How much debt are you actually in?

[LifeOfRiley]

I owe £55 on my Very and about the same amount on my credit card. I’ll pay these off at the end of the month.

I used to be about £2k in debt on a store card that I got pressured into signing up and I thought it was great - I was a student at uni at the time and would be buying clothes all the time. I didn’t have the money to pay it off in full so the interest racked up... thankfully when I was working I set up a plan with them to pay off £100 each month and then I decided to pay it off in a lump sum. It’s affected my credit score quite bad (was around 4 years ago) so hoping it will get ‘erased’ after year 6 (think that’s the case)?

Eta; I’m about £45-50k in debt with my student loan which I haven’t paid off yet.

Yes 6 years is right. Before my mortgages back in 2010 I had my last bad debt default disappear.

 

[midnightrose]

Right now I'm down to £235. I rent, dont have a car, don't have any savings and very little 'fun' money each month (wages vary month to month so it can range between £20to £100 going spare) when all the bills are paid. I've had some huge expenses the last 18months, paying for my mum's funeral, moving house. I'm slowing putting as much as possible into doing up my new place. But it's a lot of pressure tbh. I loathe my boyfriend having to pay for something as simple as cinema tickets and the varying wage is anxiety inducing. I am looking for something else BTW before anyone suggests it

I’m sorry for your loss x

 

[Bumblebee]

I’ve learned my lesson the hard way. Got into debt with store cards and credit cards and luckily my dad was able to bail me out to the tune of £10k as my repayments were as much as i earned back in 1994/5. (Worked in a bank whilst at uni earning £500’a month)

Have been careful ever since but still have put about £250 on clearpay over Christmas. Mainly things I wasn’t sure if we would keep or ordering multiple items for the teens thinking we would return most of it and of course as it was Christmas feeling generous and letting them keep most of it. Will pay most of it before it’s due this month as don’t like having it hanging over me.

I have an emergency credit card locked away. And I still don’t allow myself credit as I can’t be trusted. I just like to shop so have to remove temptation.

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

I have £100 on and amex, I use it as you earn cash back and then the end of the week I will pay it all off.
I’m lucky as we have no debts, even the mortgage us paid off.
However I’m 38 and my partner is 50. For a long time we drove really shit cars, had cheap holidays and did not live extravagantly. Simply so we could clear the mortgage etc.
Now our income is simply disposable. However about half is given to both our families to help out

 

[Not fussed]

I got into debt during university. As a household our income was high (mums partner earned a lot). However the man had a strong dislike towards me and even when I lived at home never spoke to me.
Anyway, due to his income I got minimum student loan which just about covered my rent.

Bills, food and of course the obligatory drinking was funded from a student loan overdraft.

Then got into private renting on a low income.
Total debt around the £10,000 mark

 

[hereforthecomments121]

Long time lurker first time poster here. Interested in people’s replies on this topic to see if my situation is normal. I’m 33, single mum to 16 year old since the age of 18. I have 2 credit cards (around £2000 each) very account of £750 and a £250 overdraft. Rented home and two jobs. Trying really heard to pay it off but there’s always something.

Fairly normal

 

[Lynseyp]

Absolutely shit tons of debt. Embarrassing amounts.

We’ve recently changed bank accounts that has lots of helpful things with it so for the past few months I’ve been running our current account much better and so I really think 2020 is the year we take a good chunk of it off and move forward.

It breaks my heart to think of the lovely things we could be doing with the payments we make on it each month

There are alot of charities that can give you useful information. When i took on too much debt there was a company called Step Change (Citizen Advice also good) they were brilliant and informative, i didn't go with them as i had a management plan with the creditor in question so didn't require their help.

 

[50sGirl]

Good grief, what sort of uni course means racking up £50K of student debt? Genuinely interested, not being critical. I know some courses take years - veterinary surgeon 7 years, for example.

Tuition fees are over £9000 per year now. If you get the full maintenance loan (no longer a grant so now needs paying back) that’s a further £8-9000 per year. A Masters is 4 years.
£18000 x 4 = £72000.
My son changed university after year 1 so at the end of it he will have been studying for 5 years and accrued about £87000 worth of debt.
I find it sad because we, as his parents, have zero debt and he will be starting out in life with such a huge student debt. Plus they get charged interest from day 1, even though they are unable to start paying it back until after they graduate.
I dread to think how much it will be once that is added on.

 

[Hinchhater1442]

For people who like visuals Fox and Moon have a really useful budget planner, they have an IGTV video talking you through all the pages so you can see it all to know if it would benefit you or not

 

[Hendrix]

Sorry I know this is an old thread, but I’m not able to create a new thread for some reason.

Has anyone ever had their wages arrested due to council tax arrears? I have a repayment plan set up with a council tax debt agency and my payment didn’t go out last month and I didn’t realise (silly I know I should be checking my account more often)

I received a letter this morning from the agency saying they have written to my employer to set up an earnings arrestment so I phoned the agency to find out what was going on and they said they don’t contact you to advise a payment has been missed and it is up to the customer to check, I understand where they are coming from but just seems a bit extreme they have now contacted my employer.

