My IVA

SUCCESS WOOOHOOO

2007-02-21T20:07:00.000Z

Finally,, had my IVA accepted today so so so so so happy.

Proposed 29pence in every pound, but with a few mods they accepted 31 pence in every pound, so about £425 a month starting from 1st March

Time to celebrate (wine in hand).

New Date

2007-02-06T23:27:00.000Z

Got the date of my new creditors meeting,. it is on the 21st Feb at 15:00. It is the same proposal as sent last time but thats what was explained to me it was just arranged for another date so my creditors could have more time to respond to it.
I gave Julie, this is who I am in touch with at Thomas Charles, she assured me the delay from creditors was more than likely because it was just after Christmas when debts are higher so they probably had more cases to look at.
So new proposal is all signed and sent back, I would attend the creditors meetings but they are in Manchester so it is a tad far to travel just for a few minutes of meeting, but was told from beginning I do not have to attend as long as I am in touch by telephone which i always am.
One of my creditors has been ok, my old bank Nationwide, they actually listened and took notes on what I was doing which makes a change.
Just for those who not read rest of the blog, my proposal is offering 29p out of every £1 to my creditors, which from what I have read is about average.

New Proposal

2007-01-25T18:06:00.000Z

I got my new proposal to my creditors today, so all that needs doing is signing that like the last one I did, and posting it back off to my IP, he told me he will arrange another creditors meeting for February, so fingers crossed, legs, and whatever else I can cross. Hoping for a better result this time round. Keep emailing me, I like responding to everyones emails, I do try and email everyone back, but I spend a lot of time, getting rid of adverts people put on my comments.

Sigh,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

2007-01-18T20:49:00.000Z

Well today came and went, and yet again no creditors responded at all so my IP is going to re send another set or proposals out to them all, he says not to worry but of course you do its natural. Not got much to say because well as you can imagine I am bit depressed from all this taking so long. Ill let you know what happens. But my IP is very hopeful so I do not think he would not put proposal forward if he was not.

Another countdown to meeting.

2007-01-16T17:32:00.000Z

Here we are again, counting down the hours to my creditors meeting, ill be glad when this is over and done with and I can relax. Meeting is on Thursday at 10am, so fingers crossed it will go better this time. Not much to report im afraid as, not had any phone calls from creditors so thats good in a way. But keeps your eyes on this blog because I will soon be at the end of my saga and tell you what happened.

New Date

2007-01-11T17:48:00.000Z

I got through the date of next creditors meeting today, 18th jan at 10am.... so it will be another stressful day that day waiting for the call.
I got a letter saying the reason it was adjourned last time was to give creditors more time to consider my proposal.
Fingers crossed.

Update

2007-01-10T20:23:00.000Z

Just a little update on situation. I spoke to my IP and he said its normal for it to get adjourned, specially just after xmas as they are busy and people still on holiday. So taken bit of pressure off me so im not stressing as much.
I will be off line for a few days as I am moving house this weekend so if you email me I wont be able to answer straight away.

AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH

2007-01-08T17:19:00.000Z

As you can tell Judgment day arrived, and my creditors meeting has been adjourned for 7 to 10 days. Basically not enough creditors either responded all voted so my IP is chasing them all and asking them if they could vote.
It is awkward because my debts are spread over about 28 creditors. My IP is sending me paperwork to confirm what happened.
I'm really angry about it actually, I have been so worked up today felt like I was going to be sick, then he calls and tells me this.
So no doubt I will get more calls from creditors,,,,, and 7-10 days is right in middle of when im moving house, oh joy I cant wait.
Life has definitely got it in for me in 2007.

Happy New Year everyone.

24 Hours to go

2007-01-07T19:40:00.000Z

Ello guys,

Well not long now, my creditors meeting is tomorrow at 4pm, so been really nervous about whats gonna happen and if it gets accepted or not, so a million thoughts been running round my head if it does not get accepted.
Im quite confident it will though as I do not think Thomas Charles would of agreed this far if they did not think it would be accepted.
Still getting the silly calls from creditors everyday, they ask the same things and never bother reading their notes on previous calls so I have to explain every time what I am doing and if I have an update.
Sorry for not posting sooner guys n girls but out of last 10 days I have actually only been at my flat for about 6 of them and I am moving to a new house next weekend so been busy with that as well, and been house sitting sisters house looking after her cat, so its been a busy few days really. and not had much to update everyone on, I should have some news for you by tomorrow night though hopefully.

