Common questions when you’re halfway through your IVA
Now that you’ve reached the halfway point in your IVA, the one thing you’re probably wondering is how much money you have left to pay into your arrangement.
That’s totally understandable. An IVA is a financial journey and now you’re halfway down the road, you want to know how much further you have to go.
While you’re probably looking for an exact figure, unfortunately we can’t give you one. That’s because everybody’s IVA (and their level of IVA payments) is dependent on their financial circumstances, and circumstances change. The figure we give you today might have changed by tomorrow.
So while we can’t tell you exactly how much money you have to pay into your arrangement, what we can do is give you answers to some common questions we get from clients at this stage of their IVA journey.
How much longer will my IVA last?
The amount of time between your first payment and receiving your completion certificate depends largely on how well you keep up with your monthly contributions, though there are certain instances where creditors can request an extension.
All that being said, most IVAs are advertised as taking 60 months (or five years) to complete. Whether it takes you more or less than the 5 years set out depends on whether you fall behind with payments, or you find yourself able to pay up your IVA early.
Is it possible my IVA will last longer than five years?
If you own a property, it can have an effect on the length of your IVA. As a homeowner, you may be required to remortgage your property to increase the amount you pay towards your IVA. This depends on how much equity is in your home.
If a valuation shows that there is more than £5,000 of equity in the property, you will normally be required to release that equity towards your IVA. This usually happens in year 5 of your arrangement.
If your home cannot be remortgaged, however, you will be required to make monthly contributions for an extra 12 months. This means the IVA would last six years rather than the usual five.
What can I look forward to once my IVA is over?
There are so many things we could mention that they wouldn’t fit on a single page, but off the top of our heads:
- Making your own decisions about how to spend your money
- Not having to budget (so strictly)
- Being able to borrow money (responsibly)
- Buying a house
- Building up your savings
- Getting your life back
We’ve helped coach thousands upon thousands of clients through their IVAs, so take it from us when we say that life after debt lives up to the hype.
What would you say to someone at this stage in their IVA journey?
First of all we’d say “WELL DONE!!!” If you haven’t heard it elsewhere already, you’ve achieved something really special by getting this far. Living with debt is hard, and IVA offers a solution to your debt problems, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to live under financial constraints – so well done for making it this far.
Next, we’d say “Keep going!” We know the last few years have been difficult, and there will be challenges to come, but we hope you’re starting to see some light at the tunnel. Focus on that and whenever you’re struggling, just picture the day when you’re finally free of debt and ready to get back to a life free of money worries.
Will my IVA be worth it?
Living with an IVA is challenging, and at Parkfield we don’t try to pretend otherwise. While you chose to enter an IVA as a necessary way of dealing with spiraling debts, we understand that nobody would choose to put themselves through this kind of arrangement if they didn’t have to.
That being said, IVAs really are life-changing for so many of our clients. They learn skills they can take with them, like how to maintain a strict budget. More importantly, they learn how easy it is to get into serious debt, and how challenging it can be to get back out of it.
Although you might struggle at times during your IVA journey, it’s always with a greater goal in mind – looking forward to life after debt.
So will your IVA be worth it? Absolutely.
