www.iva.co.uk

Hello, im new to this and am thinking of getting an iva as things are getting seriously desperate and my debts overwhelming!! at the moment i am paying my minimum monthly ammounts for all my debts and always have done- will this go against me if i try to get an iva or am i better off to stop paying them before applying? I want to be responsible but i dont want to be penalised for it. Thanks in advance for your help R

hi rochelle and welcome - you have come to a great place for help and advice!

brecause you are up to date with your payments does not mean you can not apply for a iva - we were up to date at the time we applied and ours got approved! it obviously depends on a number of factors, one of them being that you have to be insolvent! having saif=d that even if a iva is not viable there are other options that will be available to you!

hang on in here and if you can post a few more details such as unsecured debt amounts, any secured lending you have, property value, mortgage and if any equity available and disposable income available after paying essential outgoings eg gas electric mortgage secured loans etc - a professional should be along soon to advise you!

you are probably best contacting 2 or 3 ips so that thye can go through your options with you, good luck try not to worry there will be a way forward for you!

love barb x

Hi there and a warm welcome to the forum

I think that you need to seek professional advice from an insolvency practitioner to see what options there are available to you. If you are just about managing to meet the minimum monthly repayments, it seems to me that you have a debt management problem rather than a debt problem, so perhaps some general advice about money management or even a Debt Management Programme might be sensible options.

If, however, you have only been meeting the monthly debt repayments by relying on other sources of credit, this might be indicative that you need a more formal solution.

Your other problem is that by meeting only the minimum monthly payment might mean that your debt is increasing by the addition of more Interest. Speak to an IP and give him/her all your financial facts and no doubt you will be given the most appropriate advice. Good luck.

hi thanks everyone. um yes i am using other debt(overdraft usually) to pay the minimum on all the other cards which is making everything worse admitadly then i end up with no money in my account so have to take cash off credit cards for bills that come out my bank. im £22000aprox in debt , i dont own a house so no mortgage etc. i need to sit down and figure out my spending for essentials eg rent,car, bills and contact a company to help me figure this out (Melanie i will be in touch soon lol) what is a normal sor tof cost for an insolvency practitioner? also what sort of paperwork will be needed eg bank statments? thanks R

If you are using additional borrowings to simply meet your debt repayments and usual household and personal expenditure, your debts are just going to carry on growing to the extent that you will not be able to borrow any more or afford to pay back what you have already borrowed. This is not a sensible way forward.

I am glad that you are now focussed on working out your income and expenditure, to see what is actually left over at the end of each month to offer to creditors. At this stage, you do not need to worry about how much this will cost you, as you will only incur fees if an IVA or DMP is accepted, and these will be drawn out of your contributions. The IP you choose to represent you will discuss the level of their proposed charges with you, and you will need to agree to these in order to proceed.

You will need to produce bank statements, creditors statements, loan agreements, wage-slips, rental agreement, council tax bill and any other information which may be of relevance to your case.

Good luck in your search, and do continue to post on the forum if you have any more questions.

ok great, how far back to statments need to go? all mine and my partners household bills come out of my account then i put cash in from him for his share which might not look clear on statments etc so will this complicate things? would it be a better idea for us to set up a seperate joint bank account for this if i enter into an iva?
Whilst working out my expenditure for each month what do i do about things i only pay once or twice a year eg car insurance, tax? do i work out what they would be monthly to include in this or are anual things seperate? thanks R

Just work out things like road tax over the year and divide by 12. Well done for removing your head from the sand,very empowering if you ask me. Good luck in sorting things out.