Countdown to 2007

2006-12-28T14:52:00.000Z

Hi Guys n Girls,

Hope you all had a great Christmas, this is just a small posting as not much happened over the Christmas period, no phone calls from creditors which is nice for a change and now I am just counting down the days to my creditors meeting. Ive tried to answer everyones emails, I do get quite a lot so apologies if I have answered them a bit late. Hope you all have a good new year and get drunk.

Creditors Meeting

2006-12-18T17:14:00.000Z

Yahhh, got the date of my creditors meeting today.

The 8th January.

My IP called me and I also got a letter that shows my proposal that went out to all my creditors today so it is good to have a date and put in my mind when this will be all be over.

Would of liked it done before xmas but had a few problems with receiving my post.

Weird feeling now cos it's kind of a relief and kind of made me more nervous.

Useless creditors

2006-12-15T18:19:00.000Z

I thought nothing would shock me but still it does.......
At 17:32 tonight I had a call from one fo my creditors chasing me for cash so I explained to them that my IP is sending out my proposal to them this week and next and they were ok with that.
Then just 17 MINS later they called again chasing me for money, I got quite angry with them and her only excuse was, "we can not stop the calls". Two calls in 17 mins now that is ridiculous.
The thing that topped it and put the cherry on the cake was the second call I had I let it go to answer machine at first and who ever called me did not hang up when he left a message, so I had 4 mins of him chatting to his mates saying " mines the chablis" and "whos getting changed next" so nice and professional there.
If you want to the very professional company name is Lowell Financial.

NO MORE ADVERTS

2006-12-14T20:48:00.000Z

EXCUSE THE CAPITAL LETTERS....

THIS IS TO EVERYONE WHO KEEPS PUTTING ADVERTS FOR SCAMS ON MY COMMENTS, CAN YOU STOP DOING THIS AS IT IS POINTLESS BECAUSE I WILL JUST REMOVE THEM. DONT PROMISE PEOPLE LOTS OF CASH, THE BEST WAY TO DO IT IS HARD WORK AND HONESTY. SO ANYONE WHO READ THE BLOG, IF YOU SEE AN ADVERT ON THIS BLOG IN ONE OF THE COMMENTS IGNORE IT.

THANK U

Thou shalt not pay thy bills (even if thy want to)

2006-12-12T08:01:00.000Z

Got a bit annoyed a couple of days ago as went to pay my mobile bill at HSBC as I always do and they tried to charge me £5 because I'm not a customer.

Then when I complained, they said they could not serve me during peak hours anyway!

Anyway, I'm off work sick today so here is me telling the whole tale.

Merry Xmas from me...and bah humbug from my creditors!

2006-12-11T15:23:00.000Z

Hello all

Just wanted to say thank you again for all your comments.

I'm waiting for a date for my creditors meeting.

Also, I've got my camera again so I thought I'd tell you about how it's going for me trying to budget at Xmas and also about all the lovely calls from creditors I've been getting.

Enjoy!

Junk Mail - GRRRRRRR

2006-12-07T18:57:00.000Z

Well today was a new one on me, it still shocks me. I had some post forwarded onto me by my parents and as you can see in the picture ive attached they had to pay the postage because they did not pay enough, and it cost £1.23.

Wondering what it was, I opened it only to find a bloody junk mail letter saying “ Following your recent CCJ, we would like to offer our help” Basically they are one of those flyby night loan companies, im thinking about calling them up and asking for the £1.23 back.

But hey, it is my works xmas dinner tomorrow so that’s something to look forward too, turkey, stuffing, booze and mistletoe.

Proposal

2006-12-07T18:56:00.000Z

Well yesterday I got my proposal through from my IP (Insolvency Practitioner), and that is the letter and documents that will be sent out to the creditors telling them how much I can afford and what I am offering.

So I signed that like 10 times, just to say I agree with everything. Posted it back to my IP that same day so he gets it quick.

