www.iva.co.uk

I have recently had my IVA approved but am still getting hassled by creditors. My bank have sent me a letter informing me of charges that they are adding to my account that I requested that they closed. I have previously returned the debit cards to them and no money has been paid into the account. Can they do this? Also Barclaycard are ringing me about 10 times a day. Are they allowed to keep hassling like this? Its more stressful now than before the IVA was agreed!

It's very unfortunate, but some creditors do take some time to ralise that an IVA has been agreed and that they should stop hassling debtors, it's a case of one office not talking to another office quickly enough.

Please always be very calm and polite when dealing with these people even if they seems to be completely brainless, this will help reduce the stress for you, hopefully within a few days the calls will stop.

I forgot to mention that once the IVA has been agreed, then creditors should stop adding interest and charges, if they seem unreasaonable then the Supervisor of the IVA should refuse to admit them for dividend purposes.

It does seem to be increasingly common that creditors are ringing way after the IVA's have been approved. I was lucky in as much as we only had one, and once I explained things they were ok (apart from one last ditch attempt to get money out of me!).

Either don't answer the phone or have some sort of spiel ready for them - 'I'm now in an IVA, you are not allowed to call or hassle me anymore. I won't be entering into conversation with you.' and then put down the phone. Something like that anyway.

They will go away eventually and all your letters will stop as well. The postman goes straight past us some days now, and when he does visit it's just junk.

Hi There,
I agree with Kallis - don't answer the phone or tell them straight you're in an IVA. They shouldn't be calling you and will stop as soon as their internal communication catches up.
Stay strong,
Hugs,
Chardonnay

Hi Hayley

Don't panic, it's very early days yet. The calls will stop soon. Don't answer them or if you do just say 'My circumstances have changed now and if you could please add to your records now that I am currently in an IVA. You will be notified by my IP very soon with progress etc.' This worked for me with Barclays and they were fine about it. Heard nothing more from them. However, it was MBNA who continually hounded me - they were slower to update their records.

Just hang in there it will all sort itself out soon.

Maz

We were lucky that we didn't have too many calls or letters after our IVA was agreed as Phillip said be polite I used to say we are in a IVA and for them to contact my IP and I sent any letters to my IP.

Jan

Hi
As Pbeck says you're protected by an IVA now. Just tell people your in an IVA and pass any stray letters on to your IP, they are now paid to deal with these for you.
In a few months when the 'phone calls, letters and even junk mail has stopped you even begin to feel a bit left out when you have days with no post.
Concentrate on budgeting, that's the hardest part of first few months and forget about your old creditors - the IVA and your IP will deal with those.

Hi Hayley ... I had a similar problem with Barclays and Aktiv Capitol. However I passed the details to my IP and the letters stopped. I also got a very nice letter from Barclays letting me know they had been notified by the IP. Hang in there ... it will get better.[:)]

i have a call minder box on my phone which helped a lot if i did not recognize the number ansd was not expecting a call i did not naswer, and refer the creditor to your ip

Have you noticed that as soon as you default on a payment, the company concerned will contact you non stop after a day or two? When you are in an IVA, it can take months before the information trickles down to the monkey at the bottom of the chain.

Odd isn't it?

This was when I found a answer machine so useful on the down days when I found it hard to cope pre IVA I just let every call go to answer machine and then phoned the people back I wanted to speak to.

Jan

Same here Jan. I never spoke to anyone until the IVA had been approved, then it was a pleasure to inform them!

i still in process of getting iva but i have now stopped answering the phone cos i sick of repeating myself to them

Ours is still in the early stages, but we have caller ID on our phone. We have enetered the numbers that the creditors have been calling on into the phones memory so that we know exactly which creditor is calling. To be fair though, the majority have been ok to deal with, except one guy from Bank of Scotland who was very pushy and arrogant.