For the first time in my adult life I am debt free

[Atruh567]

Have name changed as I really don't want this to sound goady with everything going on in the world but I'm just so happy relieved and need to vent somewhere.

Our debt problems were 100% my fault (well dh and I but more me)

At 18 I got my first credit card with £1000 limit, first thing I bought was a £200 coat and that was the start of the debt, 22 years later (I've just turned 40) I feel like I've finally paid the coat off. The coat of course is long gone! I think I left it behind at a party shortly after buying it.

That £1000 limit was hit within weeks so I took out another credit card and everything got out of control from there. When I met dh we never had a fancy lifestyle, we were paying minimum payments then using the cards up to their limits again just to buy food.

Every so often we would manage to get a loan to clear out feet but would use the cards for "emergency's" and the cycle would start again.

I think the worst we probably had was a couple of loans and about six credit cards all coming to about 40k debt. Our credit ratings were mud and we don't own our own home.

At one point a few years ago I got into a bad cycle with payday loans and couldn't sleep at night worrying about how we would every get out the mess we were in.

The last few years I have managed to work more hours to start paying the debt off, our credit ratings are slowly recovering.

Today Dh has had a redundancy payout from his previous employer.

We've paid off the rest of the debts and for the first time ever in our years together we have no debt plus a good chunk in savings.

I still don't think we'll get a mortgage anytime soon as we have so many defaults that are only two years old so will have another four years before they drop off our records but once he's started his new job hopefully we can take some advice on the best way to go forward.

I don't even know why I'm posting. I just can't believe we are finally out of that hell. I used to lie awake at night and have such dark thoughts and couldn't see any way out of the mess we were in,

I know it was our own doing but a few stupid mistakes when we were so young has had such a huge impact on our lives all our 20's and 30's.

I dread to think how much I have paid back in interest and charges over the years. Tens of thousands I would imagine.

Brilliant! Well done

Sounds like it’s been incredibly stressful.
Well done, best of luck with building up to where you want to get to.

Amazing, well done!

Well done. It must be a lovely feeling.

Well done! Enjoy the relief!

I know the feeling - not quite in your shoes but I had a debt to pay off when starting my business and the feeling on the day I transferred in the final balance was amazing!

Well done! It’s a great feeling!

Well done! This will be us in April next year, all going to plan. So I understand your relief/excitement.

Well done!

Well done for persevering! 💛

Well done!
I’m in a very similar situation. I will be debt free in June which will be the first time since I got my first credit card at 18 (40 now).

Bloody brilliant. Well done 💐

WELL DONE!

You will never forget this date.
It took me 25 years to get out of the debt I took on to enable the divorce to go through. So I get it. The chasing letters, the phone calls. Awful.
Hearty congratulations from me!

This is fabulous, op. You must feel wonderful! Well done for taking control and getting this sorted.

Congratulations! Should be us within the next 3 months - I cannot wait

Excellent. Well done.

Congratulations op, that's a massive achievement and your right to feel fantastic about it

What a great day! Well done you that is amazing and not goady at all. Actually quite nice to read.

Such a familiar story, I remember the barclaycard stall at the freshers fair when I started uni, giving away free popcorn makers if you signed up. Disgusting and shouldn’t have been allowed. So many people were fucked with several credit cards’ worth of debt by the time they left uni.

That must feel like a huge weight off your shoulders! Enjoy being debt-free

I loved that date I was in debt from 19-39 now have no debt apart from mortgage and have savings.

Thank you everyone, I feel really emotional reading your messages.
I think my lowest point was when I had to pull the lead out the house phone unless I was using it as the calls were non stop, at the same time I'd taken out a provi doorstep loan to buy the new terms uniform for my daughters (this is going back about 10 years and there wasn't as much help or understanding for families struggling I felt then but maybe I was just too ashamed to look) and we had to shut the curtains whenever we were home and not answer the door, plus I was behind with my electric bill and they kept calling to put in a prepayment meter but I was so scared of not having the cash to top it up as well as pay the debt back that I put them off for as long as possible.
The thing is though my dh had a good job and I always felt so ashamed that we were in that position.
He had a decent wage and we didn't get any help with tax credits etc but because his work moved us around a lot and he could be away for weeks/months at a time I couldn't get a job till our children were a bit older.
Once his wages went in at the start of the month and everything was paid we had to survive on very little till the child benefit went in then that had to do us until the next pay day.
Every consolidation loan or credit increase felt like it was giving us breathing space to juggle things but it never worked.
For years our over draught was so big our account was never in credit, the wages went in but we were still in the red,