After my initial determination to update my credit reference files I lost interest and didn’t write to my other creditors.  I ordered my statutory report from Equifax and checked the entries for the creditors that I had written to.  I was pleasantly surprised!

Littlewoods - marked as partially satisfied
Natwest - marked as partially satisfied
Egg Loan - marked as partially satisfied
Egg Card - marked as partially satisfied

I was surprised about the Egg entries as they hadn’t replied to my letter.

The one big disappointment was Barclaycard - they had replied to my initial letter saying that they would mark the account as partially satisfied, but when I checked the entry it’s still showing as defaulted and they have sold it to Max Recovery who are also on the report so it looks as though I owed both companies!

On Monday I posted letters to Barclaycard (again!), Next Directory, Tesco Personal Finance and Max Recovery (Barclaycard and Virgin).  Once 6 weeks have passed I’ll order my credit files from Experian, Equifax and Call Credit and see if everything has been done - if not it’ll be letters to the Information Commissioner!

The Callcredit file could be interesting as they had me being bankrupt twice on the same day, but I haven’t written to them yet - I want to see if it’s corrected when I get the file again.

One very positive thing - I noticed on my Equifax file that I had an alias.  It was only a misspelling of my name, but I wanted it cleared up.  I completed their online complaint form and had an email within a week saying the entry had been removed.  Obviously I’ll have to check, but fingers crossed!

I often see posts from people on the forum asking if they can go through an IVA without their partner knowing, and while I can understand that it’s not the easiest subject to talk about (”By the way darling, I’m £65k in debt” doesn’t go down too well over dinner!) I think it’s sad that people feel that they can’t share their worries.

An IVA is tough, and to try and survive on your own for 5 years must be very hard.  I couldn’t have tried an IVA without Dave’s support - he was there for me through the short-lived IVA and has been a big support to me through my BR.  It’s good to be able to talk about worries and problems, and if he wants to go out and I haven’t got any money at least he understands why.

When I first told Dave I had problems he was great.  He calmed me down and told me to look on the internet for a solution, hence the IVA.  Unfortunately that didn’t work, and he was there for me again during BR.  It took me a long time to admit how much I actually owed though, and even longer to tell my mum!  She has been a big support as well, although I was dreading telling her - she took it very well and said “Oh well, everyone’s doing it these days!”  Not what I was expecting, but a pleasant surprise!

I have also been open with my friends - they now know why I can’t always afford to go out, and why there’s only a fiver in their children’s birthday cards instead of an expensive pressie (bought on credit).

I’m not saying that my way is the right way, but I wanted to share my experiences in case it helps someone else.