www.iva.co.uk

Hi
I am new to the forum.
I am just starting to gather info etc re agreeing to an IVA. Me and my husband have over 50,000 in debt via various credit cards, loans and store cards etc which has accumulated over 5 years on day to day living cost for us and our 3 children. I have been in touch with Clear Debt who so far seem great but wondered if anybody on here has had any dealings with them?

I'm aware of them, large company, very much established in the industry, I would imagine you are in good hands.

Hi Beckie and welcome to the forum.
Not with Clear Debt myself but there are quite a few posters on here who are. Size 5 from Clear Debt also posts on here quite regularly.
I think you are in safe hands

Hi Beckie. Welcome to the forum. They seem to have good feedback on www.iva.com. Someone may post later who is with Cleardebt to give you some confidence. It's always recommended that you contact 2 or 3 companies to see who you feel most comfortable and confident with. It's a 5 year relationship so you must feel that they are doing the best for you.

Hi Beckie and welcome to the forum.

Cleardebt are a very good company used by quite a few of our posters on here and they go have a representative who posts on here.

You're in good hands.

Thanks for that. It's hard when you don't know anything regarding IVA's and are having to learn everything about IVA's in as short a time as possible. We have been given an estimated monthly payment of £322 over 5 years and as I said we owe around £53,000. Does this sound about right? We are a family of 5 and have an annual income of approx £45,000.

It all depends on your disposable income Beckie so this figure will be right for you if that is all you have left once your other bills have been paid. Do you own your own house? If so then you will probably have to try and release some equity during your fourth year. If you can't then the IVA will normally run for an extra 12 months in lieu of that equity.

We do own our own house yes, but at the moment we have a mortgage of £133,000 on a house which according to our mortgage providers is only worth £117,000 in the current climate. So unless things change drastically over the next four years within the housing market I can't see us having much equity in it then either?! Its all so complicated.

Hi Beckie.
Like you, I had never even heard of an IVA! I did so much reading up before I finally made the decision to go ahead with it.

Ask as many questions as you like on here, there will always be somebody around who will be able to help you out.

It is complicated but you may find you have the equity clause but that's something to sort out with Cleardebt - they'll tell you whether or not they will be putting it in.

Ask away on here at anytime, we have other experts who post on here as well who will answer any questions you might have.

If the property has no equity at the end of the 4th year then your IP can apply for the IVA to complete at the end of year 5. It normally carries on for another 12 months if there is equity that cannot be realised.
Keep in your mind when going through the application stage that you are entering an IVA because you cannot afford to pay your debts so it's going to be the best solution even if it's a tough 5 years. It's not meant to be a punishment and is meant to be affordable so query anything that you want with the income and expenditure calculation

Thank you so much everyone. You are all so helpful and I am so glad I found this forum. I am waiting for my IP to email me the initial report this afternoon. Once we have looked at it and signed if happy I have to get together bank statements, wage slips, and prrof of all debt owed and a courier is coming to collect all this from us personally on Saturday lunch time. Does this all sound about right for the early stages?

Sounds fine Beckie if you are happy to go with them. I would still either telephone or email a couple of others from iva.com just to satisfy yourself you are going with the right company. (I contacted 2 and went with the initial company I contacted).

That sounds about right Beckie. That's how it starts!

We mainly owe money to Barclays Bank through an overdraft, 3 personal loans in both mine and my husbands name and a credit card so Im guessing they will need to agree for the IVA to go ahead more so than any of the others.