• Have you been advised to or considered clearing your personal debt with an IVA?
• An IVA could be the solution you have been looking for to help you become clear of debt.
• It has a fixed term of repayment, so you know exactly when it will end, however, conditions do apply!

Could an IVA be what you need to clear your debt?

When an individuals personal debts have become such a problem that they feel they can no longer manage the monthly repayments, there is a debt settlement solution called an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA which can give people in debt the help to clear debt that they require.

An Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA is a formal procedure set up by a licensed professional, where an arrangement is made between you and all of your creditors to make reduced payments towards the total amount of your debt, in an effort to pay off part of what you owe then normally after five years of making these payments your debts are classed as settled.

• PLEASE REMEMBER AN IVA IS A LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENT!
• An IVA usually lasts for 5 years or 60 months, creditor contact usually stops and interest and charges are usually frozen.
• You may be required to release equity from any home you may own towards the end of an IVA in order to increase the total contribution your creditors would receive.

After it has been agreed that an IVA is the best option for you, you will be asked some questions about your current financial situation to try and work out an amount that you will be able to repay each month for the term of the IVA.

Once this figure has been agreed by you, an application will then be made to the court for an ‘Interim Order’ and once  this is in place no creditors can instigate legal proceedings against you. There will then be a meeting of all your creditors which you would be wise to attend. Once the majority of the creditors agree that an IVA should be put in place, that’s it.

• Your financial situation will be reviewed during the course  of your IVA!

An Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA should not be confused with other informal debt management procedures as it is legally binding and you are tied into to it for five years normally.

If you are not sure that an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA is the answer for you to clear your debts you contact a trained consultant for further IVA help or advice to help you decide if an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA is for you.

Trust Deed in Scotland

• In Scotland there is no such thing as an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA.
• In Scotland it is known as a Protected Trust Deed and does effectively the same job.
• With a Trust Deed you can;

1. Stop and prevent interest and charges
2. Make one simple monthly payment
3. Put a halt to creditors calls and letters
4. Stop court proceedings or Bankruptcy

If you think your personal debt situation warrants considering an IVA or Trust Deed, call us to get detailed IVA or Trust Deed facts and figures based on your current situation and obtain further information about debt help in general.

An Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA is not the solution for everyone and it should be carefully considered before proceeding. Your credit rating will be affected due to the formal nature of the IVA.

• You can obtain further information about an IVA if you call us free on from a land line using 0800 018 6868 and we will gladly discuss your situation and give you the very best help with debt problems and IVA advice we can in the strictest of confidence.

• Are you In Personal Debt?
• Do you need help or advice to manage your finances?

The following information is for UK residents in need of debt help or debt advice.

In the UK in recent years, the amount of people who have taken on personal debt and further credit has rocketed! Whilst that fact alone is not the end of the world, the amount of people who are not coping with their personal debts is of a great concern for the government and a lot of other financial bodies.

• Our goal at Lewis Alexander is to help as many people as possible who are in debt, clear debt for good.
• Using all the tools we have at our disposal we do our utmost to help every single person that comes to us.

Each person we help is treated as an individual, with respect and confidentiality, focusing on their own set of personal circumstances and then together we devise a debt management plan tailored to their situation. Nothing is imposed … just good honest advice with recommended courses of action at the end of it for you to take up or leave …it’s entirely up to you.

• Is your life restricted by debt?
• Would you like to clear those financial restrictions?
• Would you prefer to enjoy your life without debt?

A debt management plan can help once we have looked at all your debts against your earnings, we can devise an informal repayment plan to ensure your interest and charges are kept to the absolute minimum and help you by negotiating with your creditors directly.

Don’t pay for advice about debt consolidation loans, consolidating all your debt into one easy, affordable monthly repayment through debt management UK or another loan is effective, even if previously refused loans. However, you should be aware that any loan application is subject to your current financial status.

Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA, this is a formal agreement between you and your creditors over a fixed term (usually 60 months) after which you are clear of debt as long as you maintain your agreed monthly repayments. You should not receive any further phone calls or letters from your creditors once you enter into an IVA however restrictions do apply especially if you are a homeowner.

With a Trust Deed in Scotland you will find the law in Scotland is slightly different, but in it’s basic form, the Trust Deed is the same as an IVA. The term of a Trust Deed is shorter (usually 36 months) but apart from that, the agreement is very similar.

• Make the choice today and ensure what you pay towards your debts actually goes towards reducing debt instead of just paying or servicing the interest.

Sometimes we even manage to get the interest and charges frozen with the informal debt management plans we set up for people reducing the time needed to pay off the debt however this can not be guaranteed.

