19 years ago I took out a loan of £30,000, how I ever was allowed to borrow this amount of money because I was only earning £20/21k (from memory) I don't know. Anyway I was paying it back - £500 a month for a couple of years. Then I got made redundant - struggled a bit didn't make repayments but then I went self employed and started doing quite well, for another two years I was probably paying £800 a month off these debts. Then - the crunch point - I got pregnant had my first child in early 2009 - and when I went back to work there was no work. My industry had been decimated by the credit crunch/ financial crisis. I've never quite got back on track. Through the Step Change charity I was advised to pay a minimum amount, it ended up being a £1 (I was convinced I would get my business back on the road again), I paid £1 a month until 2017. Now in the meantime I met my DH got married and his family gave us a lump sum to help buy a house. DH earns good money - but not enough for me to ask him to pay off this debt. In the last few weeks I've finally got my business back on track. Funnily enough I've had a letter from the agency that bought the loan. They are saying they are going to take me to court. This is worrying me because - yes I can afford to make repayments but the debt is not on my credit record. I don't pay anything towards our mortgage - my husband does but I'm a joint owner of our house. If I start paying it back will it appear again on my credit record. I'm so worried about this. Basically I worked out I paid about £25,000 of the £30,000 and the £20,000 they are now saying I owe is probably mostly interest - although they did stop interest on it.