questions that I have recently become aware off

[Adam Davies]

Hi
You would more than likely pay an income payment order for three years if you now went bankrupt.The three years of payments made into your IVA would be distributed to your creditors after your IP fees were deducted.
Your credit file will also be affected for six years whereas under an IVA your file will be clear in another three years.
IVAs were and are marketed as an alternative to bankruptcy,a fair statement in my view
Regards

[Robbiecat]

I actually find it offensive that the IVA Council feel that they are in a position to tell people they have been mis-sold an IVA. Most people in an IVA have made the decision for themselves, in full posession of the facts about the options available.

I wasn't exactly encouraged to take the bankruptcy route when I spoke to Melanie, but she was very, very clear about the options available (DMP, IVA, BR) and the consequences of each. I then made the decision very much for myself with her advice and guidance. She also told me that should I chose the BR route, then she would recommend that I do it myself without assistance to save money.

The IVA Council are like "Injury Lawyers 4 U" and the "have you had an accident at work" brigade. Complete ambulance chasers trying it on.

RC

[jane.l]

Funnily enough, when we approached the CAB, in the early stages of our IVA proposal, the CAB thought we had been mis-advised and an IVA was not right in our circumstances, (house in negative equity, we had left it to be repossessed)

We were a bit confused at this point, but because we could not sell the house and were going to lose it anyway ‘cos the secured lending was just too high. We decided we may as well go bankrupt, I had had enough of “fighting” all these debts and Picture were being, as usual, very awkward and would not let us sell the house. Looking back, I don’t think our IVA would have been accepted anyway, we had a lot of debt with Nrock, we had no idea of the final shortfall amount from the sale of the house because this would have taken a couple of years to be realised, so I now think bankruptcy was our only option, a clean slate and all that, to start again. Our IVA company wanted payments before the proposal was drawn up, they “jiggled” the figures to fit and no mention was made of the amount of debt we had with Nrock and whether this would be a problem or not. I felt totally uncomfortable with the proposal.

We made our own minds up in the end to go for bankruptcy, I know IVAs are great for some people, such as those wanting to keep their house of job but in our case, it made no difference, we were going to lose the house anyway and have a bad credit rating for 6 years. I am going to be a bit controversial here but I don’t give a fig if the creditors do not get any money back, they were awful to us, in the early stages of the IVA proposal being drawn up, it made me ill, so we decided to put ourselves first, I had been working for over 18 months in a job I hated, working too many hours, just to pay the debts and I had reached breaking point, frankly. I think going bankrupt was the best thing we could have done

[Robbiecat]

"Our IVA company wanted payments before the proposal was drawn up, they “jiggled” the figures to fit and no mention was made of the amount of debt we had with Nrock and whether this would be a problem or not. I felt totally uncomfortable with the proposal."

Before I talked to Melanie and used her firm, I did a *LOT* of shopping around. I approached a well known IVA factory firm to look at an IVA for me in July last year. I was a student at the time with a steady (but very modest) income, and in reality, an IVA would have been completely untenable.

The "factory" IVA firm attempted to "fudge" my figures to fit an IVA, and wanted 3 months payment up front before the IVA would start being paid as a *fee*. The proposal they made was completely unrealistic, but I was so desperate at the time, I would have agreed to anything just to feel like I was moving forward.

Thank Goodness I didn't have the "up-front fees" available, because I then found this website, and now I have a decent IP. (i.e. one who likes dogs and Welsh rugby! [;)]) instead of one where I'd be seriously struggling with "fudged" payments and quite possibly I'd be BR now. Instead, I have a realistic I&E and I feel positive about the next 5 years.

It is a scary world out there when you are trying to sort through a financial mess. I would always recommend that you do a lot of investigation and back ground research. I had a very lucky escpae.

RC