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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

How much debt are you in?

221 replies

Bottomlesspit21 · 24/03/2021 11:20

Following on from the savings thread, how much debt are you in?

Not including mortgage but including student loans, car finance etc.

I’m not in any debt but haven’t got much in savings either!

OP posts:
Magnificentmug12 · 24/03/2021 13:01

I have £650. Partner has £1100 and then we have a joint one to his mum of 11k!

Ouch!

MintyMabel · 24/03/2021 13:05

People make choices, then they have to live with them.

But presumably you can understand that not everybody has the same “choices” and often those choices are impacted by things out of their control. If you throw in a long term illness to your finely balanced life, it can knock you off course. The system is then designed against you.

People don’t always end up in debt because of bad choices. My husband discovered that one of his employers had fucked up his tax and he had underpaid quite a bit of tax over three years. He was given a month to pay it, asking HMRC to take it back through an adjusted code was unsuccessful. Not sure how many people have easy access to quite a significant amount of cash. Thankfully my parents stepped in and we paid them back over a couple of months, ironically because he was due a tax refund for the current year. He couldn’t possibly have known he’d been underpaying.

It is also true that if you’ve never had credit you will find it hard to get credit should you need it.

FinallyFluid · 24/03/2021 13:05

No mortgage.

£40 on a credit card.

It wasn't always like that, so those of you who are in debt take heart it can come around again.

KingdomScrolls · 24/03/2021 13:08

About 5k on credit card (0%) at the moment but that's related to ongoing renovations, we have the cash to cover it but I'm putting it all on the one card so I can track returns etc and will pay off once it's all finished at the same time we settle the trade bills.
Mortgage of course.

floofycroissant · 24/03/2021 13:11

£18k on student loans, and hopefully a mortgage soon. Nothing else.

JaceLancs · 24/03/2021 13:12

None just mortgage

Gastontheladybird2 · 24/03/2021 13:14

Name changed for this as it's embarrassing. 41k.

We don't have a mortgage or nice cars. Just years of bad luck, tough pregnancies, poor maternity leaves and here we are.

We are trapped in it. It's more than our annual house hold income. Blush

Juno231 · 24/03/2021 13:14

Got mortgage and student loan - nothing else. Never had any other debt either really. Saying that those two amount to 900kish so I think I've got plenty to get on with!

Vixivixen · 24/03/2021 13:15

Firstly I think the aggression towards the OP is plain weird. Frankly, it is really important that discussions about debt are normalised and not a source of shame. Refusing to talk about debt is not helping that. Why not be open and honest about what you owe and how you manage it, to support others to acknowledge their own debt challenges?

When left uni I did a year’s post graduate study and for a few years after I was £30k+ in debt due to self-funding fees, rent and excessive spending. This was despite working part-time throughout education. On top of that I owed around £15k in student loans. Never had any financial support at all from parents - I was a minority in that respect amongst my peers on our course! I was so ashamed of this that I didn’t seek advice on how to manage it. It was tough.

Thankfully I have had a great career and am now in a well paid job. All debts were cleared some years ago, we own a house, paid for our wedding and funded a mat leave comfortably.

Despite this I have still had to work on my relationship with money - again something people don’t talk about. Coming from relative poverty, I never learned how to manage my money and again it’s important that we are all included on conversations about managing money, whether or not we are wealthy!

Caramel81 · 24/03/2021 13:16

None except mortgage. It took me 6 years to get to this point though as I had around 18k in debt from payday loans and credit cards in my late 20s. The most stressful time of my life!

FinallyFluid · 24/03/2021 13:18

@MintyMabel

YY

It is also true that if you’ve never had credit you will find it hard to get credit should you need it.

We always have a few lines of credit available for emergencies, as our favourite saying in this house is.

In order to qualify for an overdraft, you must first prove to the buggers that you don't need an overdraft. Grin

So to that end we both have bank accounts and we both have credit cards from different banks.

dotdashdashdash · 24/03/2021 13:20

Student loan (me) - £6k
Finance on a bed - £350

That's it.

