It's difficult to imagine the stress that debt causes unless you've experienced it yourself. The feeling that you no longer have any control over your finances, and the constant letters and phone calls from your creditors means that you end up thinking about your debt constantly; worrying about losing your home or your job, and putting a huge strain on your personal relationships. An IVA is just one solution to serious debt, but it could be the one that helps to give you some peace of mind.

What an IVA can give you

An IVA, or Individual Voluntary Arrangement, is a legal agreement between you and your creditors. It is usually arranged by a specialist advisor who acts as a go-between, making sure that both you and your creditors are happy with the arrangements. All your creditors are informed that you are considering an IVA, and are asked if they would be willing for you to pay your debts using this arrangement. It's important that you give details of all your creditors, as any not invited to consider an IVA can still charge interest or even file for bankruptcy against you if you can't pay them back. Once all your creditors have been informed, only 75% of them need to agree to the arrangement for it to go ahead. The remaining 25% will also be bound by the IVA.

One payment, less stress

Your insolvency adviser will negotiate a reasonable monthly payment with each of your creditors. When added together, this will form a monthly total, which is what you have to pay. The adviser will make sure that he or she knows how much you can afford to pay each month before they begin talking to your creditors, so that everyone is sure that you will be able to meet the payments over the term of the IVA, which is usually five years.

Once the IVA is in place, you will discover that you have a lot less stress to deal with. There will be no more demands for payment, no more threats of repossession, and no more wondering how you're going to sort everything out. Instead, you're only responsibility is to make sure that you keep up with the single monthly payment, and don't run up any new debts – you may face some restrictions on applying for new loans or credit cards anyway – but use this time to get your finances back into shape so that you don't have to sort out serious debt ever again.

Varden Nuttall has been established for over 15 years and is dedicated to helping people in financial difficulty find a solution through an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). Employing 90 people, including trained and skilled IVA administrators, we are one of the largest IVA companies in the UK and handle over 3% of all IVA applications. To find out more about the company, or to make an appointment to talk about putting an IVA in place, call us today on 0800 031 9802 or fill in our online enquiry form.