With Christmas I have not had a chance to update my Blog here so I thought it was about time I let you know how I am getting on.
So my IVA has been running for just over 3 months now and what a relief it is to say the least. I made my first payment last October after I got paid and for the first time in a long time I was able to meet all my bills and costs for the rest of the month. I am happy to say this situation has continued. Christmas was not the easiest as there was very little money spare but my Mum helped out a lot (I decided to tell her about my IVA now I feel I have finally got my debts under control). I am hoping that I will be able to save a the emergencies budget I am allowed each month so this money is available for next December.
There is one thing that I do want to say though. Even though my IVA was accepted at the end of September I still continued to get some phone calls and letters chasing me. I had been warned about this but it can still be really worrying when it happens. I was told just to say that my IVA was in place and that the creditor should contact the IVA company and by no means to offer to pay them any money.
I was quite worried as one company said that they would record missed payments on my credit file and I would be blacklisted so I phoned James at Beat My Debt. He reminded me not to worry about my credit file as there is nothing that the creditors can do to make it any worse now and that any talk of black listing was just a scare tactic. James did also say that some default notices may be issued on my credit report even after the IVA is in place but I can get these removed after it is all over.
So far all the other creditors who have contacted me have been happy with speaking to the IVA company. I have not go any more calls since mid December so I hope they have stopped for good now. Fingers crossed.
I also wanted to say that the forum on the Beat My Debt web site is really useful. I wanted to know if it was possible to save anything when in an IVA. I decided to ask the question and got some really helpful replies really quickly. I now understand that I can spend the budget I have been given how I wish. Obviously I do not want to get into a struggle again but I think that I can start to save a little for next Christmas as I mentioned before. It would be nice to have some money put aside for a change.
I cannot express how relieved I feel now my IVA has started and I truly feel on the way to being debt free. Even my daughter said that I seem more fun!
Until next time
Sandyx