I know from some emails I have had from people that their process has actually gone quicker than mine but I suppose that can happen, I did have lots of trouble with my postman stealing the post so that delayed me loads.

My IP says he will try and arrange the creditors meeting for Jan 2007 and if it all get agreed and goes good then I will be paying £391 a month for 60 months.

Comments & Emails

2006-11-26T19:51:00.000Z

Hi guys n girls,

Love getting all your emails and helping people if and where possible. Just to anyone else who reads my blog, you can leave comments on the blog site. Not had any yet so bit upset about that. But please keep emailing, except the con men from Nigeria asking me for bank details like I keep getting.

Update: 1 December

I thought it would help to see what other people have been emailing me about so i have posted them up as comments (names removed) - hopefully that will get the ball rolling...

Authorized

2006-11-26T19:46:00.000Z

Little update to let everyone know what’s happening. Received some more paperwork concerning my IVA, it was from my IP (Insolvency Practitioner) and it was something I had to sign just to say that I authorise him to contact all my creditors and he is allowed to deal with them and discuss the outstanding debts. Sent that back to them on Wednesday now, so he should have that and will be contacting al my creditors. So all going really nicely and soon should hear back from him. Really hoping this will be set up and first payment made before Christmas.

Evil Emails

2006-11-19T15:38:00.000Z

Bit upset about some more emails I have received from certain people, I have received three emails all from very sick people and I am not talking about having a cold.

The first I have cut and pasted some of what they sent me, as you can see, very shocking.

Dear after going through your profile i decided to contact you for

friendship and assistance
I am a 22 years old lady now, i was born on the 1of january 1983.to the family of Kole,and my father name is Joseph he is a very wealthy gold and cocoa merchant who based in ACCRA and ABIDJAN respectively, and I am there only child.well when i was a kid i went to a private schools and things were going on well for me and my parents till when i was in high school when my mother died on the 21ST october 1994 , My father took me so special because i am motherless. and he shower all his love on me and promised me that he will never have another woman because he did not want me for any problem.but has fate his my father got dead last year.but before the death of my father on the 1st of November 2005 in a private hospital here in Abidjan , he called me secretly to his bed side and told me that he kept a sumof ($10.500 000) in a bank in Abidjan Cote D'ivoire. meanwhile that he used my name as the next of kin in deposit of the fund.He also explained to me that it was because of this money he was poisoned by his business partner and that i should seek for foreign partner in a country of my choice where i would transfer this money and use it for investment purpose, such as ;real estate investment or stock market investment.
Plesae, i am honourably soliciting your kind assistance as follows.

1) To provide a bank account where this money will be transfered into.

2) To serve as the guardian of these fund ,since i am 22 years old.

3)To make arrangement for me in your country to continue my educational career and to procure me a residential permit in your country.

I am inclined to offer you 15% of the total sum as a mode of compensation for your effort after the successful transfering of these fund to your nominated account overseas.Please i will be very happy if this transaction will be concluded with in seven (7) working days from now.I am expecting to hear from you as soon as possible.

May Almighty God bless you as you do care for me Amen.

Best regard
Miss jessi kole

So you can see from that there are some really nasty people preying on the poor, everyone knows these kind of people are evil and are con artists. If anyone else gets these emails, let me know and did you reply to them, I replied but what I wrote is well, it was not very polite.

Below is another similar email I received, it makes me want to scream it really does, they can tell I am in debt but they still send these emails.

Dear,

Please bear with me for sending this letter to you surprisingly. My
name is Miss Britt Karblee , a young lady originally from Liberia in
west Africa.My sole purpose of contacting you is for you to assist me
in selling in your country or elsewhere of my rough (uncut) diamonds
which weighs 14,220 carats,from (3-45 carats),(3kg gross)on the scale,
("H"VS- 1quality), all rough and Worth's about(US$8Million). The
diamonds was deposited by my late father in a holding firm here in
Senegal and it is waiting for my order to be transferred as I am the
"NEXT OF KIN" to the deposit.I am presently living in Dakar Senegal.

Wish to hear from you soon.
Bye and God bless.
Best Regards
Miss Britt Karblee.

