www.iva.co.uk

Hi im not really sure what to do regarding our creditors.As we are at the start of an iva do we inform them all what we are doing and send a token payment or not, i would appreciate some people experiences on this.I told one creditor over the phone about looking into an iva and their response was i should continue paying the agreed payment as an iva could take some time. I was thinking of sending a letter to all our creditors explaining what we are doing with a token payment, just not sure if this is the right thing to do?

Hi,

It is totally up to you what you do with payments. Some people send token payments, others don't and it makes no difference to the voting.

I didn't do token payments at all.

Remember that when you phone up and speak to a creditor you are speaking to a call centre who have no idea what is going on.

You will get phone calls and letters.

What I would say is that if you have any online accounts with creditors that you delete phone numbers from there if you can so they cannot contact you.

Some do send in token payments, some don't ! I didn't pay a penny once I had decided that the IVA was the way to go, which gave me a little emergency fund at the start. Creditors will tell you anything to get as much out of you as possible.

Once I'd decided -mid Sept 2012 - that I was going to sort my debts having spoken to my chosen IVA providers team I made the decision that I was not going to pay any of my creditors anymore. I was advised I could make token payments if I wished but it was up to me. I was up to date with all payments till then. My last payments were August. I have not paid a penny since. Had a few reminder letters but if you ring them up and respond to the letters by telling them you are taking advice from a 3rd party on tackling your debt problems they will note it. Not had too much hassle from them to be honest - but they dont' have my phone numbers so they can't ring me. My creditors meeting is tomorrow.

Not all of them will note it - if you have Barclays as a creditor then they are relentless with the phone calls.

we decided to pay £10 each to each creditor but we still got the same hassle from them as any other person. Good luck to you both for your meetings. Keep us posted and let us know how you get on

An IVA will not take "some time" on my watch, Pollyann - and I do hope that Tina went through these options with you in her opening chat. We recommend full ongoing dialogue with creditors whilst the IVA is being prepared - this should not take more than a month from your first chat - and give our clients the option to continue payments or pay nothing at all. The latter can have some advantages, as this will allow you to put a little money into savings to start the IVA off with - but a lot of people feel more comfortable in continuing to send money to creditors.

If you need a hand in working out who should get what on a pro-rata basis, either Tina, Kelly or I can help you with this - so please do give us a call.

Hi thanks for the advice, and yes Melanie, Tina was great and has been really informative, i think it just helps to hear what others have done about this.

Knowledge is power pollyann - you should get as much as you can, as you will get more and more confident about the process as you find out more about what others have experienced. This is why the forum is such a great place for sharing thoughts.

Hi Pollyann81.
Like yourself I am with Melanie`s team and I am also waiting for my IVA to be prepared. Tina, very kindly, explained my options on our first chat. I decided not to make any payments to my creditors because I need to put a bit of money in to my savings account for car tax, mot and parking. I dont think the fact that you pay token payments or not will make any difference to the outcome of your IVA. Wish you all the best,
lulu123

It doesn't make a blind difference to the outcome of your case ladies, and thanks to lulu123 for pointing that out - and I am not even convinced that it stops the calls and letters either.

Polly, I didn't send a penny to them so echo the advice already given. They will ask for something but hold firm . I did communicate with them from the outset and gave them details of my IVA firm and proposal and this seemed to keep the calls at bay at least for 10 days at a time. It was only a 6-8 period for me until things settled down. Good luck - once you ride the storm, it's all worth it in the end!.

We never paid any tokens, put the money aside for a contingency is my advice it`s bound to come in useful.

We never paid anything over as we felt not making any payments to some would be seen as favouring others so we treated them all the same and saved the funds to pay the normal month we exected to pay once our IVA was approved and it was with no problems thankfully

Thankyou all for this, it has helped us make a decision and we have decided to put any money away for when it is needed. I have written letters to all explaining what we are doing so i will expect to be bombarded with calls.