help please iva advice needed

[jonesy]

hello i am 34k in debt and i am in the process of going down the iva road with grant thornton i have five creditors the main two are barclays and egg. after my calculation and in agreement with grant thorton i have around £600 to offer as an iva payment.

i about to start getting my paperwork together and have applied for a basic account and feel rather stressed about as have read articles that a high number of iva get rejected. also i am unsure what to put in my letter for the reason for my debt do i need to say certain things of just be honest.

can any one give me advice as i need to be certain i am taking the correct route to solve my debt

many thanks stressed out jonesy

jonesy




jonesy

[Aaron_]

Hi,

First of all if you are offering £600 pm as payment, then over 5 years you will have paid back £36,000...this being more than you owe...why are you taking out and IVA? You should reconsider your repayment and discuss with your IP. Have you included all your expenses? In mine I have included expenses such as dentist, glasses (or contact lenses which I now wear), a daily news paper, petrol, maintenance of a car, etc etc, this is all on top of things like rent, council tax, utility bill. Also my IVA was approved with me continuing to pay in to my employers pension scheme, which is £40 a month.

With the paperwork, just be honest and put everything in there and explain why you have got in to so much debt. Mine was simply too young and naive to have a credit card, which then turned in to a loan and credit card and then a consolidation loan and then a 0% credit card for 9 months, banks increasing borrings and I just kept spending on things I needed.

I think the best thing to do is talk to your IP and perhaps a nother IP or one of the experts on here and compare the answers to your questions on which route to take.

Good luck!!

[jonesy]

thanks for the reply
i think i need to talk to another expert as i am not sure if the advise i have been offered is right

i take home roughly £1950 per month and with all the loan payments etc and rent i have more going out than in and have just started to miss one payment.

i did consider a debt management plan but the amount was coming around £800 per month with an iva it was around £605 per month.

i am unsure what to do really .........

jonesy

[Anna]

Jonesy - I think you definitely should be talking to someone else.

I am on 36k pa and I know I could not afford 600 per month but I guess our personal circumstances are different, different expenses etc.

Also, on 36 k I take home 2123 - you mention 1950. Are you paying into your employer's pension? Or are you paying too much tax? Check that too.

A

[jonesy]

hi

yes i am paying into a personal pension and also have a medical beneift which reduces my tax free allowance.

i will speak again to my advisor and if can not reduce the amount to £5OO will take other advice

jonesy

[Anna]

Jonesy - I only know what I have read here so do not take my word for granted but from what I see, the IVAs failing are the ones that were set up too high with unrealistinc expenses (too low).

I am still learning since I found this Forum yesterday and with AM's post above realised I have not had dentist/optician/perscription expenses in the budget I am preparing now.

And I wear glasses, need 3 different items perscriptions per month and of course should see a dentist once in a while.

Have a look at your expenses again.

I do nto pay pension although my one was a good one - I pulled out last year as could not afford it, even though my employer's contribution was a very good one

[Skippy]

My IVA failed because I set my allowances far to low. I have filled in my BR forms online today, and I was paying £459 into my IVA, and my disposable income has now worked out at £235 - quite a difference! I appreciate the OR might not agree with some of the figures, but I didn't leave myself any room to negotiate the IVA figures.

Onwards and upwards!!!
View my blog at: http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[Anna]

My IVA failed because I set my allowances far to low.

This is what I am trying to avoid myself, after reading about failed IVAs.. spotted this was the reason...

[Aaron_]

Hi Jonesy...i'm quite happy to put you in touch with the people that sorted out my IVA....they talked to me about my expenses and even added a little extra here and there just in case I had missed anything. The guy I spoke to was really helpful and we had two or three conversations before I sent all the papers back. I still have questions now, which I email over to my case handler, who replies within 24 hours usually, which I think is excellent. **if you want to contact me, otherwise there are a couple of experts on here who could probably help you. I went to two different companies, one at the beginning of 2006 and found them really pushy so didn't do anything till I found a different company in June 2006. Hope all goes well.

** email address deleted... please see excellent advice from scaredkez below
regards, admin

[scaredkez]

hi am it is not advisable to post your e-mail link on here as you will be unindated with loads of unwanted e-mails that is why admin have suspended the e-mail link in our profiles, if you wish to give it to someone you can contact admin and they will pass it on for you as a few of us have done this already
take care
kerri

Please view my blog at: http://scaredkez.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[MelanieGiles]

Hi jonesey

If you can afford to pay £600 per month, then an IVA may not be the best solution for you, as you will be paying in more than you actually owe. Creditors are unlikely to support unless you can give very good reasons for requiring an IVA over a DMP - the latter which would result in them being repaid in full.

Can I ask who your creditors are, as Grant Thornton do actually represent some of the major banks in terms of voting at IVA creditor meetings, as well as putting forward their own IVA proposals for clients.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[jonesy]

hi melanie

creditors are barclays bank (two loans and overdraft) barclay card credit card and egg also mbna

think i need to rethink advise

jonesy

[MelanieGiles]

I would definately rethink your plans here, and am suprised an IVA has been suggested to you. I would suggest that you contact your creditors directly and explain the situation to them.

MBNA tell us that they like clients to seek advice from them in the first hand, so they may come up with a plan you would wish to consider. Egg also do not take too kindly to people entering into IVAs when they have a perfect record of repayment leading up to the creditors meeting, and as the rest of your debts are with Barclays I feel certain that you can come to a repayment plan with the creditors directly thus avoiding the need to enter into an unecessary insolvency procedure.

Obviously if this does not work, then you can still keep the idea of an IVA up your sleeve.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[jonesy]

melanie thanks
i have taken advise on debt management and the figures came up with £800 per month
i spoke to myveesta and they advised that an iva was the best option for me and put me through to grant thornton.
i have sent my details across to you for you to look at if you still think an iva is not the best option for me i will call the creditors as you advised.

jonesy