Yes, I know Have been somewhat busy dealing with divorce from abusive partner in the meantime, hence only just getting around to sorting.

I have about 50k of debt which I've been on a Stepchange DCA for ages for. I'm soon likely to be in a position to make a F&F, and I'm about to send CCA requests as it's all ancient debt (but not statute barred). I know I can do all this myself.. but I'm in the middle of getting divorced, and I need to get this sorted before we can finalise finances. My STBX's solicitor will only accept confirmation that it's done and dusted from another lawyer. Otherwise we're likely to end up in court which will cost far more than the debt would to settle Any recommendations? Preferably one who understands the whole CCA process so I can confirm that it's unenforceable.

Thanks, have been reading up on it, looks like things have progressed since I last looked at this! Am I right in thinking that it's more a case of checking they actually HAVE the agreements these days, rather then their enforceability ( IIRC a lot of the enforceability issues were decided in creditors favour a number of years back)?

Nope, no CCJs. I did the CCA1974 thing years ago back when I originally ran into difficulties, I think a few of them didn't have it. At the time a few CAGers were losing in the courts and getting smacked with big legal bills, so that put me off pursuing that avenue, and then there was the Rankines case... The original debts are ages old - some going back to around 2000ish! It's so long ago I don't have details of the exact creditors to hand. The reason I'm keen to do a F&F is so I can close the book on it and move on. I'm growing a business which is taking up a lot of time and energy, along with having a young family. I can't really afford the distraction of getting into a court dispute with them. Amounts are approx (original lender in brackets): Link 12K (MBNA) Cabot 22k (HSBC, Northern Rock, Barclaycard, Goldfish) 1st Credit £5k (Citi) Barclaycard 5k (Egg) Arrow 2k (M&S) CRS 1.5k Moorgate Loan Servicing 6k (HSBC)

Hi all, I have been paying off a DMP through Stepchange for several years now, and my estimated completion date is sometime around 2040 I'm likely to be a in a position to make an F&F soon due to the generosity of a relative. Almost all of the debts have long been sold onto DCA (Link, Cabot, 1st Credit, the usual suspects). How much should I offer? Total debt is about 50k. Is 20% too high for starters? The DMP is so old that none of the debts show up on my credit file any more, so am I right in thinking it doesn't matter if they mark it satisfied or not? Thanks!

I was under the impression that there is a service fee of £150 to the court, in addition to any payment to a process server. A debt collector I use from time to time has a trick of filling in a stat demand form and sending it to the debtor by post. It's not a "proper" stat demand, but they it's often enough to scare the debtor into paying, as they know we're annoyed enough to move to the next step (in my case a winding up petition as it's companies I deal with). Could be that the DCAs are trying a similar trick on consumers?

Are they real stat demands, or just threats of them? Those things cost about £150 to issue, to seems an expensive tactic if they're using the scattergun approach. Also, if you issue one and don't follow it through with a BR petition, you lose a lot of credibility with the debtor.