Sincere apologies BRIGADIER2JCS, life got the better of me as my dad ran into serious health problems, I've been bouncing back and forth between the north of England and South Wales ever since. As I hope you understand I had to prioritise and couldn't give this any time, it seems to be settled for the moment though. I've just opened another letter from Equidebt which, as someone else predicted was an offer for a lower amount (£129) but it says I would have had to pay by the 20th April, I guess it's moot as I don't intend to pay anyway. If you need any more information from me, please ask.

I will do, much thanks.

Hi all, thanks for the replies and insights. I just got the next Equidebt letter and it looks like it is my zombie student overdraft after all (15/16 years since last contact with it). It's for £431 and as I mentioned earlier, my dim memory of that debt was £430. They are asking me to write back within 7 days or they might advise their client (Aktiv Kapital UK Limited) to instruct a doorstep agent to come round and discuss my repayment. From what I've gather, as this debt is over six years old and I've had no contact for 15/16 years, I'm not going to have to pay this back. I'm guessing or have seen somewhere that there are template letters which might help me with this, if anyone could confirm this is the right course of action and point me in the right direction that would be great. I'm going to visit my parents tomorrow for a long weekend and really can't be bothered to do anything about this until I get back, I assume I don't have to jump into action and do anything before then.

Thought I'd just provide an update even though it's a bit of a non-event. Just got my Equifax report and it came back clean with nothing suspicious, so it's back to waiting for Equidebt to get in touch again. ETA: Are they that bad?

Thanks for the advice.

Did the Trustonline, it came back with nothing and it didn't ask for my middle name anyway. Waiting game now I guess, see what equidebt come up with.

Great, thanks for that, although the mis-spelled name might be sticking point. Grrr, this is a pain, although when Equidebt write back hopefully there will be a bit more info.

No, my name isn't that common (jones/smith, etc) and the letter from Equidebt had my pretty unusual (spelled wrong, two letters the wrong way round) middle name. Honestly, I've never applied for any type of credit (loan or card) in my life until I got my current one, I've never left a property owing the landlord (always got my deposit back). The only reason I was thinking that long ago was when I left town even though I thought it was sorted and told them I was moving out the council may have still been charging me council tax, from experience with my current council in the last 15 years they are often prone to getting stuff wrong when moving (although thinking about it now I was on benefit at the time so wouldn't have been paying it anyway). Seriously, it's a mystery (unless it's my zombie student overdraft come back to haunt me).

Thanks, I had another thought, basically I moved to the city where I currently live about 16 years ago, I just can't for the life of me remember any addresses/ postcodes of where I lived prior to that (short term student moves), I shredded a load of ancient paperwork a few years ago now. Without that info I'm thinking the trust online might not be worth it as I can't see how I could have generated a CCJ in the last 16 years. Or would it find any CCJs attached to me rather than me plus specific address?

Well, I did the Equifax and Experian free trial thing. For some reason Equifax couldn't confirm my identity over the phone (the site said I had to call them to complete process and that didn't work) so I just need to scan my birth certificate and recent bank statement and email them that. Experian did work, and it's not coming back with anything, just my current balance on my credit card ( £91) and nothing other than that. I don't know if I should just wait for the Equifax report and then do the trustonline.org to see if I have a CCJ against me, or should I just pay the £8 now for the trustonline, thoughts?

Again, thank you. I've got to go out now and then go to work but will do that over the weekend and report back when I get the results.

Thanks you. A few posts above mine, I found this post, is this what you mean? (sorry I'm new to all this) (I had to mess the link up as I don't have enough posts yet to link)

Hello, first off apoligies to exRAF if this is considered bad forum etiquette for hijacking his thread, I wasn't sure if I should create a new thread or not (if I'm doing the wrong thing could someone please tell me and I'll start a new thread). Yesterday I received much the same letter as exRAF, ie "Equidebt is attempting to contact the above name regarding a personal matter and your address has been supplied as a possible address for our subject". Other than spelling my middle name wrong it, it's me. The thing is I didn't think I had any debts, I have never owned a credit card until about two years ago when I got my current one, and always pay it off, I have never taken out a loan. I always pay final bills before leaving an address and have been at my current address for four years, nobody has approached me for money while living here or at my previous one, at which I lived for three years. Upon reflection, the only debt I walked away from was my student overdraft from Barclays (about £400 at the time). They sold that debt on (I missed a couple of payments while out of the country), I can't remember who to but the last contact I had with them was 14 or 15 years ago (basically, those who bought the debt demanded a monthly payment way above what I could afford (I was on benefit at the time) even though I offered to pay a lesser amount, I moved shortly afterwards and never heard from them again. Another thing that crossed my mind was about 18 months ago I had my debit card swiped off the counter in Tesco by the customer behind me, I realised straight away and contacted the bank within 5 minutes off it happening, I didn't contact the police though, I just assumed it was pointless. It crossed my mind that someone might have used it somehow to get credit, but I'm guessing here. My initial reaction was to phone equidebt today and find out what was going on, then I did a bit of Googling about the subject and ended up here. So now my plan is to wait until they get in touch again and hopefully they'll provide a bit more information, I am a bit worried (I do work full time but live on my own and don't earn much above the minimum wage and havn't got much money spare). Am I doing the right thing?