How much debt are you actually in?

[Drea1984]

Over £2500 to British Gas - I paid monthly then was hit with this shock bill after 12 months
£600 overdraft
£200 Klarna / Clearpay

Re your British Gas problem. This happened to me. 2k. A nightmare

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.

My child (grown up now) has 81k of student debt. Works as a solicitor but I’m still staggered at how it’s so much?

 

[JoeBloggs]

We have our mortgage of about £240k. We borrowed £17k of my parents for renovations and a new car (husbands set fire the day we completed!) and finished paying that back last year.

We have about £30k in the bank, we did have more but we’ve just paid a hefty vet bill

Neither me or my husband like to borrow money and everything is paid for outright or we don’t have it. I have multiple income which that plus having those saving was a godsend as I’ve earn about 12 days income since April!

 

[Casperron]

Over £2500 to British Gas - I paid monthly then was hit with this shock bill after 12 months
£600 overdraft
£200 Klarna / Clearpay

 

[Silly Sausage]

Paid off my student loan earlier this year. It's great to finally be without debt. I can hardly believe it

 

[hlgray]

I’m curious how much of debt comes from poor money education. I’ve recently been helping my mum with her finances and they are a mess. All through my teenage years I remember my dad throwing money around- though we had none and then my mum getting into debt to clean up his messes.
I lived in my OD all the way through uni up until I was in my late twenties. It was only when I had my baby I sorted my money out. I do have bits and pieces of debt (car loan etc) but I know what I have now when for years I wouldn’t even check my bank balance because money made me so terrified.

I definitely think poor money education has a lot to do with it. I grew up poor, with my parents living to pay check to pay check. They would argue about money constantly, but were terrible at sticking to a budget. I am now trying to learn how to manage my money and budget etc

 

[9lives]

6,000 from loans from being taken to court by ex could not get legal aid. It was 10.000 two years ago so feel I am making progress. 100 on Next. I am trying to be debt free end of 2021. Feels suffocating and I want to buy my own home for my child as i am a single parent. My close friend advised me not to file for bankruptcy in 2018 and I am so grateful to her. Sometimes when your debt seems to you impossible you need some independent advice. She knew my dream was to get a mortgage and sometimes debt can make is act very emotional and rash. Good luck to any one clearing their debt, it takes time but when you see it reducing it's a wonderful feeling.

 

[Sp20191]

2k mostly student loan tho

 

[KerChing]

We have overpaid it as much as we could in the 5 years we've been here. Our hope is to be mortgage free within the next 3 years

That’s amazing! We have 26 years left! I’m 43

 

[TheMeg]

Intrigued as to salary vs debt.

I have a mortgage of £150k and salary of 30k anyone in a similar situation?

 

[midnightrose]

Combine we earn £65k a year, pretty much on the same wages.
We also work overtime so that was used in the calculations of our mortgage as we worked overtime for six consecutive months

Not that I’m comparing or competing at all, but we’ve got a combined income of 95k (Possibly 97k as I’ve taken on a second job). We need to go back to our mortgage advisor this year to see what we’d get accepted on, but I know my partner is keen not to have too high a mortgage. We want to be able to have a good lifestyle rather than paying for an expensive home. Thx for replying x

 

[Omghon]

£16k business loan, £8k on 2 credit cards (no longer in use but slowly paying off), been a home owner for just over a year so I have a large mortgage to pay and a car on finance for 3 years

 

[mRu]

New poster here but this topic is so relevant to me I thought I'd post.
Between me & my husband we've got 113k mortgage (260k house), 12k loan for work van over 4years, 1.8k credit card which will be paid off in the next couple months, plus a couple hundred on my Very account which was just Xmas presents.
We are currently looking to buy a fixer upper house, so paying off as much debt as poss, use our equity to pay for some Reno & then loans or credit card the rest.

