Oh and just to be pedantic, I know the title of this thread is wrong, I was meant to write 'debt' not 'debtors'

Thank you too harrassed senior and westendwendy, I think I understand what you mean when you say I'll wonder why I had all those sleepless nights, I had no idea about this place all those years ago i'm cheering up already! Thank you all for the advice on CCA's it's been a revelation, the last time I made a payment on any of the accounts was just over 5 years ago (it'll be 6 years next march I think).

Thank you Dx100 and Nottsdave for your replies. You've no idea what a relief it was to read your posts, I was close to tears. I was expecting lots of tut tutting so thank you both sincerely.

I'm in serious debt thanks to having more credit cards than I ought to, last time I checked it totalled 19K. I had an Abbey, MBNA, Monument, HSBC and Barclays credit card. I was 19 at the time and had no concern for how I would pay the debt of eventually, I was just concerned with making the mimimum payments. I applied for and maxed out all of the above just over five years ago and shortly after started to fall behind on payments due to being made redundant. None of the credit companies were interested in freezing the interest or late payment/over limit fines I was constantly getting each month and this made the debt even less manageable to the point that MBNA were starting to ask for monthly payments that exceeded my monthly wage (I only worked part time as I was at uni) I started to become severely depressed and turned to drink and began considering suicide but I was too afraid to actually do it, instead I'd drink until I passed out in the hope that I wouldn't wake up. Eventually my best friend approached me and told me he knew something was terribly wrong and I told him everything. He suggested transferring uni and turning my back on it all just until I had at least graduated and that sounded like a great idea (in all honesty I still think it was!). So I told my parents to send all mail addressed to me back to the sender (I never got into debt with my actual bank thankfully and only informed them of my new address) and I left it all behind me, well, I never really believed I could run away from it completely I just needed time. I graduated and moved back to my parents and it was all fine for a year or so until I started to receive letters (my parents said I used to get them all the time but they suddenly stopped, I still haven't told my parents about my debt). I opened a few of them and noted the PO Box numbers for each and then started returning subsequent letters back to sender based on the PO box numbers. This worked too for a while until just last Friday when I received Two letters one from Cabot and another from FIRE both regarding the same debt. The FIRE letter worried me the most as it seems to come from an office much closer to home (I still don't open the letters I just hold the envelope upto a light bulb and get the gist of it) and returned it to sender. However this morning just as I was leaving for work a man approached me holding one of those gadgets delivery men make you sign on, he said my name and I instinctively said 'yes' and he said I was to expect correspondence from Arrow Global. As soon as he said that I just knew it was about the debt, I've had a sick feeling all day, I'm such a fool and I really don't know what I should do. I can't really afford to pay off the debt now (well I never could!) as I'm already paying off a small mortgage that is my student loan, no matter what I'm up to my eyeballs in debt for probably the next 10-15 years, if I run again it'll have to be for good.....possibly abroad. If I can dodge them for just one more year could I get away with it? It would be 6 years since I last made any payment. I know many will think I deserve to be caught up with as I should a) never got into so much debt and b) never ran away from it but it was the only viable option for me at the time, I managed to forget about the debt, get out of the suicidal depression and graduate.....no repayment plan could have done that I don't think. I just need to hear the opinion of others as I can't bring myself to tell anyone else about my stupidity in getting into this mess, I can't even consider filing for bankruptcy...having to present my case to a court and all that...just the thought of it brings back all those horrible feelings.