www.iva.co.uk

I can afford my mortgage its just all the other debt I have got into. Do I have to include the mortgaga in the IVA?

Hi Carl and welcome.

Your mortgage does not go into your IVA, only unsecured debts are included.

Your mortgage just goes down on your income and expenditure sheet so that IVA payments can be calculated

carl91 welcome to the forum,keep asking the questions,as I get the feeling you are still unsure of yourself and the whole IVA process,we are all here to help and many of us if not all have been in the same boat trying to work out what the best thing to do is.

Paul

Once you have taken your mortgage and all other essential household and personal expenditure, would you have any spare money left to offer to creditors on an ongoing monthly basis?

Also what are the total of your debts and what is the mortgagae amount and what is the property currently worth?

Hi, thanks for all your advice so far. I (think) an IVA is the right way to go for me now as i am living beyond my means. I just have a couple more questions if I may?

1) Do I just stop paying my creditors before the IVA is agreed or continue to make payments that I can?
2) I am and have been for about 9 years with a Debt Managment Company. Does that effect my wanting to do an IVA. They aren't aware of all my debt

If you are not planning on using your DMP company to propose an IVA, I would be guided by your new IP as to whether to make token payments or not. I was in a dmp then switched to a different company for my IVA, I made no payments at all once the ball was rolling.

You having done a DMP for that length of time shows commitment to your creditors and will certainly not be detrimental.

I suggest you ring a couple of IPs and take advice. Melanie Giles comes highly recommended, as do debt advisors Andy Davie and VikiW. Phone them for advice and they will explain all your options to you.

Hi Carl

Before you stop paying creditors, I suggest that you have a chat with an insolvency practitioner who can confirm the options available to you, so that you can decide on the most appropriate route forward.

The fact that you are in a DMP does not stop you from proposing an IVA, but out of courtesty you ought to advise that company of your intentions. If an IVA is an option for you now, I am suprised that this company have not highlighted this to you earlier, as 9 years is a long time to have been paying into something, to then have to face five years of an IVA.

Most IP firms are now up an running again after the Xmas holidays, and a quick call will easily set your mind at rest as to the options for going forward.

I think it might depend on the company he has used Melanie. The one I used only did DMP's, not IVA's so it was never an option for us with them.

As soon as Payplan advised us that an IVA was an option and started the ball rolling, we informed our other company as we then stopped making payments to them.

Even if they do not offer them, Jan, a DMP company ought to be providing advice about all repayment options to their clients. Companies which fail to provide rounded advice will eventually fall foul of their Consumer Credit Licence requirements - and rightly so in my opinion!

I have just looked on their website, and they do offer them now. I could never understand why we were initally told we couldn't do an IVA, or a DMP and were infact told that bankruptcy was our only option! That was Money,Debt,Credit who told us that!

We went eventually via another company, the name of which escapes me, who sorted out the DMP.

Incredible! Were you aggrieved when you found out that you could have proposed an IVA from day 1, or just glad to eventually get it sorted out? And did you feel that the initial DMP was a good way of learning how to budget and stick to a repayment plan, or would an IVA have done this for you from day 1?

A bit of both I think. Annoyed because we would have been just over two years in now instead of 8 months, but pleased that we were eventually able to do something.

The DMP was good in as much as we managed to get all the interest and charges frozen, and the phone calls stopped. The bad thing was that I still had two credit cards which I hadn't told them about as there was nothing owing at the time, but instead of cutting them up, I used them until they were maxed out. If I'd had the IVA I would have had to cut them up or run the risk of it failing.

Learnt my lesson the hard way!

That is one of the pitfalls of a DMP Jan - there is always the temptation to use more credit and then end up in a worse mess.

And don't I know it! Caused no end of problems! However, that's all behind us now.