I've always been brought up to only borrow what you can afford, and I always shop around & avoid impulse buying. If it's a cost over £100 then do research & find a deal. My parents didn't always have money, they bought my nappies instead of eating on some days, but worked their way up to middle class, so I've never felt "poor" but taught to be careful. It's one of the best things they could've taught me tbh as lots of my friends are terrible with money!

 

[crankypants]

thank you! I’ll do that in the next few weeks - we are looking to relocate from London to the North West Area so I may call in both areas. Our deposit is there and ready to go so it’s all dependant on what the lenders will give us, Ive done the calcs and the mortgage repayment that we are looking as well as my DMP are easily affordable within my salary alongside a standard of living.
Wish me luck!

Try and use one local to you that knows the local area as they’ll understand the property market there better. Google search “whole of market mortgage brokers near me” and make sure they are whole of market as you don’t want anyone tied to places like St James’s Place etc as they’ll be restricted in the lenders they can approach... you want choice from across the board rather than a selected panel. All brokers should be adept at dealing with adverse credit.

Phone about a few and have a chat... see who you get a good vibe with and who listens to you. The initial phone call will tell you about the type of person you’re dealing with - you want someone who listens to you and takes a genuine interest in you and your situation, as opposed to someone who just sees a fee coming in when you sign up.

 

[Sophiab1995]

• #177

im in a very similar situation, I have a 4 month old. Do you have a local sure start children’s centre? Mine offer free citizen advice appointments where someone can help you with these questions. I get help towards my child care to be able to go back to work as I earn too much to get other benefits. But you may be able to get help that you don’t know about. Worth a try and every bit helps as it’s so hard to cover everything isn’t it x

I’ve contacted uc and got an appointment with them, told work I’m going back beginning of March I just need to find a nursery do you know how to get help with Nursery costs? It really is hopefully I’ll get every thing sorted by next week xxx

 

[Tiantian1005]

Oh dear I must have more debts than most here - mortgage just over one million left to pay. No other debt..

 

[PoleStar]

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.

That's terrible, young people shouldn't have to start out in their working lives with debt like that, it's cruel. My brother was the only one in my family to go to uni, neither my sister nor I were interested. My brother received a grant (not a loan, a grant) but that was back in 1984. To me it seems like our education system is going backwards in some respects as those frightening sums of debt must be putting off really bright youngsters from less well off families even considering studying at uni and that is everyone's loss ultimately as the young are our future.

 

[jackolantern]

About £4000 across different 0% cards and student overdrafts, my partner has about the same. Also all my student loans but I don't worry about them in comparison. My debt hasn't gone up now in a couple of years, but it equally hasn't gone down, the pandemic has helped none in that department. Debt stinks. It sounds like such a small amount of money and realistically it is, except when you don't have it.

 

[Trixabellee9393]

I’m in my overdraft around 1500 and I have my student loan trying desperately to pay the over draft of but I just seem to stay there at a steady 1500 ish as soon as I nearly do it I get random expenses like vet bills etc xx

 

[Fofoca]

Mortgage and I’ve got about £600 on the credit card (I use it for daily expense, everything) but I pay that off in full every month

 

[KerChing]

Wow I’m quite shocked at all the debt. I went to uni in the 90s before tuition fees came in but I borrowed £5k plus in student loans for living costs over 3 years. I paid it back when I was 30.

After uni, I got a job 30 miles away so had to buy a car. I got a graduate loan but the car was old & shit & after throwing more & more money at it, I got a bigger loan & bought a nearly new little car. I paid it off over 5 years.

The above both put me off loans & borrowing money in general. We have a mortgage but that’s it. We used to always buy my husband’s car (he drives a lot for his job) on a 0% credit card & pay off the minimum each month then more if/ when we could. He doesn’t buy fancy/ expensive cars. Now we save up for it. We don’t go on holiday unless we have the money or buy anything we’d have to borrow for.

I was brought up poor & I think it skews your attitude towards money. It’s definitely made me a bit weird