www.iva.co.uk

are debt free direct any good and what are there costs

look on www.iva.com. we were going to go with them but after reading the reviews on here changed our minds. we are with melanie giles and she is brilliant. check out the website for ratings. i know ian millington posts on here and he is lovely also

DFD are ok untill the day you need to speak to somebody that knows what they are talking about. THATS IMPOSSIBLE.

Deffinately read reviews on different companies before you decide.

Hi James and welcome to the forum.
I agree with ang either check out iva.com or talk with Melanie or Ian,s companies. All the best.

Ang

Hi James.R
We are with DFD and so far they've been good but we haven't really had to contact them for anything so far.

We are with debt free direct - all companies have good and bad comments. Our contact with them so far has only been of a positive one and we have never had any issues in contacting them or resolving any queries we have had ! Personally I like to know I am in a large organisation - not likely to go under, others like to be in a smaller personal organisation but at the end of the day they both offer the same service.

10 down 50 to go!

i have only read the bad posts from DFD i am not with them and me personnaly wouldnt go with a huge provider like them .If i had the chance again to go with one i would only pick one and she is an email away she does much work on the forum here her name is melanie gilles get in touch with her but in the end its your decision and i wouldnt go to anyone that charges upfront fees or an intermediery its bad enough looking for money when your in debt most firms take their fees from the iva payments when its set up [:)]


good luck

AVOID DFD WITH ALL OF YOUR MIGHT!!

My husband and I have been with them for 2 years and we are failing the IVA at the moment. When we joined them for the IVA they filed our IVA at Bristol County Court without finalising things with us. Then we were legally obliged to pay them £478 which was simply to expensive. We struggled for years and we emailed them, called them and wrote to them every month since May 2008 and told them we couldn't afford it. We were terrified we would be made bankrupt as my husband is an Accountant and he would lose his job. This has gone on for two years. In March this year we were sent a Notice of Breach and so we took the opportunity to tell them that we couldn't afford their payments. They decided to ignore our letter and telephone calls and add an extra year to our IVA. We were furious. Then in April I discovered I am pregnant so my husband has said enough is enough and we approached DFD and told them to fail our IVA as we wish to deal with things ourselves.
I am still waiting. It's been nearly a week.
We are not in arrears but it means we can have a nice yummy meal on pay day instead of beans on toast as we are not paying them.
We had an email from our IP saying that we won't petition for our bankruptcy in the event we fail the IVA and I have told him he is not having his fees from us. He has done nothing to earn them. Their fees are extorinate. They don't earn them. If you have a question their admin staff have no answers.
In 2004 & 2005 we fell behind with our council tax so we added this to our IVA. Our local council were informed and said they would be happy to participate. We told our IP and he told me to 'take care of it myself' so I had to deal with the council and the court myself. We didn't hear anything and assumed the council were being paid until last christmas we had a demand letter from our council asking for £2700. DFD told us that the debt could no longer be included. We are struggling to pay our council £400 a month back and that is why we are calling it a day with DFD.

I don't believe DFD are any good. They have appalling customer service. They will not do any variations as well on the increase in fuel, energy and food bills so don't bother asking.

I hope you choose someone else.
Melanie is good but I also hear good things about Freeman Jones.

Hi

really sorry to hear about your service levels.
I think that there should be disclaimers with IVA's to remind people that it is for 5 years and to make sure they are comfortable with the IP. It is possibly more important than marriage to choose the right one!!!.

Sometimes it is good to go over your plans with someone else so that they can give you pointers on your journey.

take care

Yes Paul. and like marriage, you often dont realise you have chosen the wrong partner until you have spent a year or 2 together, and are in too deep to escape! ....same can apply to IP's !