ascertain your Disposable income which is your total income less all reasonable living costs and secured loans (NOT any unsecured debt)

You will also need to explain how much the debt is and to who it is owed, as well as detailing your home value and secured loan details.


Best Regards
Oliver

Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at: www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp

[kpw]

Hi
With £30,000 debt, little equity and possibly from what you say £400 disposable income, an iva sounds a possibilty. How many creditors do you and your wife have? One advantage that starting the iva process will have for you is that the Insolvency Practitioner can apply to court for an interim court order which will stop any creditor being able to take legal action against you whilst the iva is being set up.
Post a few more details and the IP's who post on the site will advise further and give contact details if require.

[chocs]

thanks for your comments
i think deep down i know its an iva i am jus scared as i spent all day yesterday scouring this site and there was a lot of negatives about an iva such as fees and the monthly amount going up each year someone paid alot of money into an iva during the set up and it failed and they did not recieve the payments back and went br also this equity thing is frightening too

[OPTIMIST12]

chocs -

Dont be put off by the negative comments. It is true that some people run into problems during the course of their IVAs but for many others the IVA is a great solution to their problems. Just make sure you ask questions down the line and make sure you understand and accept what you are signing up to.

[Lisa2009]

Not all iva's are bad, mine has worked quite well for the last 3 years with no major problems. The reason i am trying to settle mine early is because of rising interest rates and family problems which are making it more of a struggle. For some people an iva works perfectly well. Yes you will have very little to live on each month but i do think thats far better than the alternative. As long as an iva is correctly set up and you dont agree to something you simply cant cope with for the next 5 years it should be ok.
Although there are some bad comments on this site regarding iva's,there are also some good stories too.
It will be a hard 5 years but the benefits at the end of it are really worth the wait

[Oliver]

IVAs are a little bit like the news in so far as you often here more about the bad things that are going on rather than the good. Many many people are benefiting everyday from the legitimate solution to debt problems that it can bring. As long as you agree a sustainable and manageable monthly amount initially you shouldn't have a problem with your payments in the future.

Best Regards
Oliver

Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at: www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp

[chocs]

both my husband and i [or should i say ex husband we divorced as he had an affair due to our debt pressures we are now back together and fighting to clear our debts and live a better life
our home and kids are all we have no social life no friends together we just go to work, clean the house and see to the kids repeat repeat repeat as the time in between is spent juggling and borrowing off peter to pay paul
jointly we bring in around 2,000 per month
our main debt is this 9,000 bankruptcy thing
we have 2 other unsecured loans around 7,000
2 credit card debts [we dont own credit cards now] around 3,000
a bank loan of 1,200 [15yrs old still chasing us]
and around 7 other creditor debts each piddley amounts under £600
we are also behind on all household bills eg electric etc
we have nothing secured on the home and the mortgage is up to date both of us only have basic bank accounts we dont own debit cards
our mortgage is around 75,000 and i think the house would now sell for around 95,000
we are unsure which is best an iva or a dmp what is the differnce between them can anyone advise

[chocs]

thanks for the comments did,nt think i would get a reply [feeling like a sad looser]

[kah]

Look at all the options. I think I should have stuck to my own judgement and gone for DM (longer but better suited to my circumstances) rather than being swayed by a slightly pushy IP. Because or rises in house prices a lot of us will pay 100% of our debts - or close - in the end (minus interest of course). So we could acheive the same with DM - longer period - slightly more achievable - I'm constantly worried that I won't be able to make my repayments as living costs and mortgage rises - and 50% of wage increase disappears into IVA. Also can't work harder overtime) and really profit.
Enough from me - IVA was the wrong decision for me for personal reasons but I suppose I'm stuck with it --- for as long as I can do it at least

[chocs]

thanks for your comment
i am begginning to feel a dmp is not as severe as an iva and none of this remortgaging in the fourth year
i am at the mo in the running around frantic stage panicking how we will survive how to tell our kids we are poor i feel like i am going on a 5/6yr prison sentence how will we get through no christmas/birthday presents, no holidays, no fun, no life living like little house on the prairee CAN WE GET THROUGH THIS
since finding this forum i do realise i am not on my own and some out there are in a much worse state than we are and i am not sympethy asking just need to know how others are getting through this
thanks again and i wish you the best for the future

[aguise]

Hi there chocs I just wanted to say an iva is not always a negative thing for some including myself at present it works really well and is the best decision we ever made. the point is accepting that you will pay back what you can , and to make sure your I and E is manageable. You have to realise that the forum will have lots of people with problems as the ones who have an iva that is going well dont need the support. We did have xmas and we did manage, yes it was not the usual but we paid for it and that was one of the nicest feelings. you just need to stay within your budget and save a little if you can. We are lucky and have overtime and we pay half of that to the iva but the other half we keep for the extra little pleasures.
I hope this helps a little and shows that an iva is not always a prison sentence it can be a life change for the better. All the best
Ang

Please visit my blog at http://aguise.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[OPTIMIST12]

chocs -

Things are not quite as desperate in an IVA as you imagine!! Yes - it requires a major change in lifestyle but - once you come to terms with it - it is manageable.

True - there will probably be no holidays abroad!!! - BUT at the end of the 5 years you will normally be free of debt. And throughout your IVA the money you have left after your payments will be YOURS and you will not be getting into deeper debt with more and more interest and charges being added.

The relief of an IVA being accepted is enormous - particularly the end of the letters and phone calls from creditors. True - you soon realise you are in for a long hard slog - but you also have a target to look forward to.

I totally agree with the previous post by Aguise.

But it certainly sounds like you have reached that stage we all come to where you realise that things cant go on as they are.

Good Luck!!!!

[Shining]

We;re new on here together so keep in touch, we're going down the Debt Management route at the moment, I have considered selling the house but we've been here 12 yrs and we've done so much, can I leave? Daughter is 14 had she left home I wouldn't think twice about it but as it stands she's almost left school, (4yrs). Debt Management is scary for me but I guess only because it's the fear of the unknown. I've applied for another job today, to increase our income as presently I work 30 hours and this is for 40hours, although unsure of the salary at the moment so it may be it's not worth doing. Oh why was I so silly in the past??

[chocs]

hi
to the last three posts and thanks for the support
i will keep in touch isthereanend
i too dont want to sell up its took years to turn our house into my own home i am not ready mentally or physically to move house my youngest is in his first year at secondry school and i want him to stay there as my other two children did very well there my eldest has moved out and my other son has just left school and has just started college so as you can see i need to do something less drastic than going br and giving up our family home i will keep you posted how we progress
can i just say though i was told by guardian finance i would recive all th bumf for an iva yesterday it still hasnt arrived so i am now definatly going to shop around i am runnig out of time as the bankruptcy petition is being handed to me at 11.30 am on tuesday what happens next does anyone know also the debt is in both our names but the petition has been sent to me in just my name [they also had the audacity to put dear sir rather than madam] WHY ARE THEY not pursuing both of us