www.iva.co.uk

My proposals are now being drawn up by Payplan to say I am as nervous as hell is an understatement. Mine and my husbands salary have only just been paid into our new bank accounts so I now have to write to Barclays to tell them about the IVA!! From the Nervous nelly Locko

hi Nervous Nelly Locko - you're on your way.

Just send the letter and then ignore any phone calls. You'll be fine and you'll always get support on here.

Thanks Julie. Calls have started from other creditors, I am ususally quite calm but when the Halifax phoned me three times in a week and then tried to make out they handnt I just saw red, talk about ranting and raving Cathy x

Hey Locko, don't let them upset you, if you would rather not answer the calls then don't, it won't make any difference to the outcome of your IVA. Good luck with the proposals, keep posting, Viki X

Hi Locko

You will find that the Halifax will ring you for each account you have with them seperately - I have 2. Also if you tell them you are looking at an IVA and when you hear anything you will tel them and NO you haven't got any money - you are currently really struggling to live and NO you have no friends or family that can help then usually they will say okay then we will hold all calls for 10 days. If you get a stroppy pushy caller then I say - I am not arguing with you on the phone, nothing you say to me is going to magic money in my account so I can pay you a token payment, I am now ending this call - they either hang up on you or tell you they will hold the calls. good luck ty not to let them get you down. XX

Thanks Folks for your comments, will let you keep you informed of how I get on, thank god for this site take care Cathy xx

Hi All, received my proposals yesterday and now feel really depressed. I know we have to budget on the budget statement they have sent with the proposals I dont know how I am to manage. Any advice welcome please Cathy

Hi Cathy, when you say the budget sheet that they have sent you, do you mean that Payplan has told you what your budget will be? The figures should be what you actually spend (within reason obviously!) and not what the company say they should be.

Please don't sign the proposal if you aren't happy with it. 5 years is a long time to live on a budget, (although if it's a sensible one it's manageable), so if you're not comfortable at the beginning you're more likely to have problems later on.

You need to go back to Payplan and tell them that you're not happy, and if they won't make changes it's worth getting a second opinion.

I echo Skippy. If you feel that you cannot manage on the budget given then you MUST query it, and then take the apprpriate action.

Regards.

We're with Payplan, and I'm sure that our budget is what we told them, with one or two alterations, but nothing we couldn't cope with.

It's tight, but we are managing at the moment.

Thanks folks for all your replies, will go back to them, I think they are saying we can offer creditors £520 a month and I want to reduce this slightly by about £50 to make things a bit more managable. They are only allowing us £42 for clothes for I have to say 2 really large adults and 1 child, I thought you where allowed £60 for clothes, also contignecy and car maintenance is low £20 per month, I know they dont allow for school meals and meals for work but how do you manage on £300 a month for toiletries, cleaning and food, sorry to moan!! Cathy xx

We're lucky in as much as hubbie is retired, so doesn't require much in the way of clothes, and he has never been a fashion person anyway!
I wear a uniform for work and jeans when at home (slowly growing out of them as I put on weight, but I love my food too much!) Daughter is now old enough to buy her own!

I honestly can't remember what Payplan allowed for all this, but we have substantially cut our food bill (local butchers for meat and Asda for food - buying more and more value stuff).

I use Ebay for clothes as well - they have some great bargains.

According to CCCS guide lines for 2 adults and 1 child the clothing allowance is £43 think the most allowed is £56.
Also I`m with Payplan and they allowed school/work meals,even though we don`t ahemm use them.
The £300 is stingy though for food etc,it`s a good job I grow alot of food myself otherwise we`d be in trouble.

We have managed to keep our food bill right down. Good job hubbie is a whizz in the kitchen! Lots of value stuff from Asda helps, plus we have a breadmaker and make our own bread now.

I don't think I ever claimed for meals for work. I mostly take sandwiches, have cereal or occasionally toast (a treat from the canteen!), or when I am on late I take something to heat in the microwave. It used to be bought ready meals, but they have gone out of the window now, so it's a portion of whatever we have in the freezer!

Thanks for all your help and comments. We dont buy clothes that often but my daughter is 10 and seems to be growing really quickly she is already a size 6 shoe and the price of uniforms are costly. Will go back to them re the food budget as we have 2 cats as well take care Cathy x