debt collector

[llj]

hello am currently with melanie giles and going through the process of an iva, seems relly strange not paying the debts and have been told by a creditor egg that they will initiate doorstep collections can they do this, also one creditor asked if i could reduce my weekly food bill for a family of four to ten pounds, cannot believe it this was lloyds.

[Viki.W]

Hey llj, welcome to the forum. I am also with Melanie, you're in good hands. Try not to worry, all the creditors will threaten this, but it's rare to have anyone come out to the house. Wow, £10, I wonder how they work that out! X

[llj]

exactly, ten pounds cant get a good chinese for that, even though we dont know what that is like these days, is it right not to pay anything it will be the first month of not paying the loan and they aint gonna like it

[Til]

Hi llj welcome to forum,

I'm no expert but yes it is right to stop paying as this is your time to take control back a little and to build a small contigency fund for when you start your IVA.

I know it seems wrong and very scary - it certainly did for us - but it's a bit like turning and facing the monster. You know the debt is there and the only reason you can make payments is to rob peter to pay paul so really what you are doing is holding up your hands, saying enough is enough, and making a clean start so you know where you are with your money.

It is the right thing to do to allow you to regain control and start afresh.

Good luck although sure you won't need it with Melanie and her team as they get great praise on forum [:)]

[kallis3]

Hi, and welcome from me too.

Wow! £10.00! I would have asked them if they could manage to do that! The minimum I have managed for a family of 2 (which sometimes expands to 4 if daughter and boyfriend are here) is about £40 - and that's with having stuff stockpiled in the cupboards and the freezer!

Don't worry about not making any payments. Your creditors will be told soon about your intention of going for an IVA. If you speak to them, don't be bullied into making a payment. Just be polite, inform them what is going on, and then put the phone down.

Don't worry about debt collectors either. They very rarely call, and if they do, you do not have to speak to them and they cannot force you to pay anything.

[Abi]

Hi llj,
We are with Melanie, and we missed 3 months payments before our IVA was approved, we have not up to yet had any door step creditors, so don't worry to much and as kallis say you don't have to speak to them.

Love Abi x

[plasticdaft]

Egg will call you a lot,my advice is to answer the phone and inform them that your are in the process of having an iva proposed and are not in a position to make a payment. They will tell you lies,along the lines of we will vote no to your proposal unless you pay blah de blah,but just politely say no you cannot pay and hang up.

It is strange not paying creditors but if you have decided that the iva is the way forward then embrace it and look foward to sorting yourself out.

[pauly]

so do you have to stop payments before a iva can be set up?or can u carry on paying if can until a ive is set up?

[freelili]

You can stop now, you have made the decision to go for an IVA, if you can build up a bit of money now, it will help towards anything that might happen duing the IVA, like the washing machine (heaven forbid) breaking or something.

The call centres that phone you up are paid to extract as much money as they can from you and will threaten all sorts of things. They are basically just doing their job. Some dont even know what an IVA is. It would cost the companies a fortune to do house calls, although it does happen, its really very rare. I didnt pay my creditors for 12 months and didnt get one, I was threatened though.

In my humble opinion its not worth entering into a converstation with these people, they are NOT interested, dont care, and rarely listen anyway. They want money and thats all. So just tell them your intentions and hang up. Dont be bullied, you dont have to go hungry because Lloyds TSB think you should.

[MelanieGiles]

Or you could just make token payments based upon affordability, which might stop some of the letters and telephone calls whilst your IP is putting your IVA proposal together.

[freelili]

I took my IP's advise and did this, made token payments but it didnt stop any of the calls, what I paid was never enough and they just phoned and asked for more. They sad to avoid legal action I had to increase the payment or make them more often.

That was my experience though I cannot speak for anyone else of course.

[michael.t47]

i did not pay anybody for 4 months, had a debt collector for egg turn up once, i was in bed cos i was on nights so did not answerphone. he left a card with his number on tho
i rung him at half past midnight woke him up an took out all my frustrations on him. poor b*****