To ask how much, if any, credit people have?

[Allinadayswork80]

Not wanting to offend anyone, but having seen previous threads asking how much you you earn, etc. I hope this question wouldn’t be unreasonable to ask.

Curious to know how much credit/debt people have and what for? I was brought up with the attitude that if you can’t afford it, you don’t have it but I also have friends whose attitude is “life is too short and have what you want”. There’s lots of things I’d like, new clothes, upgraded furniture/white goods but we live within our means and generally only buy what we can afford or have saved for. Whereas we have friends with lovely newer cars, latest clothes, American fridge freezers with ice dispensers etc. all on credit. I personally would find this stressful. I’d love to know the general consensus on peoples’ attitudes towards credit and if I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face?

None. We have our salaries (not high earners) and some savings. I've never actually owned a credit card.
We live quite a simple life - shop at Lidl, don't go 'out out' much (enjoy walks by the beach and harbour), the odd takeaway or meal and we're not into designer clothes etc. We're happy though

We have a few store cards (Argos, Next etc) but owe nothing on them right now. We both have credit cards ohs has 0 on his (though he did just pay off £4K on it) and I owe £24 on mine. That £24 is pretty much the only debt we have other than the mortgage and £900 left to pay on a loan.

Should add that the total debt is circa £3k

I have access to thousands of pounds on credit cards. I spend on them every month (we buy everything on cc to get points). It gets paid off, in full, every month.
We have no debt other than the monthly cc bill.
I'm not totally clear what question you are asking - amount of credit available, or amount of stuff bought on credit (which basically means amount of debt?)

Just the mortgage.

Credit cards always paid in full at the end of the month, and we don’t buy anything we don’t have money in the bank for (though might use 0% credit cards to keep the money in our accounts for longer).

But we are in the very fortunate position of being able to do this & still have all the luxuries we could want.

We used to have heaps of debt and it was stressful.
I am lucky not to have any now, but I'm old and it took ages to get this stage of life.
Not rich though , just managing.

@Almostwelsh

I have a mortgage and a car loan. The car loan is because I got a 0% finance deal. But my next car I might well lease. It makes no sense to tie your money up in a depreciating asset with maintenance costs.

With a lease, I get a new car under warranty that won't cost me unpredictable amounts in repairs and the lease company takes the risk on the residual value when I get rid of it. Which I think is important if we consider how car technology is changing so much with the move towards electric vehicles.

Unless you do very low mileage that is. We buy secondhand cars in vgc cheaper (& no instant depreciation) use a few years and sell again. Costs far less overall.

The only credit/debt I have is mortgage and student loan.

Mid 30s couple, join income of £50k, with 2 dc, small mortgage, 2 cars.

We have made a conscious decision that if we can't afford something we will save until we can pay for it rather than taking credit. I realise we could be hit with a situation where our modest savings won't cover it but the only thing I could think that we couldn't pay for outright might be a new car, or if one of us was unemployed or unable to work for an extended period, although we are insured.

Mortgage and student loan (but not sure if that’s really debt, more a tax as per Martin Lewis’s advice).
I have about £7000 available credit and nothing on there.
Having had debts previously and used overdrafts a lot I am much more frugal these days.
However we are about to take on some debt to finish renovating our house. Getting quotes in but expecting £15-20k total, probably a 3-5y loan. It seems much more expensive to add it to the mortgage because the interest is multiplied over a much longer period. I think a lot of people fail to understand basic principles of interest.

Credit (amount available to me to borrow) is £30500.

Debt (amount I owe to lenders) is £3650.

£5000 on a credit card built up during my current maternity leave. It will be paid back over the year of being back at work. No car loan or anything like that.

Mortgage free, no credit card debts or any others. Credit card paid off in full each month.

None apart from our mortgage. We live quite frugally and keep our committed monthly outgoings down as much as possible as it gives us the freedom to have choices. We dream of living overseas and would love to just be able to rent our house out and up and go.

10 years ago DH left his job and took one that was more satisfying but paid much less. We couldn't have done that if we spent what we earned and were paying off a car or a sofa.

6 years ago I had to give up work to become a full time carer for DD who was 14 at the time. Our income halved overnight and we relied on savings while we readjusted to the lower income and sold everything we could to make ends meet. I can't imagine how we'd have managed if we'd had loans or had been committed up to our eye balls. It's scary how quickly life can change.

Just the mortgage and a £300 overdraft that has not been used in several years.
When I was young I had credit cards and bought a new car with a loan, when we had a child sooner than planned it all made life very difficult. Took years to clear the daft debts and I swore never to do those things again, I save for things instead.

@StEval

Credit is the amount you can borrow Debt is the amount you owe. I think you mean debt Op?

To maintain a good credit rating I have mobile phone contracts and I shop on a CC which gives me vouchers.
Paid off in full each month.
No mortgage, car cost 5.5K paid cash.

Yes, this is what I meant, what do people have ON credit / finance or as you say, how much debt. I’m just curious to know if/how people use credit.

I think you’ll get a very biased response here, OP.

