www.iva.co.uk

I am asking this on behalf of a friend of mine...
I originally started looking into IVA last May and pretty much immediately starting paying £384 a month from June. My IVA wasnt officially agreed by the creditors until January this year so 7 payments on...i was just wondering if these are part of my 5 year IVA - basically does my payments end in 5 years from the first payment i made or 5 years from the creditors agreeing?

Yes,Hopefully your IVA will end in 53 months from now.However this should have been made crystal clear to you before you started.Contact your IP and ask the question.
For people reading this post and have yet to decide on an IP then please steer clear of companies like this that ask for payments before the IVA is agreed.Two reasons
1] What happens to your money if your IVA is rejected by your creditors ?? Answer....your IP will keep it all to cover costs
2] 7 months is a long time in sorting out an IVA for someone, about 2-3 months is norm...........companies that are receiving money before the IVA has been agreed have no incentive to hurry your application along.Whereas a company that do not ask for money before hand will be going at warp speed tp process your IVA an have it agreed cuz they will not earn until it is agreed.

What on earth is the IP doing taking payments like this from you up front? Neverending has absolutely answered this correctly, but please check the wording of your proposal carefully and ensure that the money held has been introduced into the IVA. Why did it take 7 months to put together, and who is the IP firm?

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
View my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

I originally made the enquiry phonecall to the debt councellors in May, then in June sent them 3 cheques back-dated for June, July, August. After about a month my file was passed to Synergi. Once those 3 months were up, i had to set up a standing order to continue paying them £384 a month. They said this was to show the creditors i was willing to pay and had been paying consistantly?? Do you think this was incorrect now and that maybe im only just starting my iva from january and not when i started actually paying? I did ask them this question and they were quite vague on the answer. Before it started, i asked someone if i would get the money back if it was rejected and he laughed and said "of course, that would be illegal if it didnt" which is funny now hearing kerri's story about them chasing her for the money she owes. Im a bit confused now and will be really upset if ive been paying them for 7 months and its only included as 1 payment!

Oh dear C_H you are using the same firm as me, if you read the reviews about synergi you would see why i think you maybe upset. I too used the debt counsellors and too paid fee upfront fortunately my IVA was accepted and mine too took upto 8 months before the creditors meeting i was informed that all my payments made prior to this would be included in my 60 payments however i am not sure what to believe anything that this company tell me. You should read scarekez's topic/forums.

Due to thier incompetence as an IVA company i am now struggling with the terms of the IVA and looking to go BR.

Anyway i wish you luck and dont mean to scare you but you should be wary. you can ready my blog which i have started so it may give you some idea

Sorry

51 payments to go
(I apologise for my keyboards poor spelling and grammar)
http://coco.blogs.iva.co.uk

ch as the others have said i made the mistake of paying synergi up front and lost the money as it was rejected, they told me the work for the 5 months is over £3k i paid them 1566 they are not chasing me for the rest of the money they are willing to write that off apparantly, according to the wording in my proposal from them had it been accepted the payments made up front were to be used as the first iva payments so basically you have made your first payments.
i only hope they have been realistic with your figures and you are able to make the payments each month as synergi seem to be pushing people into making realistic amounts each month, thats my personal opinion after what happened to me and reading so many other posts off others who have used synergi.
i hope everything works out for you please keep posting and let us know how you get on
kerri

My advice to any one contemplating an IVA.....DO NOT USE SYNERGI.They are painfully slow and I wonder if they do this in order to ensure that they have received enough payments upfront to cover their fees and therfore be in a no lose situation regarding a succesful or failed IVA application.

thats my thought exactly neverending, as i said i can't actually prove this, but by reading other posts from people who have used synergi, it seems that this is the format they use, over 5 months to get to a creditors meeting ensuring they have had several months paymnents in advance can only ensure they are in a no lose situation, by the way i did say this to them when i found out i wasn't to get any of my payments back.
kerri

This company should be reported, there may be hundreds out there destined for months of stress. Even when the IVA does go through many seem unrealistic.

LILY

Make sure you ask them some direct questions on Monday, as to the nature of your existing payments. Your creditors will expect to see 60 payments made from the date of your creditors meeting, together with any savings you have made ie up front payments to the IP firm to date. Check the wording of your propsal carefully.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
View my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

I am quite new but i am not hearing alot of positive things about synergi, the IP seems to have some strange practices.

I haven't heard a good word about Synergi, so as Neverending says, if you are thinking of an IVA, please go with someone else.

Four down, fifty six to go until freedom!

Well thank you everyone for your help. I will go home tonight and read my wording very carefully and come back tomorrow and write the wording out so if you could let me know what you all think tomorrow.x 1 down 59 to go, or possibly 8 down 52 to go!?!![:0]

Hi
Just to let you all know that after all the advice i went back to synergi - they confirmed that i have made 7 payments to my IVA and not just the one. I have asked them to put that in writing but they seem to be a bit slow at doing this! however, i have spoken to three different people now who have all confirmed the same so i feel a bit happier now. but thank you all for your advice![;^)]

Thats good news,just make sure that you get it in writing and I would still advise anyone against Synergi because of the time scale that they take regarding IVAs