• Are you confused with the amount of information being directed at you all the time regarding your personal debts?

Call us FREE from a UK land line using 0800 018 6868 and we will help you identify your best solution, you may not even need anything formal to give you the route through to clearing your debts, perhaps just a fresh eye is all that would be needed to show you the way forward, and if you do need formal debt help, we will advise you what would be best suited to your needs.

• With so many people in the UK struggling from week to week with their debts, wouldn’t you like to be one of the ones who gets them self out of the debt trap?
• Don’t remain chained to your debts for one day longer than is absolutely necessary, there is an alternative.

Call a Lewis Alexander trained debt advisor today, call free from a land line using 0800 018 6868, all calls are dealt with confidentially.

Can you settle my debts immediately… please?

With increasing numbers of Brits turning to debt management companies for help, the question we encounter most is ‘Please, please, please can you wipe out my debts as soon as possible?’

99% of the time the answer is “No” and at Lewis Alexander we believe that our responsibility is to set our customers on the journey to a stable long-term financial existence.  Therefore, rather than starting with a solution we like to start by understanding the personal circumstances of each of our clients.

By completing a thorough financial healthcheck with any prospective new debt management client, we are then in a much better position to offer debt advice and debt solutions to best help our clients.  Typically, we find that the most common solutions are:

(1) Entering into a long-term or short term debt management plan

• Where we negotiate with your creditors on your behalf
• Potentially stop interest accruing on your debt – this is not guaranteed!
• Agree reduced debt management repayment plans over an agreed period of time

(2) Re-structuring debt payments for our clients

• Where we discuss with your creditors the current debt repayment amounts, term of loan/debt & the interest rate
• Agree new terms that are more preferable to you if possible
• Potentially change the debt solution that you are using

(3) Arranging partial settlements for outstanding debts

• Where we negotiate with your creditors to encourage them to accept a reduced repayment, by way of one lump sum usually known as a short settlement or settlement in full and final.
• Ensure that any agreement is acceptable to all parties

(4) Entering into an IVA

• Whilst some of our competitors consider this to be the ‘first debt solution’ we prefer to use this as a debt solution of last resort.
• An IVA is a formal agreement where you come to an arrangement with creditors you owe money to, to make reduced repayments towards the total amount of your debt in order to pay off a percentage of what you owe over a set period of time, usually 60 months.

The choice of debt solution depends solely on the individual circumstances of our clients, but each of these options take time to negotiate, agree and formalise. The only true option that leads to immediately sorting out debt as soon as possible, is the 100% (or very near) repayment of all of your debt. Which, if we are being honest may have made you less likely to have called Lewis Alexander to access our expertise in helping ordinary people, like you, who are in debt!

The one thing that we can promise to do instantly, in all cases, is to identify a solution that best suits you.  Should our service not be what you need we will try and refer you to a company or organisation that is better placed to help you.  For many people who are in debt they would ideally like everything sorted using the wave of a magic wand, however, this does not happen but the feeling that their situation is being managed professionally is enough to take away a large percentage of the pressure of being in debt.

• Our free from a landline personal debt helpline is available by calling 0800 018 6868.

We believe that by providing easy access to our advice means that we are better equipped to start working on your personal solution as soon as possible should you qualify for any debt solutions that we can offer.

So, if you find yourself in personal debt and need some help to turn your personal finances around then call us on 0800 018 6868 now.  Whilst we can’t promise instant debt clearance solutions, we do promise to work hard for clients and to look after your best interests.

• Call us today and see if we can help you to start to relieve some of the stress of being in debt.
• Our number again is 0800 018 6868.

With unemployment currently rising from 2.46 million in the UK, people are increasingly finding that the fact that they found another job shortly after losing the first is not always the end solution. The problem is that when they were going through the period of unemployment, they were set back financially to a point that they cannot recover.

The credit agreements they have fall into arrears and there is little or no chance of earning enough money to catch up, savings have also usually been diminished and this is when the individual starts to seek a personal debt solution such as an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement.

Hard times are ahead for the UK consumer and people need a solution to clear personal debts that they can trust. The IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement is a UK government approved scheme that is legally binding between the individual who has the debts and the creditors who have leant the money.

• The IVA usually runs for 5 years (60 months) and has an exact end date.
• Creditors will be expected to stop further interest and charges being applied to the credit accounts whilst the IVA is in place.
• Any money left to pay the creditors at the end of the IVA process will be written off.
• In certain circumstances where the individual is a home owner with equity in their home, they will be expected to release some of this equity in years 3-5 of the IVA agreement. This increases the overall contribution back to the respective creditor.

