I’m on an IVA but creditors keep contacting me!

This article contains information about debt solutions available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland residents have a similar debt solution known as a protected trust deed. Before considering an IVA as a debt solution, please make sure you fully understand the risks involved when entering an IVA.

One of the pluses of choosing an IVA as a debt solution is that once it’s approved creditors can no longer make contact with you to chase your debts.

After all you’ve entered a legal agreement that creditors have approved in order to repay a percentage of what’s owed based on what you can afford.

So why do you still get phone calls and letters from some creditors? And can bailiffs come with an IVA in place?

Dealing with phone calls from creditors on an IVA

Once your individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) is approved you might still get some creditor contact during the first few months. This could include calls from a creditor’s collection department chasing the debt. If bailiffs are trying to recover what you owe, they may contact you during this time.

This is because it takes time for your creditors to update their records. All you need to do is tell them you have an approved IVA and then direct the creditor to us, or your IVA provider. You don’t need to discuss anything else with them.

Don’t feel threatened by bailiffs. The same applies to them.

In time, these calls will stop. We usually recommend allowing your creditors a period of up to three months to update their computer systems with your IVA details.

What do I do about letters from creditors?

Again, in the early days after your IVA is approved, creditors may still not have updated their systems and letters may still pop through your letterbox. Often these letters are computer generated and until the systems are updated there is little that can be done.

As your IVA is approved and there’s no other action that creditors can take we’d recommend that you ignore any empty threats in these letters. You can keep them for your records or dispose of them accordingly. There’s no need to call a creditor about these letters and they will usually cease within three months.

If you are concerned about the letters you can send them to us and we will deal with them for you.

If you receive anything about court proceedings please forward these to us and we will contact the court to sort this out.

Creditors selling debts on

Once your IVA is approved creditors can sometimes sell your debt onto another company. They’re completely within their rights to do this.

The new company may write to you to confirm that they have bought the debt and will be administrating it from now onwards.

It’s important not to ignore these letters and you should forward them onto your IVA caseworker so that we can update our systems. This won’t affect your IVA as the debt itself is still bound by the arrangement, no matter who now owns it.

But I get a creditor letter every year!

Creditors are legally bound by the IVA and part of this is to cease contact with you within a reasonable time frame. However creditors are also legally obliged to send you an annual statement. So once every year you’ll get a letter from them showing you the most up-to-date statement on the debt in question.

Again, there’s no need to call the creditor or be too concerned about this. We’d recommend that you keep these for your records but there’s no need to take any action.

The one letter you can ignore

Sometimes you may get other letters regarding your situation but one letter to definitely ignore is from companies who specialise in trying to get you to fail your IVA so they can profit from your situation. If you have received any letters like this read our blogpost about IVA scam letters immediately.

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• Living with debt

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