IVA's - The Benefits

The debt crisis that politicians have been agonising about is getting worse, not better. By the end of October 2006, total personal debt in the UK was more than £1.25 trillion (up by more than 10% on last year) and average household debt stood at £8,592.

With economic forecasters predicting these figures to continue to rise, the future looks bleak for debtors. Or does it?

In 1986, the government introduced a new debt re-payment scheme called an Individual Voluntary Arrangement, or IVA for short. Conceived as an alternative to bankruptcy, IVAs are becoming an increasingly popular way of clearing debt. This is shown by the fact that 50,000 IVAs were completed in 2006 and it is estimated that this figure could double by the end of 2007.

So why are IVAs so popular? The answer lies in the range of benefits that they offer to people in serious debt.

Unlike bankruptcy there is less stigma associated with an IVA because it is a private agreement between a debtor and his/her creditors. In other words, no one needs to know that you are paying into an IVA unless you choose to tell them.

With an IVA you propose to repay a specific amount of your debt each month based on what you can actually afford over, typically, a five year period. Therefore, although you will be expected to budget carefully, you and your family will not suffer financially if you sign up to an IVA. Plus monthly repayments can be as little as £200.

Moreover, with an IVA your debts do not continue to spiral out of control. Interest on them is frozen whilst the IVA is in place. Furthermore it is very common for a large proportion of your debts (normally well over 50%) to be written off completely.

Another advantage of an IVA is that creditors are prohibited from contacting you whilst it is in place. In other words, you are legally protected from them harassing you via emails, letters and phone calls.

Most importantly, if you stick to the terms of your IVA, you will be declared debt free at the end of the IVA and can make a fresh start with a clean slate.