With the rising cost of living on the horizon, household expenditure in the UK is going to be stretched and only those who plan correctly and take advice when required will survive financial turmoil.

If unemployed, one needs to cut costs and be pro active in finding work, downgrade personal expectations in the current economic climate and accept an income that will provide a living.

People in the UK should now start to gear their lives to living without credit, we have been conditioned as a society to use credit and live by using it. The only people who will succeed in the future financially are those who will reduce their need for credit to a basic level.

If you have been considering a debt solution such as an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement, you will be familiar with an alternative personal debt solution called a debt management plan. It is important to be aware that a debt management plan is NOT legally binding and does NOT have an exact end date.

Some companies will claim they can write off all your debts, you should be very careful of these claims, only certain amounts of debt can be written off under an IVA agreement and a voluntary petition or creditors’ petition for bankruptcy is the only process that would usually write off 100% of any persons’ unsecured debt.

When you enter into an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement, your IVA is managed by an Insolvency Practitioner and this person is legally responsible for proposing the case to your creditors and administering the IVA process on your behalf. An IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement should not be entered into without much consideration.

You are at risk of being petitioned for bankruptcy by your creditors should your IVA fail. An IVA can fail for many different reasons and the main one usually is due to the client no longer being able to afford the agreed monthly repayment. In this situation, the Insolvency Practitioner will re assess your income and expenditure and offer advice accordingly of what the best route forward for you would be.

• A great number of people do successfully complete IVAs’ and are then confident that they chose the best solution to clear their debts.
• To qualify for an IVA an individual would have approximately £25000 of unsecured debts and be able to contribute a disposable income repayment of around £250 per calendar month.

Not all situations require an IVA and you should not enter into an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement without much prior consideration. For further advice regarding personal debt issues please call our free from a landline personal debt helpline using 0800 018 6868, lines are open 24 hours a day and your call is free.

A lender or loan company makes a decision to lend based on the risk that you personally present to them regarding your ability to repay the credit you are applying for.

Examples of factors that lenders take into account when scoring your application for credit could be some of these that follow;

• Are you working or not?
• If employed is this full time or part time?
• Do state benefits make up 100% of your income?
• Do you have a UK bank account?
• Does your employer pay you in cash?
• Has a bad credit rating affected you from obtaining credit or loans recently from other lenders?
• Will you be able to repay the loan if you suffer a change in circumstance, such as loss of job, split from partner or less hours at work?
• Have you ever been declared Bankrupt, subject to an IVA or Debt Relief Order?

There are many factors that lenders will take into account when deciding to lend money to an individual and you should accept that each lender has different requirements that the proposed customer or client should be able to meet.

• A lender does not have to inform you of how they decide on approving or declining your loan or credit application.

Different loans require people to qualify in differing ways.

For example, a debt consolidation loan could be secured against a home, this would require the individual to usually be a home owner because if they were not, there would be no property for the lender to secure the new loan against should the person fail to repay.

An unsecured loan requires no security but rates of interest are usually higher to balance a lenders risk of loss due to none repayment or an unexpected time delay to recover the money leant.

If you have been refused a loan and then made further applications for credit within a short space of time, you may be surprised to learn that multiple declines for credit within a short period can mark your credit score down further.  This is then an alarm bell to other lenders when they search your credit file to see if they are happy to lend to you because they see all the other lenders declines.

You need to realise that more credit is not usually the best route and by obtaining free financial advice from a trained debt advisor, you will be able to clear your personal debts without another loan!

Debt solutions such as an IVA or Debt Management Plan could assist you.

• Some loan companies will charge you fees for an online loan search – be careful!

Can you really afford to part with another £50 or £60 without a guarantee of a loan? Some companies are making large gains from taking advantage of consumers in a vulnerable financial position.

When you have no other income apart from state benefits, it is hard to get a loan.  People on maternity leave can find it particularly difficult as they have a job but the income is reduced, creating extra risk to the lender.

If you think would benefit from a free telephone consultation with a trained loan advisor who can help you identify your best solution, call Lewis Alexander free using 0800 018 6868, our free from a landline personal debt helpline is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week and all calls are confidential.

For most people that live in Scotland, the differences between debt solutions that are available in England compared to those in Scotland can be some what confusing to say the least.  If you have previously taken advice from debt agencies and are still struggling to understand the various options available to clear your debts as a Scottish resident, please read this blog post further as we believe this will help you.

