Anyway, just wanted to pass on a positive outcome:
B. May 2006, discharged a year later, 3 years' IPA.
I've just plodded on since then; stuck to the very simple way of budgetting my money that I began in early 2006, don't owe a penny.
Off and on, especially post IPA, I tried for the odd mobile phone contract and so on, and was turned down.
A couple of times I tried to sort out my CRFs but the systems seem to struggle to find my addresses - there have only been 2 but they've been routinely mis-spelt by companies; although I've declared every variation on application forms for the statutory reports, because the postcodes are the same, they only ever find the most recent one, not earlier variants.
A couple of weeks ago, I grabbed the bull by the horns and tried to get a new mobile phone contract through Phones4U. After a bit of jiggling around - they still couldn't find all my credit identity - I came away with an iPhone 5 and a monthly contract. Nice one.
Last week, the elderly car gave up the ghost. I've had 2 elderly cars since the OR took my much newer one. I still think it was pretty borderline that they took it, in terms of value and the fact that I need 24/7 transportation for work, but in the face of a pretty good IPA in return for £50k+ of debt, I'd decided not to rock the boat.
I'd long planned that I wouldn't do any more repairs on this one, and would seek out a lease-hire option. I meant to have another go at the CRFs first but the sudden demise of the car overtook me. I found one, got a test drive (nice) and set the ball rolling. Then I got the "we have a problem" phone call - turned out they couldn't find my whole credit history at this address because of the issues I've mentioned. Happily, I don't throw out utility bills or pay slips and could send plenty ID.
I heard yesterday that the finance house is happy, and that my car is on its way!
I Will get to the CRFs - although how I manage to deal with the address confusion I don't know at all, I've tried - but in my happy mood today, I wanted to share what seemed impossible in the gloom of 6 years ago - there is life at the end of the tunnel! Hang on, you Will come out the other end!