www.iva.co.uk

Hi all and hope you are all well..

I have current accounts with Nationwide and Santander and both banks keeps asking me to "have a chat" about my accounts and possibly upgrading to get better interest etc. They don't know about the IVA (obviously?!),,

What would happen if the found out about IVA, will/can they close my accounts? I'm self employed and would be lost without these accounts.

Does anyone have experience or similar stories?
Thanks
EP

Just tell them your not interested with upgrading and are happy as you are. They shouldn't find out unless they are one of your creditors or you apply to upgrade your account. Halifax used to pester me constantly as I had a basic account so I had them put a note on that they should not contact me regarding upgrades.

They will find out if you are a Cleardebt customer. As part of their PPI investigation process, through DRSP, they inform them that you are in an IVA.

Not sure how other companies go about the PPI process. DRSP contact 'all' of your creditors and your current account holder, even if they are not included in your IVA. Part of that involves telling them that they are acting on behalf of Cleardebt who are running an IVA for you. No way round it either! If you don't comply you run the risk of your IVA failing.

Some banks have monthly feeds from the CRA for existing customers. So highly likely the bank know something is up, even when no further account/borrowing is applied for whilst the IVA marker was there at the CRA.

Lloyds as an example I know have a really interesting system, you can have a perfect internal score with them which is a 1A rating. But come to the point of applying for say a credit card the computer will say no without so much as a search appearing on your credit file whilst the adverse is at the CRA.

i was with santander and never had any probs

hi there

Nationwide were who i chose to open a new account with prior to commencing my IVA, so therefore my monthly IVA payment came out of my Nationwide account once my IVA was approved. Several times during the course of 6yrs my IVA ran , I was asked by the cashier if i wanted to " upgrade " my account; i said yes twice as this would have enabled me to have a debit card as opposed to a cash card ( note this was before the existance of the cashcard+ debit card ). Both times i was refused and this had no adverse affect on my banking with Nationwide. Furthermore, a few months post IVA i was asked again by the cashier and my account was upgraded and I was offered a credit card wjich I accepted with a £3500 limit. as well as this I was accpted to upgared my account to a Flexdirect account.

The purpose of my ramble !! is to point out that the existance of my IVA caused no issue with Nationwide and post IVA theve treated me like a normal human being with a good credit history !!

No experience of Santander though as they were creditors in my IVA , hence I wouldnt have gone to them for a current account

I suppose just say you dont want your account upgrading and this will ensure nothing is delved into.

hope this helps

I am with nationwide, I opened the account just before commencing the IVA, and was upfront with them..

I have the debit card they are happy, I am happy, its win win really.

Thank you all for your comments!

12 months to go, thats very encouraging, maybe I'll ask them for a business account!! [:D]