• Trust Deed

Most people are now familiar with the term IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement), for those that are not, it is a legal agreement between you and your creditors in England ONLY, and is a form of Insolvency that allows you to pay back an amount of the money you owe within a set or fixed period of time, usually 60 months or 5 years.  The remainder of what you owe that has not been repaid is then written off by your creditors leaving you debt free.

• The Trust Deed, is very simply the Scottish alternative to the IVA in England.  The difference is that in Scotland, the Trust Deed lasts for 36 months, not 60 months like an IVA in England.

Creditors are not duty bound to agree to Trust Deeds as they do need to make sure that they are obtaining a satisfactory percentage of the total debt to be repaid.  This is not always possible when the clients circumstances are investigated as the client sometimes does not have enough disposable income (the money left over after essential bills and living costs) each month to meet the financial repayments, in this case the client can then consider a debt management plan or Bankruptcy.

• YOU SHOULD NOT APPLY FOR ANY FURTHER CREDIT ONCE ACCEPTED ONTO A TRUST DEED!

A Trustee will manage your Protected Trust Deed for you and Trust Deeds can only become protected if certain requirements are met by the individual, if the Trust Deed becomes protected, your creditors cannot take legal action against you and the interest or charges on your personal debt will become frozen.

You will NOT be charged to enter a Trust Deed arrangement, your creditors are responsible for paying your Trustee out of the contributions you make whilst the agreement is in place.

• Bankruptcy in Scotland is sometimes referred to by some as Sequestration

Sequestration involves removing or seizing a persons belongings or assets, to a value of the debt owed with a view to being of financial benefit to the creditor owed the money or in some cases this can be for monies owed to the Scottish state.

Laws in Scotland that appertain to personal debt and finance agreements can vary based on what type of agreement you have signed and with which company or lender.  For an exact definition of different legal agreements, you should without question consider speaking with a Scottish Insolvency Practitioner or solicitor.

The above is a very basic explanation designed to give you a brief outline of the differences between, debt help in Scotland and that to the rest of the UK.  For a more detailed explanation you can contact our personal debt helpline which is open 24 hours a day.

• Unable to manage monthly repayments?
• Are you receiving letters and calls from credit card and loan companies?
• Have you missed payments on any of your credit agreements?

If you answered YES to any of the above, you need personal debt information that will assist you in clearing debts without further loans.  Struggling with debt in the long term is not the way forward and the sooner you find away to end your debt, the better!

There are many different debt solutions which you can explore to find the one that suits you best, what you do need is the correct advice and this is not always available.  The reason for this is due to most debt companies wanting to take you down the route that is most profitable to them, not YOU!

The most usual ways to clear your debt without another loan are listed below;

Debt Management

IVA in England or Trust Deed in Scotland

Going Bankrupt

You may have already considered some of the above if you are struggling with debts and may not have received the correct advice based on your current situation.

At Lewis Alexander, we specialise in helping people every day who are struggling to clear their personal debts, we do this without the individual having to take on further credit or loan agreements.

We will be able to help you! All you need to do is call our personal debt helpline in confidence and have a brief confidential chat with one of our experts.  This way you are not paying for the advice and you can compare our debt help to other companies you my have spoken with, or are about to speak with.

• Call free today, what have got to lose apart from ten minutes of your time?
• You may even find that after our brief chat, your problem is not as bad as you originally thought, which in itself is a massive relief to most people.

IVA or Debt Management

The most difficult decision when trying to clear personal debts can be which debt solution to choose after doing all your homework on the options available.

• Debt Management Plans or
• IVA – Individual Voluntary Arrangements
• are usually the two solutions that people have to decide between. When faced with the two options, there are many factors that influence the choice of informal debt management over an IVA and likewise, an IVA over a debt management plan.

It is very important that you understand the differences between these debt solutions, as if you do not, you could easily have the wool pulled over your eyes by a clever and unscrupulous debt advisor that wants to earn extra commission for placing you onto an IVA as opposed to an informal Debt Management Plan.

A professional debt management company such as Lewis Alexander will offer you advice tailored to your personal situation and if you are better suited to a debt management plan rather than personal Insolvency or an IVA, we will tell you, however, you make the final decision based on the debt advice given to you.

It is your choice no one Else’s!

When you are in debt it can feel like everyone else does not understand your particular situation and that you feel that your debt problems are some how different to all others.  This is not true, it is actually a mental stigma associated with being in personal debt, you are not alone and your financial problem is usually pretty much the same as others around you, it is your personal change in circumstance that will differ to other peoples, this is what creates the problem of being in debt in the first place.

