I owe 88K 85k of it is the mortgage.

I been in debt as a student and got a couple of defaults but thats about it and its off my record now!!

Generally id say its your own fault you get into big debt unless its due to redundancy or sickness which is just bad luck.

The lenders have lent too much money. I think they should never have gone above the 3.5 x income. enforcing such limits would have reigned the housing market in a bit so it didnt spiral up as much.

getting a screwed up credit reference is completely different thing though. I had identity fraud back in 2000 and that took a year to fully sort out. Good job it happened really as it highlighted my credit file being linked to my brother!!!!