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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:57 pm
by ggf
So, exactly 381 days ago I was sat with a debt of circa £80,000, a property in negative equity to the tune of a further £30,000 and a loan secured against it of £50,000. Desperate times indeed.

After years of prevarication and blind ignorance to the fact that something radical needed to be done, I started to research DMP's, IVA's and Bankruptcy. It was all a bit of minefield as you'll all know.

I listed out all my debts on a spreadsheet and the full severity of my situation was there to see in black and white. It was a shocking wake-up call.

I approached Payplan who came up with an 8-year DMP proposal (just for unsecured debts) of something like 87p in the £. Hardly an inspiring offer! I decided to enlist a private IP to look into my situation and found McCambridge Duffy (based in Derry, Northern Ireland) highly recommended on a number of debt advice forums.

After a month or two of sorting out the finer details, McCD were taking forward a 5 year 8-month IVA proposal to creditors at circa 43p in the £. This was accepted on March 16th 2010 and life suddenly became a lot better. This did obviously involve giving up my flat for repossession which was scary at first but my ownership had transferred back to the mortgage company, both the shortfall in equity and the secured loan became unsecured and therefore available to be put forward within the IVA proposal.

Thanks in particular to Michael Peoples and the team at McCD I was able to secure good monthly allowances for expenditure which, despite a pretty high IVA monthly repayment figure, left me with a good amount of money each month to carry on life as normal. It was a great outcome and I really felt i'd made a huge step in the right direction.

Just recently the company I work for started to offer voluntary redundancy packages as part of a major cost saving exercise. I talked to Michael Peoples about this and he suggested I could use this to my advantage in making a Full and Final settlement offer to creditors.

After crunching the numbers, I made an offer to creditors of circa 11p in the £. This was initially rejected but a subsequent offer equivalent to around 13p in the £ was today accepted. This means I will have paid back in total around £26,000 on an original debt of circa £160,000. An outstanding result!

The real point of this email is to advocate the services of McCambridge Duffy for anyone in a debt situation. From start to finish they have been ultra professional, have responded to my numerous queries in rapid time and have helped me through some very scary and desperate times.

I would like to use this forum to thank Michael Peoples, Judy Mooney, Roisin Duffy, Rosie Shott, Eunan Lynch and the eponymous Charco for all their help and support over the last year. Thanks to you guys my life has turned around completely and I can now face a significantly more prosperous future.

Words cannot express how grateful I am to all of you.

GB, Manchester

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:02 pm
by Judo
What a fantastic post that gives hope to those of us just starting our IVA journey. I am glad that all has worked out well for you and I wish you all the luck in the world for you debt free future! Many congratulations to you (and the team of course) :)

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:06 pm
by Foggy
Great news and congratulations !!!! And well done to Michael and the team at McCD.

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:09 pm
by kallis3
Fantastic news - great result for Michael and his team.

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:12 pm
by nepensioner
So pleased for you ggf. Its amazing what a difference a couple of years and help from some good friends makes. You must be feeling wonderful. Do you have another job yet?

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:19 pm
by ggf
Thank you so much guys. It's actually made me well up reading those comments. It's a momentous day for me and I can only hope that as many of you as possible get the right result.

I'm flying out to Australia on the 21st May for 3-weeks and have job interviews lined up in both Melbourne and Sydney. I'm hoping to move out there permanently in early-September this year.

As fresh starts go, I couldn't have scripted it any better!

Good luck and the very best of wishes to all of you.

GGf

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:27 pm
by kallis3
Good luck with Australia - hope you get a job sorted.

Please let us know how you get on.

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:01 pm
by Shining
That is a lovely post and a huge praise to Michael and McD. I hope your trip to Australia results in a positive from those interviews and you begin a whole new future. All the best. x

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:39 pm
by nepensioner
Having lived in Australia myself, I can only say what a wonderful opportunity you now have to move on to a better stage in your life... Good luck

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 9:50 am
by Michael Peoples
Delighted with the outcome and many thanks for all the kind words. A new life in Oz makes me jealous having been there 10 years ago for my brother's wedding. Best of luck for the future and as the others say keep in touch.

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 7:01 pm
by Judo
Australia!!!! Not jealous at all! (room in your suitcase for one more?!?)

What a fantastic start to a new life that would be. I do hope that everything works out for you. (still not jealous) :)

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:17 am
by ashb
Great news and makes us all think about how lucky we are in having good advice. I will also think about apayment if I am made redundant. My amount was 60k. I am two years in to IVA and I pay back 62p in the pound. I am expecting about 50k redundancy so i too will suggest a early payment. It seems that the amount you finaly paid back against the total figure owed is a small fraction, I wonder what criteria is used as I have heard others who have the same amount of outstanding debt have to offer more in a final payment.

But great news.

Good luck