Improving my credit

Spen71

Hopefully this is in the right place. To cut a long story short. Five years I was a heavy drinking chain smoking idiot. I cleaned myself up and being self employed I worked to survive for a couple of years while I dealt with the depression and anxiety. I then met a woman and things were great for a while until we split. I left her to start my life all over again from scratch. In the five years I have pretty much buried my head in the sand about my debts but I have finally realised that i need to sort them out

I think I have a couple of credit cards totally about £8000 and a student loan for about £5000. My main residence is my fathers as I live in temporary accomadation during the week when i work Today i put myself back on the electoral register as i obviously need to see my credit report

Should I?.
1 Do I get in touch with the student loan people to see it they will back date my student loans
2 in the meantime get in touch with the credit cards/collection agencies and offer the minimum I can get away with and then save to offer them a settlement Then when I have paid them off pay off the student loan

If I manage to pay the credit cards off quite quickly I believe they stay on record for 6 years. Is my credit score clear then? And I can apply for loans etc?