IVA Review: Kim on Varden Nuttall (638 views)

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Review of: Varden Nuttall

Review date: 01 April 2011

Insolvency Practitioner who handled case: Not Known

I proceeded as far along as: Accepted IVA

The solution I opted for in the end: IVA

Speed of response

No of days to make a decision after I spoke to IVA company: 1 days

Weeks to IVA proposal after decision made: 1 weeks

Weeks to IVA accepted/rejected after decision made: 4 weeks


IVA Company Ratings
Their debt solutions expertise:	10 out of 10
Their customer service:	10 out of 10
Their speed of response:	10 out of 10
Overall Company Rating:	10 out of 10

Insolvency Practitioner Ratings
The quality of IVA proposal:	10 out of 10
Overall Insolvency Practitioner Rating:	10 out of 10

My circumstances:

I work in the public sector, had gone into around £60k debt during my 20s and early 30s by using credit cards then getting loans to pay off credit cards, then reusing the credit cards to give some monthly disposable income.

My interaction with the company:

I have absolutely no issues with the way Varden Nuttall have handled my IVA. I was put forward to them by way of another company. This company charged me nearly £500 for referring me which I found afterwards I could have been referred for free. This company never offered me any alternate advice other than to go into an IVA and also lied to me saying that the savings I had in 10 year endowment policies would not be included in the IVA where in fact I had to cash them in and pay them into the IVA. Varden Nuttall got in touch with me from this referral, were friendly but never gave me any advice re an alternative to an IVA. I was in debt of around £61k and in 5 years I will have paid around £50k back. That includes the agreed IVA monthly payment, extra income from any overtime worked and just under £5000 from the cashed in 10 year endowments. I strongly believe other options should have been relayed to me. The referral company also told me that when your IVA is over you get a certificate to say its paid, the next day you can get a mortgage this again gave a false impression as Im now aware that at the conclusion of the IVA, this will show on my credit history for a further 6 years. I truly believe that due to the amount of debt I was in, the fact I had no assets , I should have been advised in relation to bankcruptcy. It seems by trying to do the right thing and pay as much back as I borrowed (in reality more than I borrowed as a lot of the debt was made up of credit card/loan interest) my credit record will be adversely affected for 11 years (5 in IVA,6 on credit record)whereas had I gone through bankcruptcy I would have had to struggle financially a lot shorter time and my credit record would have been adversely affected for 7 years (1 in bankcruptcy,6 on credit record).

Why I gave the ratings I did:

I rated Varden Nuttall so high because although I feel like I was failed by them but more so by the referral company at the proposal stages of the IVA over the last 4 years I have found their staff, communicative, open, honest and non judgemental.

One thing they did - which really impressed me:

Their customer service, they call every few months to check all is going ok with the IVA

One thing they did - which I felt could be improved:

The lack of information about the options avail to me. I feel I went into the IVA naively, that as soon as I was referred to Varden Nuttall that going into an IVA was a fait accompli, albeit I was in a large amount of debt I was covering minimum payments. Although it will be a great feeling in December to be debt free, I feel like I have been given an 11 year sentence to stop me being able to get on the property ladder.

Other points

My IVA is due to conclude in December 2011. Not sure how much will be written off at this time as albeit in theory if Ive paid nearly £50,000 back and originally owed around £61,000 then the money written off would be £11,000. the fee of around £10,000 Varden Nuttall get for managing the IVA from the creditors would put the figure nearer £21,000. Lessons learnt - I would like to say never to get in debt again but in reality it is very difficult to save to buy the things you want, e.g reliable car, house etc, however I hope to never get into the debt I previously did. Ive learnt to budget, during my 20s I didnt budget, if I wanted to book a holiday or go out for the evening I wouldnt assess my wages I would just use a credit card. Since getting into the IVA Ive become a lot more savvy over the financial options out there.

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Review from Kim (638 views)

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