What will happen to my bank account?

If you don’t owe your bank any money (overdraft facility, loan etc), then proposing an IVA should not affect your account.

If you do owe money to your bank, we recommend opening a new account with a bank you have no previous connection with as soon as possible. We can help get you a new bank account set up very quickly. There are banks that will not carry out any credit searches and are usually able to open accounts on the same day.

Banks usually have the ‘right of offset’ built into their terms. This means that they can use money in one of your accounts to offset against debts in another. It is important to remember that many banks are part of the same ‘group’, for example HBOS includes Halifax and Bank of Scotland.

Please be aware that your bank could decide to close or freeze your account for any number of reasons, even if you do not owe them any money. For this reason, we always recommend opening a brand-new account with a bank you have had no previous connection with.