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Hi - my husband and I jointly owe around £50,000 on unsecured, credit cards & loans. We were basically living off credit for most of our adult lives. Since August 2007 we have been in a DMP with the CCCS. However a couple of the creditors have refused to hold or reduce the interest so I feel we are getting nowhere even though we are paying nearly £500 back per month.
We have now decided to look into an IVA but too be honest we don''t know where to start. We have no equity in our home, and we;re both constantly worried we will end up losing it although we do prioritise the mortgage payment and are not in arrears.
I would be grateful for any advice of what we should do next.

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

There are a lot of companies out there you can phone for advice for an IVA, doesn't matter that you are in a DMP with someone else. This happened to me and I managed to secure an IVA.

Visit www.iva.com for a list of companies you can contact, or you could try a couple of the experts and debt advisors that post on here, such as Melanie Giles, Andy Davie or VikiW. All come highly recommended. You can find their contact details under the expert link on the left hand side of the page.

They will advise you of all your options and advise as to the best way forward.

With £500 going across to your dmp, I would say you were a good candidate for an IVA.

Hi
As long as you continue paying your mortgage your home will be safe in an IVA, you MAY have to release some of the equity in the final year [if you have any]in an IVA.
Have a chat with two or three companies to see if an IVA is viable.
Regards

Hi there and a warm welcome to the forum

Again I am expressing some suprise that CCCS have not advised you about proposing an IVA to your creditors. With the ability to pay £500 per month, against debts of £50,000 it does appear that you would fit IVA criteria, but it is important to make sure that you receive proper and rounded advice about all options available to you.

It would be wise to contact an insolvency practitioner who will undertstand your current financial position and be able to explain options to you. They will then advice you on all of the debt solutions available to you, so that you can make a proper choice about the way forward. CCCS actually have an IVA department, hence my suprise that this was not highlighted to you as an option.

Typical of CCCS - you are a prime candidate for an IVA - speak to an Insolvency Practitioner as soon as possible - don't worry as long as you keep up your mortgage payments your house is secure. Visit www.iva.com for recommendations of IP's.

Hi and thanks for all your replies. I will call some IVA companies and get the ball rolling but should I contact the CCCS first who currently hold ore DMP? Do they advise on IVA's? The only other question I have is, do we include the unsecured part of our mortgage on the IVA (N.R Together Mortgage? I wish I found this site 18 months ago!!

Hi
CCCs do have their own IVA division but it may pay you to look around.
Your NR unsecured element should be included in any IVA proposal.
Regards

I suppose you have to question why CCCS did not give you advice about an IVA in the first place, if you are thinking of continuing to deal with them. As Andy says the unsecured element of the Northern Rock debt needs to be included as a creditor, and the amount you are paying to this loan then is freed up to add to your disposable income. How were CCCS treating the unsecured element in your DMP proposal?

I would definitely give a couple of other companies a call, initial advice is free. If they advised that an IVA was right for you, you could always go back to CCCS armed with this information if you wanted to carry on using them.

Otherwise, go with a company you feel happy with as 5 years is a long time.

The unsecured part of the mortgage is not included on the DMP. Its our fault as too be honest I've always just thought of it as the "mortgage" and didn't think to declare it on the DMP. I'm unsure why the cccs didn't offer an IVA 18 months ago but there you go - it just shows that it pays to shop around for advice.
Since we took the decision to go on a dmp things have been tough with regards to creditors calling and most of them wouldn't freeze the interest. I've just looked at my most recent cccs statement and although we have paid nearly £7500 over the last 15mths it hasn't touched some debts due to interest.
We've just got to the point where I feel that if we dont take some kind of decisive action now then in 6 years time (end of dmp) we will still be in the same situation.
Thanks for all your help and advice so far!!

I would very much recommend you to take advice directly from an insolvency practitioner with regard to your options, as you do not appear to be getting anywhere with this DMP.

I feel the same way - will be contacting you shortly. Many thanks for your quick reply

Again DMP's are not necessarily right especially with no interest freeze. Speak to one or two IP's and don't go with the first one - check out recommendations on www.iva.com. I would certainly give CCCS a miss!