Update + Emails

2006-11-19T15:33:00.000Z

Little update, well quite a lot of update actually. Getting more of the usual phone calls from my creditors again asking me what is happening with my IVA and what stage it is at. No matter how much you tell them they never seem to believe it and always ask for “a token payment”.

Getting lots of letters too, as you can see in the picture, offering me lots of discounts if I pay up now, one in the picture are saying I can have a 25% discount; others are up to about 50%.

Nice to see I am getting some emails of people asking how everything is and if I am ok and telling me about their IVA and how its going, good to know I am not alone.

Annoying Creditors

2006-11-06T18:24:00.000Z

Well plenty been happening this week, had tons of calls and letters from my creditors harassing me asking me to make an instalment or pay in full. On one occasion I had 3 phone calls from one company in one day, I am not surprised people get depressed and suicidal because of them. When one of them did finally listen to me his only excuse was that they do not dial the number to ring me and it is all done automatically and he could not do anything to stop it. Now whose stupid idea was it to use that system? Even after the third phone call from them they still asked if I could pay in full, yeah like I have £15000 in my back pocket burning a hole in it.

Think I finally got the message through to them but I wont hold my hopes out, one even threatened me with going to their solicitors. But once 75% or more of the creditors agree to the IVA then they cannot do anything more about it and are not allowed to call me anymore and that’s a law.

Thomas Charles have said it should be all set by Christmas which would be nice, a Christmas with no hassle for once.

I might be doing a few more videos about my creditors calling me, but be warned it will be full of swearing so will have to work out how to bleep it all out first.

Update - Phone calls

2006-10-30T18:56:00.000Z

Sorry for the lack of updates, I was away at my sisters for few days. I am starting to get more phone calls and letters now. One is from my old current account wondering why I have not paid my credit card bill. First they call me at work where I can not take a personal call, but then they don’t even leave a voicemail, so because they don’t get hold of me there, they decide to call my old parents house number, must of still been on file when I first set up my account. God I hate them.

The letters I got, were from the same people I rang up the first time to tell them I am starting an IVA, and then they send me letters saying they are going to come to my house and take stuff.

So I called them and his excuse was that the letters are automated and they can not stop them,,, yeah right, so the post room for that company is physically incapable of stopping the letters jumping into a mailbag and going through a franking machine.

Told them all the same stuff as I did before and all he could do was ask me, “How long are they going to be” all I could reply with was “ I do not know”, because I don’t not until Julia gets I touch with me.

Which she just happened to do about 5 mins after the phone call. She told me I should hear from my IP in about 14 days.

So it is all moving along fairly smoothly.

IVA-Vision

2006-10-24T14:10:00.000Z

Just a quick post to say I've got my video working.

Here's me talking about the time the bailiffs came knocking.

Enjoy!

Credit Card?????

2006-10-23T18:50:00.001Z

Just a little update, I finally had a response from someone about my blog, that made my day. It was from a very nice lady who shall remain nameless. Anyway she told me something very interesting stuff. It seems you can get these visa or maestro cards so that you can make purchase on the internet and over the phone but they are called prepaid credit cards, kind of like a top up card. You put money on it then it’s easier to purchase things, and for all that there is just a small tiny charge to get that card about £9 and a 70 pence fee when you top up the card. I am seriously considering it because just having a cash card does restrict me a lot.

Well I am paying my first instalment tomorrow. Not had any calls of more letters yet from creditors so all is good.

I am having a bit of trouble uploading some videos I made but I managed to get one of me saying hello so that’s a start.

IVA FilmStar

2006-10-20T16:55:00.001Z

Hello to all my fans, well Thomas Charles should have all my paperwork by now, so just have to wait for them to work their magic.

I started recording a video last night. So that will be put on my blog for everyone to see, but when you do watch it your just have to ignore my horrible orange curtains.

The video basically is me talking about the whole IVA process, why I did it and how I got into debt. Was good fun making it actually, just needs lots of editing so bear with me while it gets sorted.

Finding paying one bill is awkward lately and that’s my mobile phone bill, I should set up a direct debit because before I paid with debit card, and now I don’t have those I have to go in a HSBC bank to pay cash.

