www.iva.co.uk

How much am I allowed to save on an IVA for emergencies etc and can you his be put into a savings account?

Hi and welcome,

If you can save money from your monthly allowances then these can be put into a savings account, similarly you can have a contingency allowance for emergencies.

Have you looked into an IVA? If not then speak to one or two companies. Andy Davie/Vincent Bond (details under the expert link on the left hand side of the page) can be contacted for some free advice.

Some firms are of the opinion that you can't save, however most of us do, if possible. Indeed, some items of expenditure has to be saved, as the allowance is a monthly amount and the expenditure itself might be annual.

There is no real limit as long as the savings are legitimately from your saved allowances, shares of overtime / bonus payments or modest gifts.

I saved mine in the Yorkshire Building Society e-saver account, which they were happy to open for me during my IVA.

If you've not already opened a new account with a non creditor bank then it might be a good idea to do one.

Co-op come recommended although you will have to do it in a branch or on the phone although they won't let you do a savings account but you can have as many basic accounts as you want!!

We were allowed yo keep our coop savings account opened just before our iva started although life meant there was never very much in it!

I personally think savings are vital in an IVA for those unexpected emergencies. Any share of your uplift payments are yours to do as you please and therefore, these can be saved if you wish.

Gifts of money for birthdays and Christmas are also yours to do as you wish. I had a savings account whilst in my IVA and found it kept my money separated nicely fro my current account so I could see exactly what was what.

Would reiterate what kallis has said - despite completing iva and despite having basic current account with coop other half has been refused savings account with them.

Any firms that frown upon a savings pot are immensely short sighted in my opinion. For most people, an IVA is a massive shift in the way finances are dealt with and saving is surely to be encouraged, if possible. If budgets can be trimmed, and allowances saved, then that has to be a good thing. If the washer breaks, or a new tyre is needed on the car then having a reserve pot will help cover the cost, and may indeed help the IVA itself by not having to ask for a payment break.

Anything over that is a bonus, break away with the family maybe, or even let it build towards possibly making an offer to settle. My belief is that an IVA is a fabulous tool in the fight against unaffordable debt, and certainly preferable over longer term DMP's in many cases, but it isn't a case of beer and skittles, so common sense must surely prevail.

Regards.

You can try for a contingency within the I&E figures or 'save' from your share of overtime and bonuses that you get to keep. Other than that anything classed as a saving should effectively be paid over to creditors as you are disclosing that you have more than enough to live off and want to keep the extra for yourself rather than pay it towards your debts.

There are some companies though that do frown on savings and I can never understand why the Co-op bank won't let you open up a savings account when you are in an IVA but will let you have as many basic accounts as you want!

I see Lisa's point, although I would take issue with the assertion that "you can try for a contingency within the I&E figures" inasmuch as I would advise people to run a mile from a proposal that didn't contain such an allowance, but penalising people on a very tight budget already for being thrifty by then suggesting that they have too much to live on, is giving the anti IVA brigade a very good reason to advise against it.

As IVA's are nearly always proposed by using lower expenditure guidelines, i.e. StepChange, rather than CFS or the proposed SFS, it is a reasonable assumption that debtors are always at a disadvantage on that score to start with. Effectively saying "you saved £20 on your shopping bill by shopping at Aldi instead of Tesco's and therefore we want that saving passed onto your IVA" is totally bonkers, at least in my opinion.

Regards.

Quite agree Size5.

I applied for a savings account with Co-op whilst in my IVA. I was initially rejected but told it was referred to a dept to approve, i was approved and still have the account
Not a lot in it mind!!

Might as well go back to having debtor prisons.

See http://debtcamel.co.uk/help-to-save-consultation/