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How an IVA helped me

I know how worrying it can be to be faced with debts that are impossible to repay – because that’s the situation I was in only a year ago.

A few years back, I gave very little thought to the way I spent money. All I knew was that I had credit cards that enabled me to buy the things I wanted, when I wanted. TVs, laptops, guitars – you name it, I bought it – all on credit.

For a while, I managed to keep up with my payments, but over time I managed to build up a massive £18,000 of debt. This meant that for the minimum payments alone I was paying about £600 a month, which after a while I simply couldn’t afford.

Even if I could afford it, with the interest added on it would have taken me almost 30 years to clear the debt. It soon became clear that there was no way I could afford to repay what I owed in the foreseeable future.

After a few days of panicking, I finally plucked up the courage to contact a debt adviser (find out more here). To my relief, they told me that there were several options for people in my situation, and it sounded to them like an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) would be the best option.

Entering into an IVA would depend on my lenders’ approval, and thankfully they all agreed that it was the best option for everyone involved.

Since then, I’ve been paying regular monthly payments at an affordable £350 a month. I’m a year into the IVA and after five years have passed, as long as everything’s successful, I won’t have to pay any more towards my unsecured debts. Anything left over will be written off.

The downside of this is that my credit rating has plummeted, so I probably won’t have access to more credit for a while. But that doesn’t bother me so much – there’s no way I can afford to borrow during my IVA, and after it finishes I’ll be much more careful with my money.

Homeowners on an IVA often have to release equity from their home as part of the IVA, but as I rent my home this doesn’t apply to me.

There was a time when I thought I would be forced into bankruptcy by my debt problems, but an IVA has given me a way out.

There’s every chance that you have already heard of debt management plans. In the current economic climate and in our generation of credit consumers, such plans are becoming increasingly popular with families and individuals struggling to meet their monthly financial commitments. Most often, debt management plans are aimed at individuals with debts of between £2000 and £12000. The plans are not legally binding, unlike an IVA, which is often targeted at those with higher amounts of debt. They are, instead, an informal agreement between yourself and your creditors, often through a third part debt advice company. The debt advice company will often contact your creditors to try and negotiate a freeze on interest or charges and, in some cases, to even reduce the overall amount that you owe. You then make one monthly payment to the debt advice company, who split that as agreed between your creditors. They will often also take a small fee for doing so.

The major advantage of this type of agreement is simply its convenience. It makes meeting your monthly financial debt repayments much more manageable and affordable. It will, however, invariably show up on your credit record that you are enrolled in such a plan and this could potentially adversely affect your credit prospects.

However, before making a decision either way, it would be advisable to seek out professional advice either from financial advisors in the case of individuals, or from a business debtline in the case of small businesses. Many debt management plan providers will offer free and confidential advice from trained financial professionals.