www.iva.co.uk

I have overdraft, bank loan and credit card debt of about £18500(4 lenders). I also have student loans amounting to about £15000. Im not presently paying off any of the student loans. Would an IVA be possible to pay off only the overdraft, bank loans and credit card debt?

No - you would need to include the Student Loans into the IVA - unless the other creditors expressly agreed that they could be left out. The Student Loans company will reject any IVAs presented with dividends of lower than 90p in the £ - and if you were able to offer that you would probably not need an IVA in the first place.

Do remember that you cannot avoid Student Loans under bankruptcy proceedings either.

Hi, my student loan was left out of my IVA as I was told it would reject the whole IVA.

Well your IP should not have left a creditor out of your IVA unless it was with the full disclosure to and the acceptance of your other creditors.

I think it was disclosed as it was mentioned on all my documents.

Thankyou both for the info. I guess its worth trying for the IVA then, as Bankrupcy isnt really an option at the moment because I live in my parents house (I heard they might get a bad credit rating if I declare Bankrupcy under the same household).

You will still need to address the Student Loan issue.

We had a similar situation - I have paid off my student loan but my wife still had hers and had no realistic way of ever paying it back as she is unlikely to get a job that pays enough. We nearly forgot to add it into the creditors details but when we did they rejected it (I was told that they reject all proposals). They were overruled and now will have to abide by the terms. Good luck!!

The way I work (and I think Melanie does too) is as follows:

If the Student Loan is less than 25% of your total debts then it makes sense to include it in the IVA. If it's over 25%, giving them the power to block unless they get the 90p in the £, then usually creditors will be happy to see your income and expenditure provide for ongoing payments to be made, so long as the IVA otherwise stacks up.

Given that your Student Loan will account for almost 50% of your total debt I would expect your IP to approach the creditors reps to discuss it in principle as it's not ideal for almost half your debt to be effectively excluded.

Ian