URGENT............Anyone know about IVA's in detail???????????

[sisterssisters]

My sister told me on Friday that she and her dh have had to apply for an IVA. They have debts of £30k apparently. Her dh was using credit cards she knew nothing about to gamble online .
Anyway, they found a company on the TV who agreed to sort out an IVA for them.
What concerns me is the terms of the IVA, as they have to pay an up front fee (£1700) and then repayments of £360 a month for 5 years.
Having looked on the web, it would seem they could have an IVA on much more favourable terms. They will find the suggested terms v hard - I couldn't care less about her dh, but I do care about my sister and her children.
They signed something on Thursday.
Can they pull out of this agreement and find something better? I thought there might be a cooling off period but my sister doesn't seem to know - I think she is still in shock about it.
Any advice very gratefully received.

we have an iva witih a company called nuttlas, ther'es no up front fees althou I believe they do take a proportion, or at the end they have some of their share.

anyhow, basically we gave them a detailed list of our I&E and they calculated our repayments - orgionally £450 (like hell we can afford that) anyhow we then agreed to £300 but the creditors dis allowed some things (ie DH's smoking) so it went to £360. p/m. it will go up if/when DH has a pay rise.

don't know if they can pull out of an agreement might be worth seeing what they've signed, and speaking to CAB.

nuttals were fab with me, as I say wiht the £450 I said absoltlyu not we can not manage that ad they were brilliant. do they own their own house? from my understanding of it (not that this applies to us) they can make you sell your house/car if the sdebts can be realised in this way) as we rent it doens't apply to us, pensions as well come into things, our IVA took 3 months to sort out and finalise thou.

we originally looked at doing an IVA through debtfree direct (a couple of years back they seeemd to be the only ones offering it) but they were useless to say the least. No up front fee but basically they took their cut. Once we did all the I&E we realised we owed much more than we thought and in the end had to go for bancruptcy as I wasn't earning much. Best thing we ever did though not the thing for everybody I'm sure. Also a thing to bear in mind is if you forfeit a payment under an IVA they can declare you bancrupt anyhow. Paperwork for both IVA and bancrupcy is atrocious.

Hope they get themselves sorted for your sister's sake.

Thanks for the info.

I got my sister to contact the Consumer Credit Couselling Service - she has an appointment booked in 2 weeks. They were very helpful and advised that the fee the company are proposing is extremely high.

She has informed the company she is not going ahead with an IVA through them, and instead will talk things through with the counsellor she will see. Hopefully, if she still goes for an IVA, she will be able to get one on more realistic terms.

IVA (Individual Voluntary Agreement) This is legally binding if you fail to make payments then you will be made bankrupt.
An IVA is possible when you have assets of more than £4,000. and your unsecured debts of less than £40,000. You have not to have been bankrupt or made an IVA in the past 5 years.
National Debt have a web page that has good info. You can never get through on the phone.