www.iva.co.uk

if i get granted an IVA,for all my credit cards to be cleared off, will my bank card (visa) be taken off me too?...how will I pay for things in shops?...

Hi Victoria, and welcome!

You should still be allowed a debit card for your bank, but it is recommended that you get a new bank account with a bank you do not have any debts with. You won't be allowed to use any credit cards.

The co-operative do a highly recommended account with a debit card.

Take care,

Liam

Hi and welcome from me as well.

A lot of us use cash for our weekly shopping, but if you can't ge a debit card then you could think of using a prepaid card. Most ship l accept them and you can use them for online shopping as well.

On the bright side - using cash not a bad idea at the beginning - nothing like having the cash in a tin and working out where the pennies are going - does get you into good habits - in an iva a bit of careless spending can mean beans for the week!

So long as your bank is not one of your creditors you can keep the account you have now, however, if it is, it's advisable to get another account sorted. I have a Natwest Step account which comes with a Solo card (apparently to be upgraded to a Visa very soon). x

If you get a new account before submitting your proposal you should be able to get an account with a debit card and cheque book - just remember to refuse the overdraft! Lloyds have been good for me. The most important thing is to avoid opening an account with a creditor or anyone in the same family as a creditor (eg lloyds/ Halifax/BoS)...some banks engage in setting off and will whip away your salary to offset your debts. Surprisingly this is legal!

I've just been an opened a natwest account today in prep for an iva going through (fingers crossed). We refused the overdraft and have a basic account which has a debit card.

Im with lloyldsTSB, I have 2 accounts one is a cash point card only, i put my spends for the month in that one, shopping money and petrol cash. The other account is a debit visa card which i pay all my direct debits out of. The card for this always stays at home or in my OH's purse so i have no way of being tempted to use it. If i need it, i for some reason explain the need, like the ther day i saw a bargain on amazon that i wanted to get she allowed me my card for that. Its like having a mini IP at home! lol

We've got our Nationwide account with the upgraded card which is mostly used to pay DDs etc. This is what my salary is paid into.

Hubby is on incapacity benefit which is paid into the post office and drawn out weekly by us and this funds our food shopping, petrol ad the like. Once it's gone, that's it!

Victoria, I'm currently in my IVA now for only a few months and do not have a debit card. I use cash now for everything and find it so refreshing, it's good having to budget ahead of a shopping trip and knowing that a few quid has been shaved lol. I never ever thought I could do without plastic and yet here I am WITHOUT IT, and still being able to live!

I prefer to use cash too. I find it makes budgeting much simpler and removes a lot of temptation!

Cash is the way to go,but its all about personal choices.

Paul

I agree it's about personal choice, I do use cash for my housekeeping (old fashioned), hardly ever use a debit card but like to have it just in case x

We are with Halifax. For the 1st year of iva we had a cash card and then they sent us a Visa Electron card. We havent had many problems with this. We have only come across 2 places where we couldn't use the card (Cadbury World and to book on a holiday park). We also now have a prepaid PayPal Visa card. We are using this to save though for Christmas. x