Hi all... Newbie alert!

[Jinx]

Hi all... have been browsing the site for most of the day while bored at work! Its great... so supportive and informative!

I'm a single 29yo professional bloke from Manchester. I've been in my IVA for 30 months and am feeling the squeeze!

I found this site by accident, while looking for get outs of IVA's so far I can only see F&F payments or bankruptcy?

Anyway how, just saying hiya!

[abc]

or if you have had a material change of circumstances it is possible for you to ask your supervisor to review your income & expenditure with a view to proposing a variation to reduce contributions. Would be a shame for your IVA to fail given you are half way through!

For F&F you will need to offer creditors something by way of third party monies or sale/remortgage of the property etc

[snowy]

Hi there

I have only known about this forum for a few days but it is a fantastic support, sharing your experiences with other people who you know are all in the same kind of boat one way or another!

[Jinx]

Hi ABC, I only found about about variations from this site this morning, guess I really should read the fine print!

Hi Snowy, It can get pretty stressful! I found just reading some of the positive posts really helpful!

[MelanieGiles]

Hi Jinx and welcome to the forum

What has happened to cause you to be struggling with your IVA payments? You are half-way through now, so the end is in sight!

[Jinx]

I am a single guy with no property etc and therefore apart from personal living expenses & travel expenses for work I have no expenditure. This means that my IVA repayments are massive. For me the significant issue is at 29, I have no life!!!!

[abc]

I fully understand, but if you were to consider bankruptcy this may have implications on you with your career either now or in the future. You have not mentioned what you do. Also, if you went bankrupt you would have to pay 36 payments as an income payments order, so continuing with your IVA as you only have 30 payments left!!! Although an IPO would probably be for lower monthly payments.

[MelanieGiles]

The problem with entering into an IVA is that your creditors do expect you to offer up the full extent of your disposable income in return for them writing off a proportion of your debts. What was it that attracted you to an IVA in preference to bankruptcy proceedings in the beginning?

[Jinx]

Well at the time I was living with a girlfriend and we were looking at getting a mortgage together.(she has of course upped & gone cos I'm skint and boring)

Having looked into my options further now a DMP would probably have been a better option for me. I responded to a radio advert not really understanding what IVA's were about. Although the company explained the pro's & cons of an IVA they just offered it as an alternative to bankruptcy without explaining the other alternatives.

[MelanieGiles]

Skint possibly! But I am sure not boring!!

A DMP would have meant that you would have had to keep paying until the debts were paid off in full, possibly with ongoing interest being added and no legal protection from the actions of creditors. Unless you are paying 100p in the £, I would have thought that the IVA is still the better option.

[Jinx]

Well thanks for the positive advice!

I am on the downhill stretch now which helps to keep morale up. I just hope that my payments dont keep increasing every year! Out of interest what is the usual percentage of disposable income that an IP would expect you to pay?

[MelanieGiles]

That depends upon the terms of your own IVA - but most IPs would take a balanced view and leave you with some of the additional monies earned if they could. Have you had to increase your payments every year - and do be sure to include all areas of increased expenditure in those reviews.

[Jinx]

Yes when I started the IVA they were comfortable and now I can cover them but things are much tighter.

The main problem I find is that I travel 60miles round trip each day to work and when my car failed it MOT it cost nearly £600 to repair and I just had to find the money. As the last time I spoke to my IP about having a payment break due to my old car having a terminal break down I was told it wasn't possible despite the fact if I cant drive I cant work. Fortunately I have understanding parents who gifted me a replacement vehicle.

What is the usual procedure for Payment breaks?

[MelanieGiles]

Why don't you ask them to vary the terms of the arrangement. These days, most IVAs provide for payments to be reduced by up to 15% at the discretion of the supervisor. I appreciate that yours probably won't, but the general spirit of reasonableness could be applied here. You can miss up to three payments without going into default, but I would not recommend this without discussion with your own IP. Do you have a car maintenance budget in your allowances?

[Jinx]

Yes there is a maintainance allowance but it only just covers road tax and an annual oil change. Can I specify a higher rate if I can prove its justified?