Re banks - yes, the OR send the letter, but it's up to the banks and they can be awkward. CCCS will advise you on the best way around it for your circumstances.
Re the Myvesta link. Thats a very moving and well written story. Your local library has lots more, and on a variety of subjects. I prefer funny stories though, if I'm in a bookshop and not in the accounting or law sections you'll catch me in humour. Ebooks are also good if you like that sort of thing, but I like to hold paper in my hands.
However... onto business. This is a financial matter. It's about money. You need to detach emotion from it. Money as we all know is no respecter of emotion.
In terms of cold hard fact:
Is your current financial situation viable?
What do you have to gain from an IVA?
What do you have to lose from an IVA?
What do you have to gain from bankruptcy?
What do you have to lose from bankruptcy?
Also, do you have any idea how much the IVA floggers get paid? It's months and months and months before your creditors see a penny, and even from them on their cut of the money you pay each month it fantastic. The informal arrangements with the likes of Bains & Earnst are the same (albeit usually less up front fees and higher monthy charges.)
This is why these guys are desperate to sell you an IVA. They will do anything to sell you an IVA. It's a bit like a bank trying to shove a credit card down your throat, except shoving a credit card down your throat in your situation would obviously be a so clearly bad move even the finance industry has sussed it. It's also why lots of these people can afford a stupid number of adverts on the net, in tabloids and on daytime tv, just like BorrowYourWayOutDebtFinan ce can.
There are lots of people like that out there in all sorts of trades. They make money by saying something is scary and then offering to make it easier.
"The Advantages of the Myvesta IVA are:
1 The Myvesta IVA offers a Secure Account Login Facility
Urm, yeah, ok.
2 In the Myvesta IVA, creditor and collection telephone calls and payment demands will stop.
As with any other IVA, or indeed bankruptcy. To an extent. Don't expect it to be overnight. And remember that creditors get a say in an IVA and can choose to reject it, in which case they'll still be in touch. With bankruptcy creditors don't have the option.
3 In the Myvesta IVA your interest on your unsecured debts will be
eliminated.
As with any other IVA. And not your concern in the slightest any more with bankruptcy.
4 We will perform a Comprehensive benefits entitlement check service to make sure that you're getting all the income to which you're entitled.
Or you could speak to the CAB. And indeed you don't need to enter into any type of insolvency to check your claiming everything your due.
5 In the Myvesta IVA you will be completely out of debt in five years or earlier.
As with any other IVA. PS - bankruptcy works a bit faster as long as you haven't been up to anything dodgy and worthy of a Bankruptcy Restrictions order.
Watch out though!!! If your IVA fails the office holder will petition for your bankruptcy. What happens if you pay into an IVA for four years, lose your job, get made bankrupt and have your credit record utterly screwed from then for another six years, and pay into a bankruptcy (at a lower rate) for 3 years?
6 In the Myvesta IVA you will only need to make one single monthly payment and we will handle everything for you.
Bankruptcy revolves around the same monthly payment thingy. And if heaven forbid you lose your job it's not hard to phone the OR and say you've got no money.
7 In the Myvesta IVA you will have a dedicated account manager that you can call for free at anytime.
Ah... actually... to be honest... that's your advantage, as long as they keep it up. I'm afraid your ORs office will be a normal phone number, and some of the other IVA hawkers use nasty 087no numbers
8 In the Myvesta IVA you have protection from court actions.
... to exactly the same extent as with bankruptcy.
9 The Myvesta IVA is not advertised in newspapers unlike bankruptcy.
I'll give them that one. But have you looked to see how many bankruptcies are advertised in the paper that has the legal notices for your area? It's hundreds! You'll be in the best of company, expecially just after christmas. If you don't see any, they are either too well hidden because they use the cheapest space or they use a paper you don't even read!
10 The Myvesta IVA has a much softer or no affect on your professional status as a professional or member of the police or armed forces.
I have pointed out in the other post that you need to consider your job. However many professions will expel you for entering any kind of composition agreement just as quickly as for going bankrupt. If you are in the police or similar, you will need to keep your HR dept informed. Going behind their back will cause trouble you can avoid if you show them in advance why this is your only option.
In short. He wants you to give him money. Ignore what he wants you to do unless it happens that it's best for you.
What is appropriate for your circumstances? You are about to speak to CCCS, so you are going to get the best advice. Approach it openly; it may well be that it is an IVA it may be bankruptcy. It could be something else.
The bankruptcy procedure is a functional one designed to carry out necessary functions, and that will be for you what you make of it.
- It has to be done by a court because the effects are pretty dramatic and deciding not to pay people in full offers you a lot of protection from court actions. It's in the public interest; it's not to rub your nose in it.
- The advert and London Gazette aren't there to let the neighbours know your business - it's there to let people like bailiffs know not to take your door in.
- The Official Receiver's staff have to ask you questions because the Insolvency Act says they have to find out about assets, liabilities, and the cause of your bankruptcy. If you want to think that it's to humiliate you that's the way you'll feel about it. If you want to instead think it's a combination of them performing a mixture of a perfectly reasonable duty to the poor creditors that aint going to get their money and your opportunity to demonstrate that you may have been thick but you haven't done anything criminal, then that's they way you'll feel about it.
- If you try to hide things, bankruptcy will leave you angst ridden about being found out. If you don't; your conscience will be clear.
- If you refuse to tell the OR what you're earning until he gets an arrest warrant out for you and has you dragged back to court, it'll be humiliating. If you go along with what you need to tell them it'll be plain sailing.
- If you make up a really stupid half baked explanation for your bankruptcy or the last page of your statement of affairs that's worse than your kid telling the teacher the dog ate your homework, the ORs staff will be a bit curious and you could be left feeling a bit schoolboyish. If you tell it like it is they'll have no need to question it and move on.
Even on that site though, it didn't seem to create a tearful melodrams for these people.
Myvesta UK - Did it 5 weeks ago... Myvesta UK - I Just Went Bankrupt
The truth is probably somewhere halfway between the people that say it's the end of your life and the Daily Wail story about care free jack the lads skipping into the sunset.
The only thing I should probably add that hasn't already been said by someone else, but that I'm sure you've realised and that the CCCS will tell you anyway. If you know that you can't pay your debts; stop using any credit cards now. Explaining why you 'borrowed' more money you knew you couldn't pay back when you'd already sussed you were stuffed is a tricky one that could really ruin the "bankruptcy experience" for you! (I think they know what the money for the court fee looks like on a bank statement and tend to ignore it
)
Considering Bankruptcy Advice Appreciated 
