30k of debt > 6 years old and on income support

Emmon

Hi I am recently self employed but not generating enough cash to totally stop the income support, although in the next year or so should be on a big enough salary to stop it. I want to pay my old debts off now as it has gone over 6 years since my last contact with the companies so my understanding is the debts are non-enforceable.

If I pay them off while on income support does this give me more leverage when it comes to agree a full and final settlement?

For each £1K of debt what should I try and negotiate down for my full and final settlement. My understanding is that non enforceable debts are not really worth much to debt collectors so am hoping for a big discount.

I have no debts from 2004 onwards and will never be so stupid again.

What about Student Loans, do they show up in credit ratings and can I negotiate a settlement on them as I have 8K of them?

Please help, want to get a mortgage in 8 years or so and I need my credit rating to get sorted!

If I pay them off will my credit rating be clear in 6 years?

Tixy

Hi

Do you know what is showing on your credit file currently? If you haven't paid anything towards them for years then it may already not show your old debts.

It sounds like you are talking about statute barred debts not unenforceable debts.
Debts will be statute barred if there is a period of 6years where you make no payments towards the debts and do not write to acknowledge the debts and if the creditors don't take court action against you in that time.

So if that time period has passed then it sounds like your debts are statute barred. What that means is you are not legally obliged to repay the debts and they cannot take court action against you to make you pay.

So you don't need to pay anything at all to statute barred debts so don't need to negotiate a discount. There is unlikely to be much benefit in repaying anything towards them.

Have any of your creditors obtained CCJs against you?

Are your student loans old style (where you pay the repayments yourself) or new style (where they would deduct money from your salary if you were employed). If old style when did you last defer payments on them?

Have a read of this thread and the factsheets - Statute barred debts and the Limitation Acts

Emmon

I have not checked my credit report yet as it is a couple of months before I hit the 6 year mark and i understand that if I put my details in the debt collectors will then have my new name (I got married 3 years ago) and my new address.
I have no idea whether I have any CCJs as I stupidly asked my mum to sort the debts out 6 years ago and she had all the paperwork changed to her new address. I got 50K from the sale of my house and wanted her to sort it as 1. she put me under a lot of pressure to do this and 2. I had recently been discharged from a psych ward with severe depression and lacked the motivation to do it myself.

Sadly my mum did not pay of one penny and left the country with my 50K hence my problems.

My student loans were from the period 1994 to 2000 however I have no idea whether that makes them old style or new.

Emmon

will I be able to get a mortgage though if I have old statute barred debts on my file? surely that will be a big no-no to potential banks/building societies.

Tixy

Statute barred debts won't still be on your file in a few years time.

They should most likely all have dropped off your file at the latest around 6-12months after they become statute barred (and could have already dropped off your file years ago).

A credit account (including the default and balance) drop off a person's credit file 6years after the original default date, which should be within 6months of you ceasing payments towards the debt. Creditors/debt collectors are not allowed to change that default date on your credit file (if they did you could complain and get it corrected)