I have applied to do internet banking with my new account too so that will make things much easier so I have to wait for the paperwork for that to come through then I will be able to set up the standing orders for ThomasCharles and my mobile bill.

Letters, Letters, "Legal Department" Threats

2006-10-18T18:05:00.000Z

Well it happened, a load of letters demanding money turned up on the doorstep this morning just like I said it

would. They all had nice red ink on them with big letters saying if you do not pay we will take legal action, the usual stuff.

So I called them up and gave them my advisors name Julia Simavi (who is Thomas Charles' BEST Debt Advisor). Explained to them about the IVA and that I won’t be making payments now until the IVA has been agreed and that they will hear from Julia soon.

Was actually really nervous calling them, just because I know what they are like, one of them before I could even give them Thomas Charles details she was giving me a settlement figure and asking me to pay in full.

So that’s a few done I’m sure I will get plenty more, will be something to look forward too wont it.

New Account + IVA = New Better Life

2006-10-17T18:41:00.000Z

Got my new bank card, as you can see in the photo. It is only a cash card but I can live with that, it will make me spend less money I think.

Finally received all my paperwork from TC, so all I had to do was sign that and I posted that plus all the letters and paperwork that I own concerning all of my debts so that TC can start calling them up and arranging the IVA to begin.

Think I forgot to mention, when I went in to apply for new bank account, was very very shocked that two of the staff in the bank did not even know what an IVA was, and had to explain it to them. They just kind of nodded and said mmmm. But that’s all done with now, and I have my wages going into my new account.

So all I have to do now is wait for TC to get in touch with everyone, and then I should hear from TC about what my exact monthly payments will be.

I haven’t received any letters let because I stopped my direct debits and payments, so am bit surprised, maybe they will all come in one go.

No post? Missing post? Stolen post?

2006-10-12T17:08:00.000Z

Had a call from Cory at Thomas Charles last night, think I am going to call them TC from now on, if you have read the rest of the blogs you can guess who I am talking about, well Cory called asking why I have not sent back the paperwork, reason being is I have not got my paperwork yet but that’s just due to the fact all my post seems to get stolen where I live. So had to ask Julia to send a new set to my work address, puts a slight delay on the process but it will get sorted.

Waiting for paperwork

2006-10-10T16:58:00.000Z

Spoke to Julia at Thomas Charles today and she told me my paperwork to sign should be with me tomorrow.
Had to change all my bank details at work today so my wages go into my new account so I can make a clean fresh start.
Should of normally had two debts to pay today but as informed I did not pay them so I bet it won't be long before I start getting phone calls from them asking questions, no doubt they will try and call me while im at work tomorrow.

My first post

2006-10-09T09:59:00.000Z

I received my call at 17:25 from my assigned debt advisor Julie Simavi from Thomas Charles to discuss the process, advantages, disadvantages of an IVA and Bankruptcy. Julie was very polite and understanding about my situation, which makes a change because I am used to dealing with debt collectors demanding money immediately. Our call lasted roughly 65mins, in which time, she took details of me, my previous addresses, my outstanding debts of how much and who to, with this she was able to work out a rough estimate of what I could be expected to be paying back every month once the IVA has or if it is approved.

In all my debts totalled near on £57,000 which did make me realise how bad it really had got without noticing, and with my income and expenditure it was worked out I would be paying back roughly £430 per month which is about 33% of total debts owed.

Julie also advised me to open a new bank account, just a basic current account to put my wages into and set up my everyday direct debits like rent. This was because one of the debts was with my current account I use presently.

Was a good feeling to know a company and individuals were there to help, like they say it does give “Light at the end of the tunnel” which it has for me, I can afford the payments, and I can see in 5 years I will be debt free, should of done it a lot sooner in reality but wasn’t always aware it could be as easy has this has been so far.

I can’t foresee any problems or have any worries about the IVA and have gained a lot of trust already from Julie just form our first phone conversation.

In a way looking forward to the next step to know it really happening and the sooner it happens the sooner I will be debt free.

The next step is I am to gather all documents I have concerning my outstanding debts and wait for some legal documents that Julie has sent to my home address. On receiving this I am to sign them and send back with all my documents.