IVAs or Individual Voluntary Arrangements are designed to help people in very specific sets of circumstances.
Individuals who have personal unsecured debt payments that they can no longer manage can be helped by using IVAs. These arrangements are partly intended to help people to avoid bankruptcy.
If your credit rating is poor on account of your debts being out of control, then you may indeed benefit from an IVA. However, you should seek the services from a professional such as an Insolvency Practitioner for advice as to whether an IVA is the right thing for you. An IVA is essentially a way to clear debts that you are not currently managing.
If you do use an IVA to avoid bankruptcy, while the IVA is being carried out, you will not be able to gain further credit. This may seem difficult, but it also makes the IVA more likely to succeed. For the IVA to be a success, you need to be able to manage the payments for it, and this is far more likely if you do not have other debt payments to worry about during this time.
Once the IVA has elapsed, your debts will be cleared, and you will be able to get to work on improving your credit rating, seeking further credit again if you choose to do so. Unlike bankruptcy, IVAs have much less of an effect on your credit rating in the long term. IVAs therefore offer you the chance to deal with your debts and work towards a much more stable financial future.
IVAs should not be seen as a way to improve your credit rating, although they often will have this effect in the long term. An IVA is a way to settle your current debts and start again with a clean slate.