www.iva.co.uk

Hi can anybody tell me what their experience has been with HSBC accepting their IVA - and was this for more or less than 40p in the pound (currently the minimum they will accept)?

I'm currently aware that there are four IVA companies out there who have managed to break this 'artificial hurdle' and have had IVAs accepted for less than their minimum 40p. Does anyone know who these are?

Our main creditor is HSBC and we're beginning to put our IVA proposal together with Debt Free Direct, who are not one of the above four - only found this out today - and we will be offering less than 40p, but DFD have mentioned no concern about this and sounded very confident in what we could afford.

This has left us with more worry - don't know where to go from here - can't afford to go through all this to be refused in the end.

I know that Melanie's company is one of them, why not give her a call for a second opinion.

It's always better to ring another company and see what they say.

The advice is free and you are not committing to anything by doing that.

You can change companies anytime you like until your IVA is approved.

Hi I know that this is a difficult time for you and HSBC are relentless in chasing for debt. I rememer reading here that Size 5 put one forward for less than the 40p and it was accepted. At the end of the day you can only do your best and as long as you can show that youre making your best offer and its more than they would get in BR then thats all you can do.

Please dont try to make your expenditure impossible to manage on as its so easy to do that when youre so stressed out. Remember its much better at this stage to be realistic and offer less than to fall down later on. Although it may feel now that this is the only boat out of stress and worry street, there is always another way. In short, what I am trying to say is, stop and check everything and make sure you can go the full distance before committing.

As black as this situation seems right now, there are ways of dealing with creditor calls etc and the way they make you feel.

Good luck.

Whilst there are only four "approved" companies at the moment, I suspect that the rule may relax a little more into 2009 as more firms meet the required standards required of IPs by this particular creditor. If your provider are confident that they can get the IVA accepted, then have faith in them to complete the task - but nothing stopping you moving if you feel that is the right thing to do.

Thanks you all so much for your advice and so quickly!!! I will call DFD tomorrow and raise my concerns to hear what they have to say on the matter. I'm sure you're right Melanie and I should have more faith, but I can't help but feel everything will work against us! We will have to see how confident we feel after speaking to them. The drafter I spoke to yesterday was very reassuring and answered all my questions patiently but another person I spoke to over the phone the other day with a few questions was far less helpful and left me feeling very lacking in confidence - I don't think he will be dealing with our case but it didn't give a very good impression when you're being told on one hand to contact them with any queries, however trivial and you get left with a feeling of 'you're wasting my time'.

I'm sure it will all come together in the end, as it does for so many here.I'm just glad we have this to turn to, it's so reassuring. Thanks!

Hi
Wo are the "four" ?
Regards

There will be five by the end of this month and they are:

Freeman Jones
Melanie's firm
Payplan
Wilson Philips
ClearDebt

The position is that HSBC require in the main quarterley distributions of dividends and the five firms listed above have provided sufficient dividends since 1.2.08 to remove the 40p from them. More will be added to the list over the fullness of time.

Hi
Surely the CCCS VA dept are included ?
Regards

No - they have only set that up during summer of 2008 and don't have a sufficient payment history yet!

Hi
Just seems strange that the VA division of a creditor backed charity is excluded from this.
Regards

When you say Charity what do you mean? I know of no donations that CCCS has made to any charitable organisation or to any organisation (except a mirror charity of their own). Banks pay CCCS a percentage of what payments CCCS hand over to them. The Directors/Trustees are remunerated handsomely - have you looked at any of their accounts?
They also now charge fees for doing an IVA - not cheap by the way!

They are a registered charity though.

Hi
We have had long and heated debates on this forum regarding the CCCS and as Viki states they are a registered charity.
To be fair to them they do help many thousands of people in debt and their VA division seemed very well set up with an excellent IP.
I take it your not a fan David ?
Regards