I'm two and a half years into IVA and just lost my job with no redundancy payout. I have no assets and live with parents. A family member has offered to take out a loan so I can do a full and final offer and then pay them back each month once I get a job. Please can you let me know what you think of this as trying to see if other people think I would be better going bankrupt. i know I can request a payment break but to be honest I am fed up having the IVA hanging over me and don't want to extend it. I am worried incase I can't get a job to pay family person back. They have said they are still happy to lend me the money, but I don't feel comfortable as I don't want to put them in a difficult situation if I can't find work. Also I have heard it takes ages for IVA to be completed even if full and final is agreed and that it can take several months to get the meeting set up for the offer to be put forward. It all sounds complicated, so I am thinking is bankruptcy a better solution? I know I would have to pay an IPA for three years if I got a job and had surplus income. Any views would be welcome please.
You could ask creditors to accept what has been paid as full and final but they would probably sanction a payment break instead. An offer from a third party would certainly sweeten a full and final and give you time to repay.
It is a balance between you getting into debt for the full and final, having a payment break and letting the IVA run its course when you find work or going bankrupt with the possibility of a three year IPO when you find a job.
Personally I would think the full and final gives you more freedom and so long as tghe offer is pitched at a reasonable level which you could repay when back in work that is what I would do.
Personally, if I were in your position, I would seriously look at BR, as long as your future line of work isn't in the financial sector.
You might get an IPA -- which would leave you in pretty much the same position, time wise. But BR cannot fail and, IPA apart, you are likely to be discharged in 12 months.
The only downside is raising the fees and that your credit file will be blighted for 6 years from the BR, rather than the start of the IVA.
I would also mention that going BR will be just as, if not more, complicated that getting through a full and final ---BUT, you won't have a family debt hanging over you.
My opinions are merely that .. opinions based on experience. Always seek professional advice.
IVA Completed 23rd July 2013 .... C.C. 10th January 2014
I'm really confused. I spoke to my IP yesterday and said that I am thinking of doing a Full and Final offer, but he's said that I would still have to keep paying my monthly IVA payments until the offer is refused or accepted and i can't have any payment holiday even though I have never had one before and it says in my IVA agreement that up to 6 months can be granted. I would have thought that seeing as I am now out of a job that this would be a time when I could request one. This defeats the object of me borrowing off my family member so I can offer a Full and Final because I am now unemployed so can't make the monthly payments, which is why I was considering a Full and Final offer. So i am now confused because as a Full and Final can take months to sort out, that means I will be in breach of my IVA if I am not paying it. And I don't want to ask to borrow the monthly payments off anyone because I feel bad enough even considering borrowing from them to do the Full and Final offer, let alone saying can I also have some money please for 3 months worth of monthly payments. Also I am reluctant to pay anymore monthly payments into the IVA if I do decide to put an offer forward and it's refused. Really don't know what the best way forward is or what to do now.
Who are you with, Wineglass ? Although payment breaks are discretionary this is just the situation they were built in to the arrangement for.
I would suggest you INSIST on speaking with your IP and that the person you have been chatting to is either trying to be obstructive or simply needs a bit more training.
My opinions are merely that .. opinions based on experience. Always seek professional advice.
IVA Completed 23rd July 2013 .... C.C. 10th January 2014
Thanks for all your replies. I'm with one of the big IVA providers, but don't want to name them at present if that's ok. It is the IP who is saying I can't have a payment break if I am proposing a full and final offer. But I don't know how he accepts me to still pay the monthly amount as I can't magic it up out of no where. So I just feel like if I do go for proposing a full and final offer it's going to fail because I will be in breach by the time it gets to the creditors voting on it stage as apparently that can take several months. I am now thinking do I just let my IVA fail and see if I can negotiate myself with my creditors to do full and finals as some have sold the debts on and I have read somewhere that these companies are more likely to accept full and finals. Or do I just bite the bullet and go bankrupt. I'm not trying to avoid paying my debts but it really feels like they are making this process too complicated. Also, I have been on a 15% reduction and they want to increase this back to what I was originally paying. So my full and final offer is based on X number of payments left multiplied by the original monthly amount, instead of what I was paying with the 15% reduction. But again what confuses me is how can they now decide to increase my monthly payments by 15% back to what the original amount was a month when I have now lost my job and have no income. I have been told I need to do an income and expenditure review and to provide details of my husband's salary. But the IVA is in my sole name. We have no joint debts and the debts were from when I was younger before I even knew him. He is now paying all the bills because i am out of a job, so how can they base my income and expenditure and full and final offer on his salary.
One of the big providers does base payments on household income .... don't know if this one is yours.
When I proposed my full and final it was because we could no longer afford the payments. My IP put us on a payment break for this reason, while the F&F was being drawn up.
Part of his reasoning was that, if the creditors see you making the payments, they will not accept that you cannot make the payments !!! So the fact that you are not making payments backs up the reason for the F&F.
My opinions are merely that .. opinions based on experience. Always seek professional advice.
IVA Completed 23rd July 2013 .... C.C. 10th January 2014
That's what seems so crazy is them saying i still have to make payments. If I could afford to pay it each month I wouldn't be looking at doing a Full and Final. The only way I could keep up with the monthly payments would be for my husband to use his credit card to lend me the money, which is madness and would land us in a huge amount of mess, so there's no way I would ever do that. I am also now thinking that in a way I am going to be swopping one lot of debt for another as if the F and F is agreed then I will have to pay the family member back (which is quite right), but it's not really solving anything as swopping one debt for another. Maybe I should just go bankrupt, try and find a new job and pay into an IPA for 3 years and then at least my debt won't be involving anyone else as I gather IPAs don't take husband's income into account - they just look to see that partners are paying their fair share of the household expenses. I know bankruptcy is drastic and won't be a picnic, but I really think these IVAs are stressful. Having no assets and no job that would have been at risk I am kicking myself now that I entered into one in the first place and didn't just go bankrupt back then. No one forced me though - so it was my own fault.
BR isn't the ogre it used to be and it is arguable that the stain it leaves is no worse than that of an IVA. To be honest, if my creditors hadn't accepted the F&F I would probably have gone BR as I only entered an IVA to try to pay back as much as possible.
My opinions are merely that .. opinions based on experience. Always seek professional advice.
IVA Completed 23rd July 2013 .... C.C. 10th January 2014
