I in need of a little advice. After 20 years of marriage my wife and I have decided that or marriage is all but over. We don't own our home it is a council property and we have 2 kids and I owe about £15000 in my name ie: Credit Cards, Store Cards and my wife owes around £3000 Also my wife works, But ashamed to say I don't due to Mental Health Issues (so I'm a househusband) We are still going to live together for a few more years as we have a lot happening at the moment our children are aged 12 and 3 and have their own set of problems which we both want to be around for to help and also we need a larger house (whether I'm here or not). So we have given ourselves a time frame of 2-3 years before we are separated and in that amount of time we are going to try and pay of my wife's debt first so when we do separate she will owe nothing. And also try to reduce my debt in that time (to hopefully a manageable amount), But if we find in that time frame that our marriage is turning sour we will end it sooner (but hope to have her debt clear at least). Also we are not looking to divorce (not at the moment) but still we are looking to make our own life's But my question is if we are unable to clear my debt what would happen if when we separate and I move out of the family home and then go bankrupt what would happen to the items in the family home (nothing of real high value) and about the only thing I would need to keep is my mobile phone (on contract) due to Mental Health Issues I need to be able to contact people and have internet (for advice). And also how long would I need to wait before filing for bankruptcy after I move out. Also to be legally separated do we have to be apart for a certain amount of time. We are only trying to think about our finances so it will not have a impact on the children's well being and so it can also make our split as painless as possible.. I hope this makes sense and is not a stupid question

Thank you. Will get onto that asap

Thank you all, very sound advice just waitting to see if they try to contact us again and then put some of the advice into action.

Hi, My wife has a capital one mastercard and uses paperless billing but about 2 months ago she noticed she was paying PPI on the account and did not Know about it as she would just look at the amount owed and pay it with out checking here statement (naughty). So she phoned up to cancel the PPI only to find out she has been paying it for about 5 years and she never asked for it but because its on the statements they say nothing she can do even though she never signed anything for it or asked for it it was just something cap 1 put onto the account (due to a possible phone call they made about 5 years ago) as we never us PPI as always find it a waste of time. Could she have a case to reclaim her PPI even though capital one say they had a look at it and they said no way

Hello, My wife has just had a call from a company called MKRR (I notice they are talk about on this site) asking her about a debt she had with peter craig/littlewoods in 1997. She tried to explain that she was made bankrupt in 1999 but they still thinks she owes money to them (this debt was included in the bankruptcy) yet she has never heard from anyone about this debt in the last 10 years until today and a phone call out of the blue. Any ideas what she/we should do. She phoned the official receiver and they said that sometimes after 10 or so years that firms just try to recover monies. But would not having firms contact her in all that time be this "statute-barred" anyway.