My girlfriend and I are thinking about entering into an IVA, please can you help me by answering some questions.
1) What happens if our salaries increase within the 5 years. Will all the extra money go to our creditors?
2) What happens if personal situation changes? ie we split up or if we need to move for family reasons?
3)How much control do we have, do we need to send payslips and bank statements every month?
I hope you can help as I am very nervous as I do not know what the future holds. I have no experience with these finical matters and need some decent advice from someone who has my interests at heart.
Welcome to the forum. An IVA is individual to everyone based on their level of debt and their icome and expenditure.
It is recommended that you approach two or three providers initially to talk through your situation before deciding on one to represent you. A good starting point is www.iva.com
An iva is aimed at making the best return to creditors possible over it's duration.
Living through an iva is not easy, requires focus and determination ... Your life isn't put on hold, but can sometimes be restrictive in as much as weekend cash is limited ... You have to be ingenuitive and think of different things to do ..... We held dinner partys with friends based on each making one course of the dinner snd set a £10 limit ....we also started camping for weekends away rather than hotels in the country... Long walks ...visiting relatives for weekends .... Taking picnics on day trips rather than buying food out .....
Have a chat with two or three providers and be sure an iva is the right solution for you both.
Good luck
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
There is a solution for everyone .... Just need to stay positive !
The IVAs are reviewed each year and if your overall surplus increases after allowing for increased cost of living, your IVA payments usually go up by half of the additional money.
If the IVAs are interlocking and you split, the IVAs can be severed and each or either continue on. If the IVAs are separate and you part, then new income and expenditure accounts are done to see if they can continue or whether they need to be closed down.
Finally, it is nopt 'Big Brother' and not all firms ask for bank statements after approval. Siome do but we do not as it is your business how you spend your own money. It is good practice to send in monthly wage slips so any overtime or bonuses can be addressed but that is to keep things right and not to monitor what you are doing.
Get some free advice from an IP firm and hopefully all your queries will be answered.
I would definitely advocate getting some advice directly from an insolvency practitioner, as the questions you are raising are perfectly reasonable and show that you are giving the matter much thought.
These days IVAs are designed to be flexible to meet your changing needs over a five year period, and also to ensure that you keep some of the additional earnings you may achieve as an incentive for you to get on with your lives and not feel that you are being held back due to the nature of historic old debt.
It is the job of a good insolvency practitioner to ensure that you are fully conversant with all of the debt solutions available to you, and that you are given guidance as to the advantages, disadvantages and implications of each one - but that ultimately you decide which one will be the best.