www.iva.co.uk

HI
my husband and myself have been enquiring about iva's via debtfree direct, they have advised that we have been provisionally accepted? I am really scared when reading some of these stories on your forum, do you know if these are a reputable company?

Hi Angela

DFD are the countries biggest IVA firm. I'm intersted in the comment that you've been "provisionally accepted". That simply means you fit their criteria, or their best advice model as they call it, nothing more I would think. I would check the client feedback at www.iva.com before making any decision.

Ian

thanks ian, i will do

Good advice as always, check out 2 or 3, always ask about fees and avoid those firms that charge upfront fees.

DFD are ok as long as you dont want to speak to someone that actually knows what they are talking about. Hubbys IVA ran very smoothly with them and with a bit of advice we discovered that if you search for an email address of your IP on the insolvency website and email him/her, you will be contacted by someone that DOES know what they are talking about.

So all in all not bad.

mrs skint

In my opinion you are better off with a small company. These big companies get the job done but you are just a number and you seem to get someone different every time you ring .Remember that five years is a long time and you are better dealing with a IP who knows you

Thanks for the great advise, will call a few more

hi just to agree with most replys to you i am with debt free direct and have been for 28 months have had no problems with them recently my monthly payments went up by just under 200 a month which caused me some concern to say the least however on geting in touch with them it was sorted out and payments remained the same but as iva is a very personal thing and runs for a long time if given the option again i would definatley go for a smaller company to get the personal type of service you would recieve

I know people say in this forum avoid those companies that charge money upfront, but on the other hand try to go for a smaller company. To some extent these things conflict, the IVA factories can take on cases with nothing upfront because their business model relies on a high-volume automated approach with largely unqualified staff, if you go direct to a smaller IP practice, then they will probably ask you to start making payments straight away before your creditors' meeting has been convened as you will be dealing on a more personal level with qualified staff.

It's swings and roundabouts, I do tell my clients that I will start work on their case as soon as the first monthly payment has gone into my client account and this turns some people away, but leaves me with clients who are serious about their IVA, not just taking a punt on it.

I am with DFD, they are ok, but i think if i had known then what i know now, I would of firstly shopped around and secondly gone to a smaller company that is more personal. The main problem is, as others have said you never ger to speak to the same person, and in my experience the advice you get is not always consistent. Having an iva is a stressful experience, and some times you just need a bit of reaassurance about things.

There are smaller IVA providers who provide good service and do not charge upfront fees.