www.iva.co.uk

We have been paying into a DMP for 3 years and the same company (Baines & Earnst) are now suggesting an IVA. Are they the best people to be arranging this?

Given that they have all your income and expenditure details and creditor info they may well be best placed,thats not to say you must go along with them,I would be wanting to look around at another couple of companies to see what they suggest.
Any reason why an IVA wasnt suggested in the 1st place??

They have an IVA company called Blair Endersby - and you might like to look at iva.com to see the level of feedback existing clients have posted. If they are suggesting an IVA now, why was once not suggested three years ago?

Has there been a recent change in your circumstances? If not, the first question you should ask is why is an IVA the right answer now when it wasn't 1,2 or 3 years ago?

Our circumstances are better financially at the moment. We were locked into a mortgage before but have since manged to change lenders and get cheaper repayments. However, it is intrest only and fixed for another year, after that it returns to whatever. We also have a second charge and ccj on the property with intrest incurring and not sure if they would postpone again to be able to switch lenders again.

As your improved financial position is only temporary, I would be very careful about entering into a five year structured repayment plan. Would the mortgage company allow you to stay on interest only for longer?

I would think very carefully before entering into an IVA if your mortgage is only fixed for a year. The way things are at the moment with mortgages it might not be worth taking the risk of the payments jumping up when you would only be a year into the IVA.