I have two left in my credit file which state are due to drop off by the end of the year so surely that's slightly positive. No offence but with your responses maybe be a little bit less short with new posters. We might not all have your mass of knowledge.

By Debtcollectors do you mean the debt has been sold from the original bank to a third party? If so most of them have been sold to a third party e.g hsbc to moorcroft recoveries. I'll look into this CCA thing, don't know much about it. I know paying F&F won't do anything for our credit score, like I said I'm asking will paying it off at a partial amount be any different to paying off in full in the way a mortgage broker would look at it? Maybe I should just address this with the broker, just was after some advice in here if possible.

Thanks for the swift reply. I've done fair amount of research. The black marks are due to drop off soon as been 6 years but fully aware the debts once cleared won't drop off our credit report for a couple years. However in the meantime we have been informed we might still be able to get a mortgage albeit not the greatest one on the market. Therefore I was asking if anyone knows if it would be more beneficial to pay the debt off in full in regards to credit report in not too distant future or does it make no difference if settle with the creditors at a lower amount?

Thanks for the swift reply. I've done fair amount of research. The black marks are due to drop off soon as been 6 years but fully aware the debts once cleared won't drop off our credit report for a couple years. However in the meantime we have been informed we might still be able to get a mortgage albeit not the greatest one on the market. Therefore I was asking if anyone knows if it would be more beneficial to pay the debt off in full in regards to credit report in not too distant future or does it make no difference if settle with the creditors at a lower amount?

So myself and my wife have been on a DMP with Stepchange since 2009. Before I go onto the specific topic id like to say how helpful they have been over the years and completely free unlike euro debt who I stupidly went with to begin with. Anyway back on topic, we are in the fortunate situation that we have some money coming our way soon which we want to use to pay the debt off but we also are aware the creditors might accept a lower percentage to settle the debt. In total we owe around 10 different creditors between us, all credit cards and student overdrafts. We lived beyond our means which got us into the debt and learnt a valuable lesson. We have paid off just under 10k at £185 a month for the last 6 years (never missed a payment but that doesn't seem to count for much). We have 9k left to pay off. Our query is that we want to buy a house once the debt is clear and built up our credit score again. If we offer for full and final settlement say at 60% of each debt will this be recorded on our credit file as only partially settled and would it affect a mortgage application further down the line? Or would it be better to settle in full in terms of our future credit score and mortgage application? I hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance for all your help.