www.iva.co.uk

For those in the North west UK, theres a special about debt and debt options on north west tonight BBC1 (On now!!)

Arty [:D]

Seems very on sided! Basically steering people away from IP's and firms who charge fee's to manage poepes debts and IVA's! Telling eople you can manage the debt yourself and work directly with the creditors!!

Yeah right! All those I contacted refused to help by reducing the interest / payments.

It's a shame when something is portrayed like this isn't it.

Trying to get people to stump up amounts they can't afford me thinks by cutting out ips

Exactly Kazza, i had a nightmare with mine before i got my IVA sorted! they kept adding interest on when they promised not to, waited till id paid then put more interest on again!!!

It should be uploaded to the BBC iplayer soon, the link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 4_01_2012/ usualy takes an hour or 2 after its shown on the telly before its uploaded.

Its the second news item in so quite near the start

Arty

We approached the cccs regarding a dmp prior to our iva, what scared us the most was the time period, 16 years and still no guarantee that you would ever be fully free of debt.

When i was in a DMP mine was 18 year, again with no guarantee interest would be stopped or not added towards the end!! Thank gor for my IVA [:)]

ooh I might watch this when it's on iplayer, or will I be yelling at my laptop?

not yelling....umm.....hope not anyway lol! its just very one sided how its phrased several times as 'paid for debt management' and 'free management' ie do it yourself!!

well I guess free is always a bonus.....in some ways.... but noone does an IVA for free, nor would you expect them to with what it involves, also i think there is an element of 'you get what you pay for' to some degree but I think it's the worry of being preyed on when you're already in debt, having to fork out more to sort a solution out. When people are desperate they have a tendency to grab at anything without getting proper advice and can end up in a worse situation

As I live in the North West, I was unfortunate enough to catch this piece of biased journalistic garbage. The programme strangely forgot to mention that CAB will very often give you a metophorical sticking plaster and tell you to go away, CCCS and Payplan will do the same if you don't fit their criteria and National Debtline will also help in the form of "do it yourself". This can almost certainly be put down to time constraints and volume of work, and indeed I have heard word of a lot of courts/OR offices making "pre appointments" on BR cases as clerks cannot spend 20 minutes with people to go over BR forms which may have inaccuracies. Anyway, this type of free service is all well and good if you are strong enough, or can wait 3 weeks for an appointment, but life isn't like that. This, by the way, is in no way meant to decry the good works that they undoubtedly undertake, just a statement that sometimes their help is limited. If I were unfortunate enough to be charged with murder then the law affords me the right to defend myself in court. That is not the same as saying that it is right to do so. Free advice is not always best advice, if it were then I would get my mate down the pub to defend me on my murder charge. Remember as well that even the "free" services charge fees for IVA's, a fact that conveniently gets overlooked by these type of programmes, and also the likes of "Air Miles Martin" and his ilk, but as one who works in the commercial sector I do also recognise that we are fair game in some respects.

I was particularly disgusted by the spokesperson from Speke CAB who glibly claimed that fees were charged according to the level of debt, and by the programme itself which failed to challenge this dross. Fees on a DMP are charged according to Disposable Income, not the level of debt, and it would be nice if the BBC and the CAB would publicly acknowledge this. I won't be holding my breath.

I may have to leave it there as I feel a REAL rant coming on....

Regards.

Well said Mike!!!!

I could not agree with Mike more on the points he has made. It is about time journalists bothered to find out more about the subjects they are reporting on, in the interests of true and fair practice. The point he makes about the "free" and "charity" sector with regard to formal insolvency options is very correct - there is no such thing as a "free" IVA, and I am getting sick and tired of the national television station believing this to be the case, and actually misleading consumers rather than assisting them in the way they claim they are.

I watched this myself and clearly there was a reference to my own employers through the images of various TV ads.
I could not have worded it any better than what Mike and Mel have said. Too often there is a very evident biasness towards "free" sector providers and this is propelled greatly by the BBC and Martin Lewis. Why? A number of factors really, the free sector by the very nature of their structure can be seen to do no wrong. Fee chargers on the other hand are seen to profit from the misery of others. However, let’s put this position under the spotlight for a moment. The free sector charge from IVAs, the free sector charge creditors for DMPs (via a complicated billing structure). Often overlooked but an IVA from a fee provider and a free provider are the same. What you will find is that a fee charger will likely be able to have an IVA Set up for you a lot quicker THAN the free sector can. Additionally, as already stated this little fact is often overlooked by the "partisan" commentators.

So, without going into full rant mode because it’s not my place to say but if we took exactly what these journalists say, the free sector would be completely over burdened (more so than they are now), meaning longer waiting times for people in serious need of help. And for those advised to speak to creditors directly, then fine but be ready for a long battle without certainty of victory.

Thanks