Bed is paid off in June (we could pay to off now, just can't be bothered). Student loan in about 4 years give or take.

We do have a huge mortgage though.

notmyactual · 24/03/2021 13:22

Changed my name for this. We have about £30k, my DH had a serious accident and was unable to work for 4 years. We even had to sell our house, things are better now but I can't see a way out of the debt and don't think we will ever own our home again. Its really upsetting but I am grateful he is alive and healthy now.

BarbaraofSeville · 24/03/2021 13:24

It is also true that if you’ve never had credit you will find it hard to get credit should you need it

This is why its a really good idea to get a credit card and use it. Nearly everyone should be able to get one from their own bank or a credit builder card for people without previous history.

Then a good credit history can be built up in a few months simply by putting a small amount of normal spending such as a tank of petrol on the card and paying it off in full by direct debit each month.

Costs nothing, nothing to do with spending money you don't have or getting into debt and can make getting a mortgage, or indeed a cheaper mortgage easier.

Plus a whole load of other advantages such as purchase protection, cheaper and easier to hire cars, cashflow management etc.

FinallyFluid · 24/03/2021 13:29

@BarbaraofSeville

It is also true that if you’ve never had credit you will find it hard to get credit should you need it

This is why its a really good idea to get a credit card and use it. Nearly everyone should be able to get one from their own bank or a credit builder card for people without previous history.

Then a good credit history can be built up in a few months simply by putting a small amount of normal spending such as a tank of petrol on the card and paying it off in full by direct debit each month.

Costs nothing, nothing to do with spending money you don't have or getting into debt and can make getting a mortgage, or indeed a cheaper mortgage easier.

Plus a whole load of other advantages such as purchase protection, cheaper and easier to hire cars, cashflow management etc.

I know this, but the younger me that got into debt didn't.

This is why IMO these threads are to my mind important, people learn things from them.

ilovesooty · 24/03/2021 13:32

@Funnyface1

I've seen this kind of thread a lot and I've never seen the op get such a hard time.

0 debt, just mortgage.

Perhaps people are just getting a bit sick of it, particularly in the current economic climate.
Bagelsandbrie · 24/03/2021 13:33

@notmyactual

Changed my name for this. We have about £30k, my DH had a serious accident and was unable to work for 4 years. We even had to sell our house, things are better now but I can't see a way out of the debt and don't think we will ever own our home again. Its really upsetting but I am grateful he is alive and healthy now.
FlowersFlowers
PurBal · 24/03/2021 13:33

@Flowers24

Stop being nosy, thought it was a support post for those of us in debt not a 'look at me i have no debt but would love to look down on those that do!'
Agree
VestaTilley · 24/03/2021 13:34

Student loan only, about £150 a month or so, a couple of years left to go. No other debt in this house.

If we want something we save and pay for it that way.

peachgreen · 24/03/2021 13:34

None but only because DH died and his death in service repayed any debts as well as paying a big chunk off the mortgage. Would rather have DH though, a million times over.

Flowers24 · 24/03/2021 13:34

So sorry Peachgreen xx

TitOfTheIceberg · 24/03/2021 13:35

I'm not now apart from a comparatively small mortgage, but I was previously, to CCJ level and a debt of around £18k, and it took 10 long years and temporarily getting off the property ladder in order to pay it all off. Since paying it all off I've occasionally dipped into my overdraft (always paid off within the month) but I'm very debt-averse now.

I grew up with parents who had a fairly irresponsible attitude to money and debt, so I had to learn good money management skills the hard way.

Kitkat151 · 24/03/2021 13:39

Mortgage paid off
£195 on my Argos card

takingmytimeonmyride · 24/03/2021 13:41

Mortgage

Overdraft on old joint account with ex of about £4.5k.

My mum was very very crap with money - she was always getting loans and credit cards and more loans to pay off the credit cards, and more credit cards to pay off the loans, for her whole life.

I don't have an overdraft now, and I don't have a credit card.

LakieLady · 24/03/2021 13:41

None, thankfully.