www.iva.co.uk

We rang a reputable debt company all the way back in August. We explained our situation over the phone ( wont go into the debt details) and was told based on the information provided we would probably qualify for an IVA. We paid a fee of £830 and was duly put in touch with an IVA company. We done all we was told to do, changed to a basic bank account, stopped paying our creditors, sent off all relevant information. We heard nothng for weeks, we then phoned them and was told they were waiting for us to send another statement from one of our debtors. We queried it and explained that they already had that information. During all this time they had not contacted us at all, feeling a little miffed I phoned the original debt company who said they would sort it out. They did, within two minutes i got a phone call from the IVA company saying dont phone $%£@$? again (will not reveal the company name just yet) refer to us. So as far as we were concerned all was ticking over. I sent off all the details to my creditors and accepted that the phone calls and letters would continue but was not worried because it had been ongoing now for about 3 months.......to be continued

Welcome to the site. You've not had very good service so far.

You could always contact some other IP firms to see how they compare.....www.IVA.com.

Hi Olive and welcome to the forum.

It certainly seems as though you have been given the run around.

I would move to another company as soon as possible. Either click on the expert link on the left hand side of the page and contact one or two from there, or visit www.iva.com for a list of companies and reviews.

Your advice will be free and impartial, and I recommend that you change your company soon.

An IVA (unless complicated) should take between 6 and weeks to set up.

Hi Olive,

You really need to push this along. Did you sign any paperwork regarding the fee you have paid? Does it state if this will be refunded if the IVA is not proposed/accepted?

I would complain to the debt compnay and IVA company about the service received and take your business elsewhere. As Cath and Jan has suggested read some reviews and chose an IP company that you'll feel comfortable with.

I imagine the creditors have been chasing for repayments?

We are 7 months down the road now, i cannot bear the thought of starting all over with all the paperwork and having to keep explaining to credit companies, I iimagine they wont be too pleased and may see it as tactical at this late date.

They won't see it as being tactical, and you can explain everything to them.

Was it a creditor meeting you were waiting for in December? I've never heard of one being delayed for personal reasons, and then in the middle of February you are no further forward.

It was just the face to face meeting to iron out any wrinkles and go forward with the proposal to the creditors, the face to face was scheduled for January not December.

The 'face to face ' took place over the phone on the day we should have been there.

Unless you are self employed you don't need to have a face to face.

This has been going on for far too long and unless you have specific problems then your creditor meeting should have been a long time ago.

I am self employed, and have been for 25 years.

Surely if all accounts have been submitted 7 months before, self employed or not it should not take this long.

It shouldn't take this long and even if it did for some reason, you should have contact from the company to update you on any issues.

Hopefully Melanie or one of the professionals will advise on self employed cases.

xx

You will have to have a face to face then, they can't do it over the phone.

Please consider changing your company - you could have this sorted in a few more weeks.

All phone calls have been one sided...At no time have we had a phone call off them , we have had to do all the chasing. Today for instance, they were supposed to ring us, we offered to ring them but they said no we will ring you, well what do you know ...they didn't. I think we are going to go for bankruptcy now, we have tried everything else.

I wouldn't rule out an IVA yet, you just need a good company to work with you.

I can understand how frustrating it all must be.