An Individual Voluntary Arranagment (IVA) can be a "helpful" way of fixing severe debt problems, an industry expert has claimed.
As personal debt reach record highs, more and more consumers are turning to professional debt advice to help them out of their current situation.
One of the increasingly popular ways of sorting out major debt problems is through an IVA, which is an agreement between the debtor and the creditor to pay a percentage of the debt over a five-year period.
Any outstanding debt after that time is written off.
Debt expert Achala Afreen, a senior financial analyst, stated: "You can only apply for an IVA when you are unable to make monthly installments on your debts at the current level of minimum payment and interest rate."
She added that while IVAs are not the solution for every situation, they can help consumers end their financial troubles.
