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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how much debt you are in?

776 replies

Sunshine3013 · 18/02/2021 07:04

Just that really.
Wondering how much debt the average person is in.. Including mortgage, loans, credit cards, overdraft?

Just curious!

OP posts:
Lifeispassingby · 18/02/2021 08:44

We have a lot more debt than I would like. Mortgage approx £125,000 left loans total about £4200, car finance is about £3500 and overdraft debt £2800 so £10,500 on to top of mortgage

Limmers14 · 18/02/2021 08:44

Agree with the posts that say a fair few of the responses here aren’t very realistic! I’m 29, have a good job and live in the SE. Most of my friends can’t get a mortgage on the property they want, never mind be mortgage free!

We’ve got a mortgage left of £380kish on a 2 bed, around £1000 on a credit card but will be paying that off next month with my fiancé’s backdated pay rise, we pay £200 a month for our car on lease and have various bits of interest free loans for things like our fridge and a big piece of furniture - probably have £500ish left to pay.

We’re really really fortunate and tend to get gifted money for birthdays and Christmas. We also have some savings and borrow from ourselves rather than putting things on credit card generally.

NotYourHolidayDick · 18/02/2021 08:44

Oh ffs.

Have some realism to the thread.

145k mortgage (40% LTV)
9k credit card one 0%
4k credit card two 0%
6.5k credit card three 0%
2k loan 1.9%

As you can see I pay very very little interest. The loan kills me even paying 1.9% but it was an old loan coming to an end and was a needs must at the time.

Payments are all easily affordable, I pay £1.5k ish off them all collectively every month.

About to do an extension to the house. I'm about £15k short in savings, so will whack that on 0% credit card too. I could save up and have the build started next year, but....long time dead aren't you.

My two massive 'things' are, pay 0 interest, and always have more than 50% equity in the house. All I'm doing is spending a bit of my equity on having fun. Watched too many people around me die in their 30s/40s to worry.

And I'm ready for the horrified posts about my attitude too Grin

WildOrchids67 · 18/02/2021 08:45

Around 40k on mortgage, about 11k in student loans, but I don't earn enough to make any significant difference to that. I do have a credit card but it's paid off in full every month. Nothing on finance.

frumpety · 18/02/2021 08:45

About 6k ish , just slightly over or under, not sure, spread across 2 store cards and one credit card. Really need to pay it off and could do easily in about 18 months, if I wasn't such a spendthrift !

userxx · 18/02/2021 08:45

@Tyranttoddler

I always read these threads and feel hideous about the debt I am in haha. I earn an OK salary but have been horrible with money (currently I am OK with money rather than horrible as I did a money course. But still not great). I have a mortgage and also 3.5k of credit card debt that we aim to pay off within 12 months and it has been a lesson to me (it was 6k) to live within my means as I would prefer to have that money now!!

Don't be too hard on yourself, getting in debt is the best lesson, sounds like you've changed your ways so well done. Where did you do the money course ?

QuothTheSlothNevermore · 18/02/2021 08:47

I think people answering these questions will generally be doing a bit better than average. IRL at the moment people have been telling me of shocking levels of debt.

We owe about £560K for our mortgage, and nothing on cards or loans, but that's only because DH just got 100K from an inheritance and we paid them all off and put the rest into savings and part of the mortgage.

Others have had to take out massive loans to keep their business afloat, or keep them going after their work dried up, even friends and family who have been very careful with their money up until now. I suspect that currently we don't know the full extent of what's been happening, but it will become clear quite soon.

yellow25 · 18/02/2021 08:48

I owe over £40,000 for my student loan but apart from that, about £1500 on a loan we took out to buy our car.

I don't quite see it as debt though as we have a considerable amount in savings, like we could have bought a car ourselves but we took the loan out to start up a bit of a credit score as we don't have credit cards.

We don't own a house yet, but we hope to buy by 2025. By this point we will be looking at putting down a 30% deposit, though maybe more depending on inheritance - I try not to think about that!

I don't think I'll ever pay off my student loan!!!

Lotuu · 18/02/2021 08:48

I’m finding it depressing that people have paid off student loans and I’m never ever going to be able to pay mine off.
Unless I win the lottery I won’t even come close to paying just the interest. Which is £100s a month.

NoBetterthanSheShouldBe · 18/02/2021 08:50

Only ever had mortgages, now paid off.

