www.iva.co.uk

I've just been looking on their website at their basic bank account and it seems that it now comes with online banking and a Connect card, which as far as I know is a full debit card.

This now looks like quite a good account, but Barclaycard were one of my creditors - would I be wasting my time applying for the account, or is it worth a try?

The connect card is a full debit card. We still have one as the account is still open (they were one of my creditors,)

You can try - they can only say no!

Let us know how you get on!

I'm leaving work early and going today so I'll let you know. I'm not holding my breath but it's worth a try.

There is not usually a linkage between Barclays and Barclaycard, so I do not feel that this would prevent you from opening an account - so good luck!

We moved to Nationwide before the iva as Barclaycard were one of my creditors, but not one of hubbys.

We still have the account open, could we transfer everything back across to there as it is a full current account? Could Barclays look at it and take the debit card and cheque book away?

Well it was a case of computer says no! They couldn't tell me why I was turned down - it could have because I had Barclaycard as one of my creditors, because I still have a default on my credit file from Tesco or because I've been BR. I was told the only thing I can do is check my credit file, but that's not going to tell me anything I don't already know!

What did scare me was how little the staff new about BR - one told me that it would take a year before my BR dropped off my file, and then someone corrected him and said it would take 3 years!

Never mind Skip - at least you've still got your Co-op account.

I'm happy with the Co-op as the accounts do everything I want an they're free - it was more of an experiment really!