My First Anniversary

[Number 6]

Its been a long year in our household but in a funny way its also gone fast.

Things went in to meltdown last February when our "friend" for the journey of the last 27 years decided we were no longer triple A rated as a couple and would not extend our overdraft facility.

Despite already owing them £20k they gave my selfemployed wife a loan for £17k plus £4k PPI only 12 months before!

With over £100k debt with 15 creditors or more we hit the panic button.

Lloyds best offer was to roll up their debt over 10 years. I decided that it was unlikely we could sustain the payments over this period and that it was anyway only 50% of the answer. It would leave us heading toward retirement with no possible way of providing for our 4 children.

Debt Free Direct helped me immensely. They got me through the 6 months it took to set up the IVA, (due I guess to demand and maybe also the business interests we had).

For anyone reading this who thinks their bank or finance provider is warm and friendly let me assure you the adverts on television are designed to give you a warm feeling about them.

When they decide they dont want you on their air conditioned premium class train to nowhere and you are no longer of any use other than a bad debt they set the dogs loose.

Phone calls came 7 days a week from 0800 to 2100. Every day or every otherday. Asking the same questions over and over again.

Asking for money. Any money you can give they want NOW!

Until the creditors meeting we paid what we could and dealt politely with them unless they were not polite to us. Even the most blue chip business has their own departments full of agressive, nasty and rude individuals to make sure you realise they mean business.

As they began to realise the creditors meeting was on the way they sold the debt on to other firms. These were the worst. Threatening and agressive calls must be part of the training.

Anyway I advise you to pay what you can to your creditor and then rejoice when the agreement is set up.

We have no spare money for holidays. Grandma helps us out.

But we have enough to look after the children and keep us sheltered, clothed and fed.

There is little slack for things come out of the blue. At the moment I have a list of essentials i cant buy. new tyre for the car. A windscreen replacement.

Its not easy to do business travel overseas without a credit card. But I have managed.

To summarise the IVA is working for us. We are paying back as much as we can. We are able to keep the family happy.

God willing my wife and I will stay in work over the next 4 years and beyond. We will come out of it wiser and stronger.

I have a much clearer image of the financial industry and the banks and credit card providers in particular.

For them we are all nothing but targets to extract as much money from as possible for as long as possible.

I signed on the dotted line but they tied on as much as they could to the donkey until it could move no more.

Its time people in the UK woke up to it and told the piuos CEO's of the top 5 where to get off! Save and use your own money. Credit really does stink!

Finally....anyone who thinks that the banks are interested in your welfare and health needs their heads looking at.

The only language they understand is MONEY.

Oh yes and how did we get here. Well my wife left employemnt in 1991 and we had 4 kids in 7 years. My salary wasnt quite enough and despite attempts to go back to work my wife found it impossible to make ends meet with childcare costs.

Did we take loads of foreign holidays, buy expensive cars, clothes , drink smoke ....NO!

We went bust because its expensive bringing up kids and we didnt manage our money well enough.

[welshman]

Whoa...tone that font size down

[CoverItAll]

Hi Number 6

How was the £4k single premium PPI sold to you by the bank ?

Could it have been mis-sold ?

John Tegg
www.asu4iva.co.uk
0845 673 9999

We will make all your IVA payments for you if Accident or Sickness stops you paying them yourself.

[Number 6]

Sorry bout the font! LOL

John,

Actually I think it was. I was gobsmacked my wife could walk in to Lloyds who knew exactly what our financial situation was and offer her a loan and suggest she could only have the loan with the PPI. It was a specific self employ type but really if I had know that it was 4k and half went to our ACCOUNT ManagerI would have said no. We would have owed 20k less and entered the IVA a year earlier.

Now the PPI is rolled up into the agreement.

I feel nauseated everytime I see the Lloyds adverts running on TV at the moment.

I couldnt beleive just how arrogant our local bank manager was when he said that Lloyds no longer really wanted our custom and wouldnt extend the over draft. We were pariahs. Now I realise just how low these people are in their comfy airconditioned offices suckin the life blood from the best of us.

Their shrill mouth piece at the BBA needs to waken up and stop spraying the slurry her masters send her to read out.

They dont care about the starving across the world why should they care about the untouchables who took their money and for good reason couldnt pay back when they wanted it?

As I see it they realised about 2 years ago the brown stuff was going to hit the fan and started getting rid of the bad debt types by drawing aline under the credit on offer after loading us up with too much.

They knew they had overlended and to risky customers. But hey we were all on a roll.

Now the sub prime iceberg in the atlantic has damaged the hull.

Suddenly offering 10 times salary seems amazing to buy a house??

World has gone nuts.

