www.iva.co.uk

I received a telephone call from this group yesterday saying that I have been mis-sold my IVA because I do not own my own home, have no assets to protect and do not earn over £50,000 per year. Their advice was to go bankrupt, and pay them a fee of £1250 to do so. I am 12 months into my IVA, and happy to stay with it, but has anyone else had any experiences with this company and can offer me any advice? Are they genuine, as I know I could go bankrupt myself for approximatley £500? I would be grateful for any advice anyone can give me [?]

Another ambulance chaser just out to make money from someone they have found on the Insolvency Register. I suggest that you put the letter in the bin and concentrate on the IVA which you say that you are happy with.

How patronising and cheeky of them to assume that you were incapable of making a decision when you decided to enter into the IVA in the first place.

Melanie, David had a call from someone like those - they told him that he had been sold an IVA so that you can make a fortune! He told them to put it in writing so that he could forward the letter to you so that you could sue for libel! The conversation was ended by the caller rapidly! J

They are just a bunch of idiots really - desperately clawing for money from people who are suffering from debt stress.

Unfortunately though, there are a lot of people who will be taken in by them.

If you are happy with your IVA, leave it as it is. If not, you can do bankruptcy yourself for £510. The fees charged by these companies don't include the court charges.

I think the guidance notes on the insolvency service website are pretty good. Last year I downloaded them, and a bankruptcy petition (Form 6.28) and had a go at filling them in (I'm glad I picked a wet Tuesday in October...)

Its a terrible grind and it took me 3 hours (37 pages?) but there wasn't anything too hard.

The questionnaire the OR sends to recent bankrupts has all the same questions in it.

I can imagine it being emotional and frightening and tedious all at once. For some people its probably very cathartic.

Certainly (in my opinion) for the average Joe theres nothing that warrants hundreds of pounds worth of fees, unless you have businesses and assets and such.

Thanks for your advice. He was so genuine, and made it sound like he was offering independent advice, until he mentioned a fee and i knew it was too good to be true. I will ask him not to contact me again as, if I ever have the need to go bankrupt, I will do it myself. [:)]

Johnny - the one good thing with the forms on the Insolvency site is that you don't have to do them all at once, you can save them.

linzi - these people will sound genuine, that's how they get people to pay them!

If you are happy, stay as you are. If you have any questions at all, then come to us first and someone on here will be able to answer them.

When you ask him not to contact you again, mention this site - I guarantee that will have him putting the phone down as quickly as he can!

Thanks I'll do that! This is a great site, and has been of invaluable help to me since entering into my IVA. Keep up the good work!!! [:)]

Definitely if I was in that unfortunate position I'd complete them online.

But I didn't fancy practicing with the online forms as it asks for so much detail straight away e.g. national insurance numbers etc and it would have wasted their valuable server space.

(Yeah so I decided to kill a tree instead)

I don't know if they have a practice area like the sandbox on wikipedia. If they don't they should have.