www.iva.co.uk

Hi Everyone - we are new to this. In alot of debt and this week have finally persuaded my husband to take the plunge and sign for the iva. Really really nervous. After speaking to the gentleman organising it for us - he has advised me to stop paying all of our debt, is this the right thing to do? I am worried that we end up with like baliffs knocking on the door or something? Please help

Hi
It is the correct advice and no bailiffs will call, so you can stop worrying.
Do you understand the IVA, do you have any concerns ?
Regards

Hi Gemma, when I signed my iva I was told to stop making all payments to people i owed money too straight away, and everytime I was sent letters from creditors I was to post them straight on to the company that were dealing with iva.. Also all the calls from creditors, I was told just to say " im no longer dealing with my finances, whatever company will be in touch with you "

I had so many threatening letters saying about taking me to court or sending bailiffs round, I was scared like you wouldn't believe.. But I just did as i was told, forwarded the letters on and soon it they all stopped.

Hope that help's a little. Good luck with it all.

Kate

Hi Gemma
Welcome from me too. I stopped paying my creditors and the money I would have paid them, put into a contingency fund instead. This meant that I had a little buffer at the beginning incase of emergency. Have you sorted a new bank account yet(away from any of your creditors).Personally I found this the hardest time but nothing nasty happened and no baillifs called.

I'm at this stage too Gemma and have spent the morning cancelling dd's etc, have opened a Cashminder account with the Co-op, they were most helpful so try not to worry, I'm sure lots more people on here will post with good advice and reassurance

Hi Gemma - try not to worry - not paying is the best thing to do as you can maybe save a little before the IVA is approved as a contingency fund.
I too had to persuade hubby - we would have been better off going bankrupt but came to a compromise and entered an IVA.
You will get phone calls and letters and they may be relentless. Don't worry - they are all just trying to get any sort of payment from you, and once IVA is approved you are covered.
We made our last payments in March and IVA approved 21st June. Had stacks of letters, unplugged the home phone, changed my mobile and didn't open emails (just deleted them). In all of that time no one came knocking (which was my main concern).
All the stress has now gone. It's not a walk in the park but it's not as hard as my hubby thought it would be. We both have fuel in the car, can eat like we used to do and have a bit of money each which we are saving towards next years car tax etc.
If you can't see a way out of paying your debts then an IVA or BR is the right way to go in my view.

Hi Gemma and welcome to the forum your IP has a duty of care to look after you pre IVA so dont worry you are getting the correct advice,like already said save your money now for contingencies that you will need later.congratulations on tackling your debt.

Welcome Gemma. Although it doesn't seem it just now, this will be the best thing you ever did. Things will get better as you progress and you will find yourself a lot less stressed than you have been in the past. As others have said Congratulations on realising your problem and taking the necessary steps to become debt free. If you have any other questions or problems don't be afraid to ask. This is the place to get some sound and reliable advice. Almost everyone on the forum is on a journey to debt freedom and the amount of experience and professional imput on the site is second to none.

hi Gemma and a big welcome from me too. we entered our IVA in May and I stopped paying anything towards our creditors in December last year, so we went a whole 6 months without paying a bean (when we had always met every payment in full before that) and I can tell you it was incredibly hard and scary to do that, but our IP was brilliant and advised us that, yes we could make token payments if we wanted to but it would make absolutely no difference to how they would vote on the day and we would be better putting it all into a contigency which is what we did.

So we had a good 6 months to build up a contingency, get my car sorted and hubby's car, fill the oil tank up etc to get us on a good start in the IVA.

Yes the calls and letters were relentless, we had one debt collector turn up on our doorstep during this time where fortunately we weren't in to deal with it, but apart from that, just lots of empty threats really. It's wearing and tiring dealing with it but use your IVA company to help deal with it, ours were great during this time.

Any other questions you have just fire away

When we started our IVA process we too stopped paying our payments for two months and were able to use this money towards our moving costs as we had to move as part of our IVA agreement - it is scary but it does give you an opportunity to get a buffer !

Good luck and let us know how you get on x

we did pay token gestures of £10 per creditor just because it made me feel better. Hang on in there. You'll prob find the next coming weeks an emotional roller coaster but you will come through it all and be glad you saw it through. Good luck and keep us posted x

If you feel better making token payments like struzzo then anything will do £1.00 even. However a lot of IP's advise that it won't make any difference to the optcome of the creditors meeting. Maybe struzzo can let you know if it stopped calls for a while?

Hi Gemma and welcome from me as well.

Don't worry about making payments - the vast majority of us didn't bother prior to IVA acceptance. If you receive any calls from people who tell you have to make a payment or that your IVA won't be accepted - ignore them. These are call centres and have no sway over what is agreed or otherwise.

Bailiffs will not come knocking.

Hi Gemma and welcome from another newbie!!

Nothing to add really beyond what everyone has already said, I do remember it took a while for the relentless calls/letters to stop but they will so bear with it.

I'm nearly two years into my IVA and don't regret it for an instance, it can mean money is tight and you'll need to be careful, but you will know exactly what you need to pay and I've found having no credit in my life whatsoever absolute bliss.

Jackie

Whether you carry on paying creditors until your IVA is in place is a matter of personal choice. Some prefer to, others prefer to set a little contingency fund aside for a rainy day. Either way it will make no difference to the outcome.