I also want to say something to the “I was brought up if you can’t afford it you don’t buy it” posters...

I also think that there’s a lot of misunderstanding on this thread about how credit it used by many- particularly since the pandemic.

When I separated from my H, I was still (quite early) on maternity leave. I had to use my credit card to relocate my son and I 300 miles to a different city. I had no job to go to. I took very little with me.

I ran up CC bills on... 3 months rent in advance, a whole new house of furniture (just average, most second hand, nothing naice), living expenses for the last 4 months I took of mat leave- food, nappies, public transport ...

I then found a job and went back to work early- but tax credits didn’t NEARLY cover the shortfall in 30 hours free- so I topped up nursery fees on... my credit card.

And guess what? By the time DS was 1, after leaving a toxic relationship, relocating to a town with little by way of a support system, working 50-60 hour weeks and breastfeeding all night so serious sleep deprivation- I’d unsurprisingly begun to experience some increasingly serious MH issues. The NHS said it would be months for a counsellor or therapist. Did I want drugs to tide me over?

No I didn’t want drugs. So I paid for private therapy ... on my credit card! It saved my life. No regrets. But it cost me.

But ... None of these were purchases I WANTED to make- but had to- I figured getting back to work faster would mean I could get back to my pre-maternity salary quicker, and it would effectively be a debt run up at point a), to get us ahead in future . Paying for therapy kept me at work, kept me earning, kept me moving forward...

I don’t have a car. I don’t go on holiday. I don’t have nice things. I don’t get my nails done. I don’t go out to the pub etc. I don’t have loads of tech and gadgets- just what I need for my job. Credit for me filled a gap between the cost of living and my salary and tax credits- which as a median earning lone parent with a baby/toddler and long working hours/high childcare costs - was significant.

Anyway- I just think people need to be mindful that not all credit is frivolous. Not everyone who lives on credit is doing so without understanding what it means. Not everyone has a choice- particularly if you fall into the gap between benefits eligibility and the real terms living wage.

And this will only happen more as the cost of living continues to increase whilst wages stagnate.

Single parents are particularly susceptible to being caught in this trap, for reasons most often beyond their control.

So please before you post a sanctimonious “I was brought up if you can’t afford it you don’t have it” statement- think about what that means. For me that would have meant:

• a house with no furniture with an under 1
• less nursery hours restricting my employment opportunities
• no therapy- meaning long term medication and debilitating MH issues

For others that will mean not buying food, school uniforms, warm coats for kids...

Poverty looks very different in 2022- it’s time to people started opening their eyes to that, and being a bit more compassionate.

I've just taken out (and spent) £31k of credit for the first time in 20 years to get a rental up and running

Totally terrified as not had debt for such a long time

Mortgage only now after getting myself into terrible debt around 10 years ago. I have one credit card with a 0 balance and £15000 available credit but it’s only used as a back up when travelling.
If I ever feel like using it other than for that then I will get rid of it

A mortgage. I don't have any credit cards or loan. I did, but I found myself in that rut of only paying off the minimum amount each month and just having that balance hanging over me. I got them clear by cutting back massively on buying crap and going out and now won't have any.

Just our mortgage. But I'm in my 50s, both DH and I earn well above average and so have significant savings and live well within our means without having to skimp.

I owe a few thousand on my car still, and we have a mortgage, but it’s about two thirds of our annual salary left, and I could pay my car off if I chose.

We have no other debt. We do periodically buy stuff on interest free credit though as it’s better in our account than the sellers. Right now there is nothing we owe like this , but we previously bought our sofa this way , and as long as we can easily afford the repayments and could afford to buy it up front I’d not hesitate to do it again.

The only debt we have is our mortgage.

We do have a few credit cards so access to quite a lot of credit but we keep the balance at £0. They do get used frequently because I like to collect the points for travel, but it’s only ever on things that can be paid off that month.

Dh and I between us have around £1500 debt (cleared mortgage). This is the last few payments of my car and a sofa (both 0%). We do use a credit card for purchases (for the protection) but we clear it off each month.

I have three credit cards - one I’ve had for ages and keep to improve my credit score in terms of length of financial relationships. One was for emergencies and 0% but 0% is ended so I don’t use it/zero balance on it. Can’t cancel it as I bought concert tickets on it which have been pushed to 2023 so it’s just sitting there. Then I have a new 0% one for anything I want the extra protection on - there’s about £700 quid on there currently because my credit score goes down every time I pay it to zero and I want to buy a house soon, so keeping something on it to demonstrate I can use credit responsibly (which really does feel bonkers). The limit of all 3 is about 12k

I have £14k on a student loan. I only pay about £300 a year on it, as I don't earn enough. I could afford to pay it off in a bulk lot, but why bother? That money earns more for me in stocks and shares than I pay in interest on the loan. I doubt it'll ever get fully paid off, and it gets written off after 30 years anyway, and I'm approaching 20 years.

Otherwise I don't have any debts. I rent, so no mortgage. I have a few hundred a month on a credit card, which gets paid off by direct debit every month.

If I can't afford it, I don't buy it.