Why Use an IVA?

If you abide by the terms of your IVA proposal you really can be debt free in 60 months. In the IVA you and your creditors agree that you will make a single, manageable payment each month.

An IVA lasts for a fixed, sensible period of time – most commonly 5 years. Once agreed, by law, creditors must stop from continuing to charge interest on outstanding balances.

The terms of the agreement are fixed at the outset which means that creditors cannot suddenly demand changes to it and once agreed, creditors are bound so they can’t change their mind and take their own action against you.

Debt Management solutions may not offer you such peace of mind as it is often questionable whether informal agreements with creditors are legally binding (potentially allowing individual creditors to independently continue with enforcement action against you).

If an informal debt solution is utilized creditors may require you to continue to make contributions from your income for however long a period as may be required to settle your liabilities in full. Creditors may also continue to charge interest at a lower rate than before the DMP throughout the period required for repayment of your indebtedness. We have worked hard over the last 3 years to make sure our relationships with creditors are transparent. This in turn mean for the vast majority looking at a debt plan, interest is reduced or even frozen.

What will an IVAs cover?

An IVAs will only cover unsecured debts - debts that are not secured against your home (or other assets). This means your IVA can include the following types of debt;

·          Unsecured personal loans

·          Credit cards

·          Overdrafts

·          Store cards

An IVA will not cover secured debts. This is because the terms of a secured debt are already set out that if you fail to keep up with your repayments, your home or car could be sold to recoup the money owed to the lender.

This means that an IVA will not cover the following:

·          Mortgage arrears & payments

·          Secured loan arrears & payments

An IVA can cover utility arrears (money that you should already have paid) - but only if you’ve changed provider since then. So this could only apply to cases where you’ve been able to change providers. If there’s only one water provider in your area, for example, you’d owe the arrears to the company you’re still paying, you can not include the arrears in your IVA.

IVA or Bankruptcy?

If you owe over £15,000.00 an IVA is a quick and simple alternative to bankruptcy.

If you are declared bankrupt you will lose all future assets, such as inheritances, insurance pay outs, any equity in property and possible pension income.  With an IVA you will retain any property held, as well as any future payouts once the IVA is completed.

Bankruptcy is not always advertised in your local paper and in the London Gazette.  There is no publicity with an IVA.

Your bank/building society, landlord and all creditors are informed straight away if you are declared bankrupt. With an IVA, your landlord or employers are not told unless you owe them money or you work in finance / Army or the Police force.

There is no court appearance involved in an IVA.

Ask an IVA Expert

Individual Voluntary Arrangements are administered by Insolvency Practitioners (I.P.s), There are many based all over the country but not all deal with same sorts of IVA.. As in all walks of life though, some are better than others, so finding a reputable Insolvency Practitioner when you need one is not always straight forward.

At TDC we have a dedicated and independent I.Ps that assesses all our cases immediately. Only when they have agreed that an IVA has an excellent prospect of being accepted by the creditors do we move onto the next stage with you.

PLEASE NOTE: If you instruct TDC to apply for an IVA on your behalf, you will be expected to make token payment to creditors in the form of a short-term debt plan until your IVA has been agreed. The average set-up time of an IVA is 6-8 weeks. This means you may have made two payments to TDC prior to your IVA being agreed. Your payments are then sent pro-rata as token payments in order to ease the pressure of calls and further action.

You should use an intermediary Individual Voluntary Arrangement company, who will assess your case on its merits, and then suggest a reputable I.P. company to help you. This way you can look into all options rather than just the IVA.

Call us today for free advice.

How do you decide which IVA company to use from the many available?

A good starting point is to call us. Once we have your information, we can then look at the best fit insolvency practitioner for you. As we say, not all IPS work the same way. For instance, self employed or working overseas.

Be comfortable with our advisors that you talk to

You should be able to discuss any aspect of your financial, and sometimes personal, circumstances with us. Your advisor should have a good knowledge of the IVA process, and be able to use their experience to guide you forward.

Be sure that the IVA Company you use has carried out a thorough analysis of your circumstances.