Old but not statute barred debts advice? And advice.

Angrycarbuyer

So I have several defaults from 3 to 5 years ago on my credit file that are all between £600 and £1k and that have not been in touch for a while now and about £12k of more recent covid related stuff (newly self employed partner lost all work not eligible for gov funds blah blah blah..) which I don't think the lenders are going to let go so easily (5k to one 7k to the other). 

I really want to sort my debt situation out. My partner decided to finish his degree and is going to be a Physics Teacher starting Sept 2022, he is due to receive £25k worth of bursaries that he won't need to use to live off as we are ok on my wage and should be for the foreseeable future so he is talking about potentially buying a house. (we've rented all our working lives) so I'm trying to figure out the best course of action. 

Jeez that was a long introduction to this question. Is paying off old debts in installments worse for my credit file than hiding until its statute barred?

What I mean is will payment plans for defaults older than 6 years still show on there, then its like an active account almost in that if I miss a payment or whatever potential lenders could see it thus affecting my credit worthiness for longer than 6 years! Or will it drop off anyway? 

My options are

1. put all my energy into clearing the recent debt sooner in the hopes of getting a mortgage in 2024 (defaults are from April 2020).
2. Make smaller payments to all my creditors to ensure that I don't get a rogue CCJ to an old address. 
3. Make token payments to the new creditors and lowball F&F settlement the old ones in the hope that they'll accept. (Although probably the worst option if this resets the timer for acknowledgement for statute barring purposes)?

I could really do with some advice as my head is swimming at the moment. My gut is telling me option 1 its just the CCJ lottery thing that is putting me off. I got mortgage advice just before the pandemic and the broker was saying a lot of lenders don't really look at defaults older than 3 years anywho. If it was just this localised event on my file that I had since sorted out I think I might stand a better chance than 5 or 6 payments to old debt weighing me down. 

fatbelly

The entries completely drop off once the default is 6 years old.

As long as you retain a fighting fund, clear the recent debt and if the older ones re-emerge...

Try full & final settlement using the National Debtline standard letter. These are only small debts and so this is not going to make much dent in your savings. The beauty of the ND letter is that the offer is made on a 'without prejudice' basis so cannot be used as evidence in court & so won't re-start the statute barred clock.

Sncjw

When are you planning to buy a house I would wait until your partner is in a job at least before applying.