Magnificentmug12 · 18/02/2021 08:50

Mortgage 135k

Never had a debt until covid hit , now 10k debt.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 18/02/2021 08:51

Under 100k mkrtgage and few grand left over on business loan.
It was different at one point woth the mlrtgage, 15k business loan, 2k credit cards and another 4k loan.
I don't count student finance in though. Only things which I have to pay no matter how little, or if any, wages I make.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 18/02/2021 08:51

I don't think I'll ever pay off my student loan!!!

Most people don't.

sanityisamyth · 18/02/2021 08:53

Just student loan. I sold the house (finally) and put the equity into premium bonds. I can't get another mortgage until I've finished uni (again) so hoping to win a million in the meantime! I've paid off credit cards and other little things.

user1471462428 · 18/02/2021 08:53

I have mortgage of 80k and loan of 8k. My best friend has 200k mortgage and home loan 35k, and car loan of 5k. We are both mid thirties. I’m not gloating over our amounts as she earn 3 times what I do and has a husband.

Dress3 · 18/02/2021 08:54

Zero. But I'm quite old!

BarbaraofSeville · 18/02/2021 08:54

we took the loan out to start up a bit of a credit score as we don't have credit cards

Why didn't you just get credit cards and use them to pay your fuel bill each month, or some other regular essential and just pay for a car out of savings?

60sbird · 18/02/2021 08:56

None, brought house outright, no credit cards only use debit cards, all cars paid for in cash and a nice savings pot

Pyewhacket · 18/02/2021 08:59

@IsadoraMoon

Wow this is depressing, still have around £215k on our mortgage (have been paying it off for over 10 years) with no prospect of paying the whole thing off anytime soon....I wonder how so many people are mortgage free! It would be interesting to know what age people manage to pay off their mortgage, maybe I just live in a stupidly expensive area..
In my case we worked abroad for a few years when we graduated, initally just to raise enough of a deposit but we soon discovered we could earn significantly more but it was very long hours and pretty much 7 days a week, also property was a lot cheaper twenty years ago.
sunflowersandbuttercups · 18/02/2021 08:59

@yearinyearout

I owe money on credit cards but I have about 10x the amount in savings.

When you say you owe money on credit cards, do you mean you use them for day to day expenses and pay off the balance each month, or you're paying interest on them? If that's the case it makes no sense

I pay them off monthly Smile
Nnameechanged · 18/02/2021 09:00

Only mortgage. We have credit cards in case of a dire emergency but they're not used. We have savings we could use first id needed, so will hopefully never need to uae them.
We're not rich, but our cars are always bought outright second hand (under £1500 but good condition), we don't go on holiday much but tend to go in the UK when we do, and we don't buy much that's unnecessary as we prefer to save. It's not forced, we do like our takeaways and buy plenty for the kids and treat ourselves occasionally, but neither of us regularly buy things without a need.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 18/02/2021 09:00

I am always surprised how easily people get thousands and thousands of credit in UK tbh. I think that's bit of a problem. I don't know anyone from where I am from who would be in thousands on credit cards. Some have larger overdrafts which is an issue sometimes, but it's just not that xeasy" to get to some of the sums people can ge to here. It's interesting to comapre these things🤔
Even here it's interesting. I have ok wage, great credit score and barely any debt but I couldn't get 9k card limit, let alone similar on more cards (based on search, not actual applications so I don't doom my crrdit score)

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 18/02/2021 09:01

@BarbaraofSeville

I used my credit card yesterday and spent £78 so I'll transfer money kver this morning to pay for it

I never understand why people do this. Why not just set up a direct debit for the full amount to be cleared each month?

It's good to pay for everything on a credit card, because you can get points or cashback, improves your credit rating, gives purchase protection, and can help manage cashflow/stay out of overdraft so saves money and makes irregularities in spending easier to cope with (eg Christmas, car repairs, new appliances).

But why make extra work for yourself by making unnecessary manual payments?

Simples.... Sometimes, people just don't have enough money to clear their cc in a month.... Hence folk get into debt....

eg carrying over a 1500 debt, someone may only be able to make minimum/slightly more than payment monthly... Then they're also having interest added... It really can increase quite quickly.... This amount will take EIGHT years to pay off....

sunflowersandbuttercups · 18/02/2021 09:01

@jonny9487

I owe money on credit cards but I have about 10x the amount in savings.

That's just madness.

No it's not.

My savings accrue interest. My credit cards are currently interest free. When the deal runs out, I pay off the cards and end the period slightly in profit.

Nothing wrong with owing money on credit cards if you do it sensibly and use interest free deals to your advantage.

Lemonsyellow · 18/02/2021 09:03

I live in London. My two-bed house - well, flat - cost me 65k in the late ‘90s. I’ve never moved since then. That’s why it was paid off ages ago.