I understand, and that is why I asked here! I just need the "official confirmation" really to convince my partner: the CAB were really helpful by photocopying laws etc for another (non financial) issue despite me already knowing where I stood legally. Thank you for your help, and I will update when I have any more information.

Right, so the final thing is whether my partner's phonecall "on my behalf" today counted as acknowledgement of the debt. General gist was: "Maddocks has no income, but will within a few months and will contact when she has a payment plan." However, they have not spoken to me nor have I authorised anyone to speak on my behalf. If it did, then I'm better off paying, more for the sanity of my relationship than credit-related reasons. If not, then I just need to visit the CAB and get something that shows my partner what you have told me. Sounds like a good plan to me!

Ok, from what I can see from above and your post: - Pay, and it stays on my record for another 6 years as a debt, and it also affects my partner's credit rating for that period of time. - Don't pay, get the hassle for a year or so, and it affects my partner's credit rating in the meantime, but not when the year is up? Is this correct?

Fantastic! Now I just need to convince my partner, which is going to be hard. It would be lovely to be approved for a mobile phone contract again, and other such things. Will it affect his credit rating in the meantime while I wait?

No payments have ever been made. The other half has called them once acting on my behalf but was not authorised by me to act on my behalf. Does being statute barred mean I'll never be able to get a mortgage in the future? Does it stay as "defaulted" on my file?

Thanks, I'll try to convince t'other half not to get involved, but he seems insistent that we pay them anyway. I've just had a hunt around the sticky posts and FAQ, and can't find anything about trying to resolve the debt: I just want it marked as "resolved" or such in my credit history so I can get on with being able to have a normal life eg rent a flat without a guarantor. How do I do this? Who should I pay?

It's not about whether they care, it's about whether they bother to inform the original debtor (Capital One) that the debt got paid. Is this debt now unable to be cleared properly now it is being handled by Lowell?

Hi, Elsewhere in here people appear to have had the same letters from Lowell financial that I have: nice letter, nice letter, not so nice letters, silence, then a year or so later they try again. This is debt is 5 years old and it was a consequence of (at the time) undiagnosed brain cooties. I am now medicated and stable, but currently do not have any real income as I'm a full time mature student. This is fairly straightforward compared to other people's problems of mistaken identity. This is my debt, albeit 50% of it being charges and admin fees from Capital One, altogether about £550. My question is simple: if I simply just pay it off, or get an agreement to pay a percentage of it off, what happens to my credit rating? Do they actually mark it off as paid and things start to get better, or are they just profiting from an already "defaulted" debt that they can not do anything positive about? The other half has a much better credit rating and is concerned that this will affect him as the trouble is now at his address as we moved in together about 6 months ago: any ideas on whether it'll affect his rating?

About 6 months ago. They shut it about 3 days before approximately £2.5k entered my account and told me by sending me a cheque for the amount minus the "amount i owed" which according to them was about £90. I was a bit stuck to find ID for a bank account and my credit rating was too bad to just use the credit check for a current account somewhere else, so a friend of mine verified my ID for a Lloyds TSB basic bank account. The original amount overdrawn was about £12 or so, and since my student loan was late they kept adding charges over about 3 months intil it came to about £90. I did contact them about the matter and they could not help, despite me explaining that I didn't have a job as term time had started and that the loan was going to be late. Overall between about Nov 2002 and when they shut my account in May this year I know they have deducted a lot: many times it would be about half my monthly income, so then it would happen again because I'd need the money to travel to work. It would be nice to get the money back, but to be completely honest its the register on the credit rating that's been the real problem in all this, and trying to find a new bank account that would take their cheque quickly enough before the university suspended me for non-payment of fees. I'm going to read around a bit: I cannot find a template for the letter requesting my statements between nov 2002 and when my account was shut ( data protection act )... any help? Also I have a learning disorder that affects my organisational and short term memory skills - if it got to the court stage, can that be used against me? Thanks