Clients of mine often tell me that they were so nervous to pick up the phone to make the initial call, but after about a minute of chatting to the person at the other end they immediately began to feel better about their whole situation.
Your income and expenditure will be carefully assessed to make sure that you are left with sufficient monies to lead a comfortable lifestyle. Creditors will not expect to be funding luxuries, but they will allow normal household expenditure with some modest amounts for socialising and leisure activities - which are so important to maintain during an IVA if you have a young family to consider.
Taking initial advice costs nothing - only a few hours of your time, and there are several firms who can talk to you during the evenings or at weekends if you want to start the ball rolling at an early stage - or at least find out more about your options.
Best of luck in getting those debts under control - rather than continuing to let them control you!
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Thanks for all your answers they have really helped. I think I will be giving someone a call this week but before I do can you tell me whether we will be made to sell our car and caravan. Car is worth around £12k and van around £6k. They aren't on finance and were purchased with inheritence money. Would break our hearts to have to get rid of them especially as keeping the van would mean us being able to still have some time away as a family as I don't suppose we will be able to afford any other holidays. Also, if I ring a company, what information do they need, is it just the amount owed to each company and incomings and outgoings just so I am prepared. Thanks
Unfortuantley we do not own our own car, but it is financed through HP. We also had concerns about losing it as it is worth £12K, but I thought I would let you know the advice we have been given.
We have been told at the worst we may have to downgrade the vehicle to something a little older. We own a Toyota Verso, people carrier, but need this as we have two children, dog, and travel quite a distance to visit family. We have been told that this is a very good reason to keep the car, and it does not often happen that it is taken away. I know that your situation is slightly different as you own the car and caravan, but you could have your reasons to keep them.
As regards to the figures, when you call companies, you will need to go in with incomes, outgoings, e.g., monthly mortgage fees, credit card payments, etc...., and any Tax Credit and child benefits that you may receive.
Anyway hope this helps. I am only a begninner and our IVA is not complete as yet, but finding this forum extremley helpful.
Good Luck
Sam
F&F accepted 12/8/13 - Awaiting Completion Certificate
Thanks to everyone for your support. Could'nt have done it without you.
I am afraid that creditors are very likely to want the caravan to be sold, unless you can see some way of introducing a similar sum in lieu of its value. Are there any family members who could help with this?
Your car ought to be OK - so long as you can justify the need for retaining a car of such value.
During the telephone call, or meeting, you will need to be able to confirm details about all of your financial affairs - so have all of your creditor statements to hand as well as wage-slips and mortgage statements etc. If there is anything else needed they will let you know.
If the caravan is so important to you, you could also look into a DMP - the downside of this being that you will continue to pay the debts until they are paid in full, with no guarantee of creditors stopping interest and charges as is automatic with the IVA.
Oh no! I'd hate to have to get rid of our caravan, it would really upset the kids, especially the little one. Thanks for advice about DMP but don't think that will be the way forward for us, especially if interest doesn't stop, we might end up in a worse position that we are now!. Can someone also tell me if you receive an inheritence during the 5 year period of an IVA whether you are expected to pay all of this into it? This is all so scary I feel at my wits end and I'm not sure what to do now
If you did receive an inheritance then you would have to pay it across. How much would depend upon the amount and how much you still owed.
Even in an IVA you still owe the creditors the full amount until you have completed, so you may be able to pay them back 100p in the pound. Anything left over would be yours.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Yes - inheritances are unfortunately captured under the terms of the IVA. An IVA is meant to enable you to repay as much as you possibly can to creditors, whilst being left with enough money to maintain a comfortable living.
