Thanks for the great advice everyone. I don't think the statute barred thing will apply, as I haven't given them my new address. I think I will contact them one at a time as and when I can afford to pay, but without given them new details - use a c/o address or something. I don't want to spend years worrying about them finding me. Thanks again.

There's quite a big one to a major bank (cancelled my overdraft and forced me to convert it into a loan which I couldn't afford to pay back - around £3K) around £1k on an egg card, AA loan, around £1-2K, and two credit cards, £500 and £200. All unsecured. I feel really bad but I'm not even sure how much I owe to the bigger ones - hhave been a total ostrich!

Hi I'd like some advice please. I have lots of debt left over from my student days. I was paying reduced payments for a few years, and they were reducing slowly. However, I dropped the debt managment company as they were charging a ridiculous amount of money which I wanted to use the pay of the debts. The creditors then got stroppy and started wanted to do detailed finiancial analysis on a regular basis, started adding on interest, demanding more money etc. Around this time I got married and moved house. I decided not to tell them for a few weeks as I needed a break from the stress. Anyway, for one reason or another it has now been two and a half years. I have not contacted them, they have not contacted me. I feel really bad about this, I know I should be paying them back. I am also having trouble avoiding credit checks, as I want to avoid linking my names and addresses. Part of me wants to ride it out and wait until the debts have expired. Another part of me wants to pay everything off and start afresh. The problem is, I want to pay it off on my terms - i.e. pay each creditor of with a lump sum which I have saved up, rather than pay regular tiny amounts which don't even reduce the debt in any noticeable way. Any words of wisdom would be greatly apprciated.