After going through the first stages of an IVA (my meeting is next wednesday - yikes) it seems to me that to help people not to get in a mess in the first place, creditors should run the same income and expenses questions as most of us have had to fill in with our IP's. I know that if i'd sat down and not just thought of how many cards i had and how much i pay in rent when filling in the basic credit card applications then i'd not be in this position now.
That is a very good idea - and I do think that the banks are going to be more careful about lending over the next couple of years. They are also going to be sharing more information with each other to try and stop people borrowing from a number of banks at the same time.
