To think living in overdraft is the norm?

[user1490465531]

Beginning to think it was just me.
Despite working I am always in my overdraft a week before pay day.
I have paid it of before only to be in it the next month.
Speaking to people it seems very common due to rising costs of living and no wage increase.
AIBU to think unless you have a fantastic paid job you will living in your overdraft.
I live a pretty basic life apart from odd treat so not exactly due to extravagant lifestyle don't own car don't go on holidays etc.

^ I meant to add that I wasn’t eligible for an overdraft.

I've only ever had one overdraft.
I was about 20 and went into it and the interest was beyond a joke. It frightened me so much that I swore to myself that I'd never get into any debt other than a mortgage.

I lived in my overdraft when I was a student. I had a £2k overdraft capability and it took me about 3 years post graduation to get out of it and stay out and that was only because we moved somewhere significantly cheaper. I had a credit card when I was a student and got into debt, it ended up being £200 so not huge but I hated it. Paid it off and never had one since.

I hate debt. I haven't been in the overdraft consistently since I paid it off and only dipped into it once or twice. I feel anxious being in debt but having the overdraft availability gives a little bit of security knowing that it's there (even if expensive) should the worst happen.

I don’t have one. OH doesn’t either. I got into so much debt when I was 18, just before people started properly regulating what they lent you, £2000 over draft, £1000 on one credit card, £1500 on another plus a £4000 loan. My dad cleared it all for me and I spent the next 7 years paying him back every single penny. I Know how lucky i am to have a father who was in the position to do this for me.

We have one credit card currently, which has a £15,000 limit, and we owe nothing on it. It’s for emergency’s only.

Debt makes me feel panicky.

I used my loads as a student and gradually got out of it over my first year of working and managed to stay out. Now that I'm PT after having DD was definitely find that I sometimes skip back into it just before pay day. I definitely live right up to my means now.

I no longer have an overdraft. Once you're in it, it's hard to get back out again if your wages are the same every time.
I now run two current accounts, one for all my bills, petrol and groceries, my spending money goes into the other. I'm still terrible at budgeting though!

I worked as much as I could as a student to clear mine every summer. Not been it since.

Ditto credit cards, unless 0% and then it's emergency purchases, paid back quickly.

I'm not good feeling in debt. It's not my money, so I don't feel happy spending it.

I don't have a overdraft

When the DH and I started work in 1979 we were told by some incredibly frugal and solvent friends that when they started out they found themselves in overdraft at the end of the month for eleven years.

We were amazed as they had seemed so comparatively well off. However, we found ourselves in exactly the same boat. After about a decade we started to pull away from living from month to month.

Fast forward and we are not too badly off at all. We plunged back into a hand to mouth situation when the kids were younger and we insanely decided to pay them through good prep schools (best investment ever and do not regret it) and then were better off. Another dip in finances happened when the DC hit university and, again, we got on a more even keel.

If you read Henry Mayhew’s ‘London And the London Poor’ he outlines how finances in the nineteenth century varied throughout life depending on circumstances and things have hardly changed at all since then. Sadly, he points out that being retired and unwaged is a time of poverty so get that pension in place!

No for me.
LP, although I have a small mortgage and the dc's dad has always paid maintenance which keeps our heads above water.

I lived in overdraft for about 9 years when the kids were young. It was normal to me then and normal for lots of my friends.
I don't think I realised it was stressing me out until I was ale to live without it-which I am just about doing now.

We were scary far into our overdraft recently. We were working in another country and had to come back home quickly and put the tickets through on our overdraft. Long story. We are almost out of it now but has been a scary and tough few months.

Most people I know who I have discussed this with are in their overdraft at some point during the month to different degrees. It is high cost of housing and transport on wages that have been frozen for ages that does it for most of these people. They have no extra to save and so if anything goes wrong, they have to use whatever credit they have.

I don't have an overdraft but everything goes on my credit card and gets paid off he next month. This month with holidays and school uniform, it is more than my salary so I will have to transfer some Money in from what's left of my savings. I few years ago I could pay into my ISA but I haven't been able to do that since I had my kids (about the same time as the recession began).

It should not be the norm, and if you are always a similar amount overdrawn each month, then try to think of ways to save that amount over a month or so. Not nice to forego the odd treat but if only for a few weeks, perhaps an option.

One of the other things that I am sure impacts is that there is not the culture of saving, and also student loan repayments. The idea floated last year that everyone should have about three months income at least in savings to cover genuinely unforeseen matters should be achievable, and would be if it were not for high housing costs and stagnating wages.

On page 9 ... out of my peer group half of us in debt with overdrafts and credit card debts the other half are not . We all earn between 17k and £ 80k.... guess which group are always in debt.... the problem with answering a post like this and only saying how great you are is missing the point ... and lacked empathy with the poster ...
Some people are more fortunate than others and some people are not knocked sideways by changes in fortune and circumstance ... enjoy your odd treat you will get there in the end ... if you give up your fags do it for your health and best of luck

Your bank can send you text messages when you are getting near to no money in your account. Is there anything that you can cut down or reduce or earn more ?

I have a £100 overdraft and sometimes go into it at the end of the month. Only by about £20. Don't have a credit card

We have never had any debt. We have a credit card and debit card. My husband is disabled and I am his carer, so we don't have a great deal of money.

We have never even come close to being in debt.