[Adam Davies]

Hi Number 6
I'm glad that your IVA is working for you and can empathise with many of your points.
I'm sure that you will agree that we are ultimately responsible for our own debt problems however I agree that these have been exasperated by banks ease of lending.
Regards

Andy Davie
IVA.co.uk Spokesperson

About me:
http://www.iva.co.uk/andy_davie_profile.asp

IVA Helpline: 0800 197 4838
http://www.iva.co.uk/iva_helpline.asp

[CoverItAll]

Hi Number 6

Making a loan conditional upon buying PPI does not just conflict with things like the Banking code - it is also illegal !.

Was the cover on both of you ?
Did they explain to your wife what unemployment cover was available for the self employed ?
Why did they say you had to pay a single premium that would increase your loan ?
Did they tell you the cover would expire after 5 years ?

Could you scan your policy terms and conditions and e-mail them to me ?

I see a reclaim of premium here, and would with pleasure help you with your claim at no cost to you.



John Tegg
www.asu4iva.co.uk
0845 673 9999

We will make all your IVA payments for you if Accident or Sickness stops you paying them yourself.

[Number 6]

Andie

Sorry if my contribuiton semed like a bit of a rant.

I tried to make it clear that I beleive in personal responsibility and that anyone that signs up for credit deluding themselves it will get paid somehow and not facing the fact it wont need to waken up.

At the same time as you rightly say the banks are a lot more sophisticated than they used to be. They look at their customers using graphs and binomial curves. I suggest they have simply adjusted the lines on the graph and decided to jettison those they had already loaded up.

Its only human nature, when the whole country is on a roll spending like no tomorrow for the last decade the boys in grey suits want some of the action.

They just got too greedy and sold too many cedit card and loans to too many customers without properly checking them.

The system is weighted in their favour.....they dont care about any of us.

Im not a number Im a free man !

Hi Number 6
I'm glad that your IVA is working for you and can empathise with many of your points.
I'm sure that you will agree that we are ultimately responsible for our own debt problems however I agree that these have been exasperated by banks ease of lending.
Regards

Andy Davie
IVA.co.uk Spokesperson

About me:
http://www.iva.co.uk/andy_davie_profile.asp

IVA Helpline: 0800 197 4838
http://www.iva.co.uk/iva_helpline.asp

[sonyse2t5]

Number 6,

THe Banks are finally on the run for years of irresponsible and rip off and provocateur activities - (PPI,Bank charges for Current acount,Creditcards)

If the Banks have to be told that you have to get to 100K of debt before the debtor say they can't afford to pay then they are runned by people with no IQs. It is a run away train that creditors are just BLIND to see incase you pulled the plug on them too early.

They can't even be bothered to find out how much you have borrowed before saying yes to more credit as they are so desperate to lend.

When you are in the hole then they will gather up all the credit records and see the 100K and say no more OD for you matey.

Thanks to people Like Matthew Wright are the consumers hitting back in forms -IVA and BR been TWO ways!

[Adam Davies]

Hi
As i've said we all have to take some responsibility for our debts.Yes creditors have made it easy to borrow money,no doubt about that and Sonyse2t5 obviously feels strongly about this,however there is a whole number of reasons that people get into heavy debt and ease of lending is just one of them.
Regards



Andy Davie
IVA.co.uk Spokesperson

About me:
http://www.iva.co.uk/andy_davie_profile.asp

IVA Helpline: 0800 197 4838
http://www.iva.co.uk/iva_helpline.asp

[Sadsack]

I took out a loan and they added PPI to it which I did not want and told them so yet they still included it. I read the terms and conditions and had a period of 14 days in which to decline the PPI which I did, to no avail. I entered into an IVA in Sept '06, and lo and behold, £18k of that debt (yes, £18k) on a loan of £20k was PPI and they included it in their claim.

The system sucks!!

Sue

Ho Hum! Think I'll bang my drum!

Read My Blog
http://sadsack.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[Soulgrowth]

Hi Number6

My debt was accrued in exactly the same way ... the normal costs of living in bringing a young family us as a single parent.

If only I had some exotic holidays to show for it ... perhaps one day ... at least I can still dream [:)]

Debbie

www.familyceremonies.co.uk

www.soulgrowth.co.uk

[zarron]

here is my experience with the banking system which actually worked in my favour!

when i was going under with debts of just over 70k (across 12 credit cards, 3 store cards and a loan) and my overdraft was being exceeded every month my bank (Llyods TSB) called me in for a financial consultation and after going through all my expenditure said that i was overspending by £1000 a month.

and their solution? they offered my a Llyods TSB credit card (with no interest for 3 months) to transfer 10k of the debt to! (there was no mention of an IVA)

ironically it worked out really well because at my creditors meeting Llyods TSB voted yes to the IVA (along with the co-op) and that 10k made the difference in getting over my 75% voting threshold!

strange how things work out isnt it!