www.iva.co.uk

I have a family friend who is concerned that if she enters an IVA that she will then lose the ability to run her bank account - is this correct? Will there be any restrictions, or will she be able to use debit card within overdraft limit as now?

Hi there and welcome to the forum

Not necessarily. If she currently banks with a company to whom she owed money, then this is very likely, so she would be best advised to open up a new account now with a non-creditor bank to get her salary paid into and any direct debits or standing orders paid out of.

She will not be allowed to reatain any overdraft facility, and if she is overdrawn at the time she presents her proposals this debt will need to be included in the IVA as a creditor.

If she's not in trouble with her creditors at present, she should be able to open a full bank account with a debit card.

If she waits until she has missed payments, she may find that she can only open a basic account with either just a cashpoint card, or a visa electron card and no cheque book.

Just a word of warning as well - if she was thinking of HSBC, then they have a habit of closing the accounts of people who are in IVA's.

Or look at the pre-paid debit card market that offers a bill payment facility.

But be aware that with pre-paid cards, the majority of them incur a monthly fee, plus sometimes charge for transactions and/or cash withdrawals.

hi
I think the days of free banking will be coming to an end soon
Regards

I'll still stick with the banks as long as they are free! Then I'll look at the options.

I agree with Andy - any day now. There are some cards though that don't charge any other fee (except for cash withdrawls)in respect of transactions as the monthly fee is all inclusive.

I won't pay a monthly fee for anything until I absolutely have to, and then I will see who charges what.

I will be remaining with a bank though - I don't want a prepaid card for normal day to day stuff. I prefer something I already know.

I have been asked to speak at a 3 day conference on Pre-Paid Cards in London taking place between 15th to 17th June. This is what is happening today - things are changing and whilst I know you are against a fee paying pre-paid card Kallis3 you will be seeing a massive growth in their usuage over the next few years.

That's as maybe David, but you won't catch me using one for day to day usage anytime soon!

As a matter of interest, with your card, if you wish to pay additional funds across, where do you do it and does it cost?

You can pay in at any bank or at the Alliance & Leicester and it costs nothing!

I agree with Kallis - I can see the times of cash under the mattresses appearing again in most homes - we all thought the OAP;s were mad for doing this but at the end of the day at least there money is there money and no charges are added to it !
Why should we pay to use our own money ! At the end of the day our money is our money - banks are getting enough income from across the business and are making millions each year!

I'm interested to know then David, why the website for the card states that money can only be paid across to your card from another bank account and not over the counter?

The Paypal prepaid card has been an absolute life saviour for us

I'm a self employed web designer and 90% of my clients pay me online via PayPal

Previously, I used to have to wait 8 days for Paypal to transfer funds to my bank account, now I can just transfer the money straight onto their prepaid card and have it the next morning.