Some people split from partners or others suffer a death in the family, others may have hours at work reduce resulting in less income, the list is endless but what is the same is the debt problem that people find themselves with due to being set back financially by the change in circumstance they may have suffered.

The main difference between an IVA and Debt Management Plan (DMP) is that

• An IVA is a legally binding agreement
• A debt management plan is not.

With a debt management plan you can expect to repay much of what you owe.  With an IVA, the debt that is not repaid within a 60 month period is then written off by your creditors, this is agreed at a creditors meeting prior to the IVA commencing.

The IVA will guarantee to freeze any interest or charges being applied to your accounts, a debt management plan will not and it is down to the hard work and efforts put in by your chosen debt management company as to how quickly your debt is reduced, make your selection regarding your chosen debt company or debt service carefully!

• The cost of choosing or selecting the wrong debt company or agency to solve your debt problems can be as high as the interest being applied by your creditors to your accounts.
• The wrong debt company will have no concern on actually getting the job done, they are more concerned with extracting funds from you and fobbing you off with none truths.

For honest, genuine, debt advice and help in the UK, call our free from a landline personal debt helpline today using 0800 018 6868, your personal details are dealt with in absolute confidence and your call is free!

• Debt Management Plan
• IVA or Trust Deed in Scotland
• Bankruptcy

Lewis Alexanderis a specialist debt management company, we help people clear debts without loans, we also offer a free from a landline debt helpline to UK residents struggling with personal financial problems.  The advice we give is based on individual personal circumstances and is often not what the person (possibly you) wants to hear.

This is where debt counselling comes in, we have a proven method of helping those that wish to be helped.  Often in life, the truth is the hardest to accept, usually with any personal financial problem, there is an element of truth that needs accepting before the individual can move ahead.  That is the hard part to get over and after what we call the acceptance period, the individual feels so much relief from the stress of the debt problem that they really can continue with a normal daily life just like they experienced before being in debt.

If you are suffering with financial problems such as mortgage arrears, missed or late payments on credit agreements etc, you must deal with the situation as soon as possible, in the time it has taken to read this article so far, you could have dialed our free from a landline debt helpline using 0800 018 6868.

Our advisors will help you to make a fresh start financially and offer you tested and proven methods that you can employ to combat the pressure from debt collection agents or lenders that may be chasing you.  Letters and phone calls are the most worrying to people along with the threats of court action.  There are laws that appertain directly to debt collectors and the procedures of collection that they undertake, more importantly, the Office of Fair Trading sets out debt collection guidance that the collection industry is expected to adhere to, just the same as the debt management guidance set out for debt agencies and not for profit debt charities.

For further advice and help on how to clear debts without loans, contact our personal debt helpline today, lines are open 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week and your call is FREE.

At Lewis Alexander we understand how personal debt problems can impact on your daily life and we offer help and assistance to clear your debts without another loan.  You do NOT need to take on further credit or loans to clear credit card debts or other unsecured credit agreements.

You can start by exploring proven debt solutions such as a Debt Management Plan or IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement).

Debt solutions such as bankruptcy are usually the last to be considered and also the most severe! Please remember that you should not pay debt companies for advice about how to clear personal debts.

There are many different ways of finding free help to clear debts, many sites online will offer information that when put together, gives you a broad but at times detailed explanation of solutions available to clear personal debt.

• Should you really trust the companies you owe money to when looking for help to clear debts?

Help to clear debts in the UK is usually chargeable when you use the services of a debt management company or Insolvency Practitioner that you would be expected to make repayments via a third party, other than when starting one of those two options, no individual should be asking you to part with any money unless you owe it directly to them.

• It is very important that people consider all options available when obtaining help to clear debts!

Apart from the main 4 solutions (debt management plans, bankruptcy, Consolidation loans and Insolvency)  there are no magic ways of wiping out debt, unenforceable credit agreements do exist but not in the numbers that some companies are advertising!

• Debt management should only be entered into with the right company, do your homework!
• An IVA should only be entered into with a licensed insolvency practitioner
• A loan to clear debt should only be taken from a licensed credit broker
• Bankruptcy is entered into through your local county court

Be careful of being charged upfront fees for help to clear debt and services that may not even exist, some companies are charging people for loan applications to clear debts and these people are finding that loans are still not available to them, even though a  fee has been paid!

Should you wish to discuss you personal financial issues with a trained personal debt advisor and simply need help to clear debt, please call our free from a landline personal debt helpline using 0800 018 6868, our staff are UK based, lines are open 24 hours /7 days a week and your call is FREE.  All calls are dealt with in confidence.