www.iva.co.uk

Can you take out DFS credit when in IVA?
We have just paid off our IVA (yipee) 15 month early and am aware that it will not go of our record until 6 years but we are in desperate need of a new sofa and i wondered if it is classed as credit or HP. Has anyone managed to buy a sofa while in IVA

If you have paid all of the money into your IVA, your IP should be closing the case and there should therefore be no reason why you cannot take the credit. I would, however, be suprised if you would pass a credit check so don't be too disappointed if you are turned down.

My friend went to DFS last week to do exactly the same as they had received their completion certificate and were turned down - however when they went to Hareys they were accepted ! Doesn't make alot of sense.

It's because they go to a finance house which does the credit check, that finance house used to be Forward Trust Personal Finance and owned by HSBC. They would turn down anyone with a hint of bad credit.

I don't know if they still use them though but would probably be something similar.

Hi
It is true in that there doesn't seem to be any black and white answers regarding credit post IVA.
Guess you have little to lose by trying, good luck
Regards

You could also have a chat with the sales guy and mention the IVA casually. If he goes white and runs away you know there's no point damaging your credit file with a sure-fire decline. If he think's it'll be ok, then have a punt!!!

I doubt he would know what you were talking about!

I would've thought someone would know.

Mind you, I haven't been able to afford a chair, let alone a sofa, at all since I moved into my flat last Feb! So I haven't been through it myself.

The finance company will not tell a third party, i.e. DFS, the reasons for declining credit to the customer. So it is likely that a) they have no idea what a IVA is and b) they have no idea why the customer was declined unless you tell them upfront and they guess.

Lending criteria, is a closely guarded secret within any bank / finance company and depending on where you go you could be accepted at one and declined at another.

Our suite is on its last legs now but will have to wait a few years - doesn't help that there are three dogs leaping all over it!

I would not have thought that any salespeople would know anything about an IVA.

You talking about that inaiva reminds me of when we changed banks some years ago. We applied to Nationwide and after a few weeks trying to sort things out (breakdown in communication!) they would only give us the basic one even though my credit record was good. I even phoned Experian to check and they said it was excellent.

We queried it with Nationwide and were told that we couldn't get a full bank account. We left there, crossed the road to Barclays, got a full account with cheque book and credit card and a credit card as well!

If you have nothing bad at the CRA and are declined then it is most probably down to the banks internal scoring system.

You get so many points based on the answers you put on your application form, e.g. are you married, single home owner or renting, how long you've been employed and what you do for a living.

You have to get a certain number of points to pass their internal scoring processes and then pass the CRA checks seperatly.

Each bank will score differently has you've found out Jan. Nationwide were obviously more stricter than Barclays at the time.

To be honest, I would have ticked all the right boxes for everything at the time!

That would depend on what the banks criteria is of ticking the right boxes. No one knows for certain (except maybe the computer programmers), even the bank staff are kept in the dark.

We could only make educated guesses, based on past applications being accepted or rejected.

I got so annoyed as there were no problems - agreed with by Experian and they were the ones that Nationwide used.