They said I need to pay the missed payment plus the earnings arrest fee which is fine I can do that when I get paid at the end of the month but I just wondered if anyone had ever been in the same situation?

I’m really embarrassed and anxious that my employer is now going to find out about this debt.

 

[Mrs Cucumber]

I am about £200 into my overdraft (a planned overdraft but still get daily charges!!)
I owe Studio about £150 and simply be about £200.

We have a mortgage but my husband pays that as I don't work, our cars are owned outright. My husband earns good money and pays me 'keep" of £125 a week but out of that I have to do the food shop for a family of 4, 2 cats and a dog, my phone bill and Anything the kids needs for school, it abrely touches the sides to be honest.

Wish I could win the lottery and pay it all off even just a grand would be amazing I don't need need millions!

My dad died a few years ago, I was written out his will but we found he had life insurance of 60k, I put a claim in but not heard anything yet!

 

[Chocolate Caramel Brownie]

Would you mind me asking how long ago your payday loan was before you were rejected by lenders? I took about 3 payday loans out about 5 years ago now, they were paid back early and in full. I haven’t used any since but don’t know if this would have an impact if I try for a mortgage in the near future.

Mine was defiantly less than 2 years when I first applied for my mortgage. Halifax accepted me initially and took me right through to the valuation and then rejected me at the last minute. It was awful, I lost so much money in solicitors and I’d reserved my plot so I didn’t get any of the money back. Them pay day loans are so bad. Luckily there not as popular as they used to be. Good luck you should be fine with it being 5 years ago xx

 

[ispywithmylittleeye59]

Car loan - £3,600 ish
Student loan - £3,300 ish
Mortgage - £60k ish

And like £300 on my credit card

My aim is to be debt free (other than mortgage) in 15 months!

ETA - at the start of 2020 I had almost £4,000 of credit card debt which I paid off and now almost have enough saved to pay my car and student loans, but am just going to make my monthly payments for now. When I had all the credit card debt I felt so awful about it but I was consistent and making that last payment was the best feeling ever!

 

[Web30]

Joint mortgage with the husband, he pays it but its technically my debt as well.

Personally just a bit on the credit card which im fine with.

 

[Sp20191]

Further to post #31, I just wanted to give an update:

• I won my appeal for PIP against the DWP (they changed their decision before it even got to tribunal) and was awarded enhanced rate for both daily living and mobility. The award is also now 'ongoing' and won't be reviewed again until 2029 (the original decision was only for three years) That means I keep my Motability car and I'm over £260 a month better off with the money that I do see (the mobility part of PIP is paid straight to Motability) as I only received low rate care DLA previously.

• We increased the credit card payment to £1,100 plus interest every month and have just made the final payment today so we have cleared the first £10,000 of debt and we now have no credit card debt at all and actually have money left in our bank account every month rather than being overdrawn

• We still owe just over £19,000 to my partner's parents which we'll start paying back in September. If all goes to plan, we'll be debt free in 19 months or sooner (still no word on the other £3,500 we owe them but I intend to pay that back too)

• My plan to 'do something nice every month' obviously took a hit with Covid and virtually everything has been rescheduled for next year but at least we have lots to look forward in 2021 and it's all already paid for

Well done!!!

 

[Grenouille]

We only have our mortgage and my husband’s annual season ticket loan (work takes it out of his salary every month) now, but we went a bit crazy back in the day when we landed our first jobs after uni.
What I find really sad is the amount of people I read or hear about who need to borrow money just to survive. It’s heartbreaking.

 

[Scvee13]

Aged 32
Debt wise the mortgage has £58,724 left
Credit card has £550
Loans for house renovation £9031 left
Loan for my car £8,000
I have an overdraft but I don't use it. Aim to pay off the car loan in two years and the renovation loan is three years. Money that I save will go towards paying off the mortgage early. If we moved in the next two years like planned then we will have a profit from our home sale which will pay off both loans sooner.

 

[GiftedNotFree]

I manage to pay the minimum amounts of my debt each month - a loan and a couple of credit cards but don’t make any dents in them . If I spoke with Step change could they still help me as I’m not behind on payments and would this damage mycredit score? I do have a mortgage and my current rate runs out in March, if they offer me a further low rate will they do credit checks etc then? My income has also reduced after being put at risk of redundancy and accepting a lower paid role

Yes, they can help. If you go down the route of some form of debt solution, then yes it will affect your credit for 6 years. For example, If you put a DMP in place, the accounts would go into default and this would only be removed from your credit record after 6 years from the date of default.

As for the remortgage — some lenders do a new credit check but others don’t as it’s not a new application. Stepchange (and other debt charities) would be able to advise.

 

[Prodcon21]

tis dangerous!

Yup. All my Christmas pressies go on this. And then I Never fully clear it before the next Christmas!!

 

[Jedoc]

800 on a loan
1100 on a credit card
350 hospital bill
im hoping to have them all cleared by end of feb,i make more than enough to payback but am sO bad at managing money its embarrassing...New year new me