The general principle followed in respect to people under IVA is that the use of credit card is prohibited for them, except under a few exceptional circumstances. These exceptions apply only to people who are self-employed and who need credit cards primarily for the purpose of paying their bills. The credit cards to those people are issued with an understanding that all the outstanding dues will be paid every month.

IVA is a legally binding document. One of the clauses inserted in the IVA proposal specifically stipulates that during the period when IVA is active, the debtor will neither use any existing credit card nor apply for one. The reason is that IVA is based on very stringent budgeting calculations under the assumptions that the debtor will be able to look after his essential everyday commitments without resorting to any other credit during the period he is under IVA. 

The idea of not having any facility of using credit card for extended period, especially at the end of the month when one has run out of cash is sometimes scary for most of the people, but it must be understood that the regular habit of using credit cards to the maximum stretchable limit before one seeks help from other sources is primarily the reason for one to get to the stage of IVA in the first place. However, if the monthly payments required on account of IVA are skilfully worked out, taking into account all the essential expenses each month, the idea of living without credit card is more psychological than financial and people generally adjust to it much earlier than they thought in the beginning. There is an additional hidden benefit involved too. Because at the end of the IVA, the debtor would have cleared all his debt, the monthly amount that he was paying into his IVA would be available for their monthly budget to spend.

Sometimes, a credit card IVA is arranged to help a person in credit card debt. The person is asked to sign a contract in agreement with all the credit card companies and the unsecured loan lenders, as per which a monthly affordable payment is fixed for certain number of years, generally 5 years. Beyond this period, fixed as per the contract, all the outstanding unsecured debts are cleared automatically. The debtor is generally not required to make any payment of interest rate during this period.