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?

£5000 on a credit card - interest only for 30 months and paying off enough each month to pay it all off, as it was a balance transfer deal from another.

£10,000 loan - was towards home extension, fairly low interest.

Oh god completely forgot the student loan which clearly isn't keeping me up at night!

Christ knows what that is! Zero fucks given if I never pay that off! Soz Boris!

None, except the mortgage which I have enough savings to pay off.

Like you l was brought up to save first. My parents always told a story of buying their first car on credit. They were making payments years later, with the car long broken and gone.

@Allinadayswork80

Can I ask why you’re asking, btw?

Credit - we have no credit cards and I don't want to know about credit available because I want to avoid using it if I can.
Debt - we pay back 500 euro a month for a credit union loan to upgrade our cars for a few years. We had to do it because we both commute and our previous cars kept breaking down. It was unavoidable. Our new cars are still second hand but at least they're 5 years old rather than 15. Brand new cars would be unattainable for us. I say this knowing that we earn a comparatively high salary but life has always been expensive in Ireland and it's gone up again recently.
Other than that, just our mortgage.

None. I order clothes on my next account but I always pay the balance off.

I always pay off my credit card at the end of the month. I prefer to use my CC for most purchases as it keeps my bank card details off the internet and CC companies have a liability if something I've bought is poor quality. It's a matter of good management but I can see it's a problem for some people without money.

I have £10,000 in available credit with Amex. I spend ~£2,000 on the Amex (I try and put everything on the card so I collect the airmiles (and because I need to spend a minimum amount to get a free companion voucher which lets me buy a 2for1 plane ticket).

I've never spent close to £10,000 but they increase my limit every six months or so. I'm not sure why they do this tbh.

I'm really, really hoping that Amex will increase my credit limit a lot over the next few years (my salary will go up quite a bit since I'm just starting out in my career) as we're looking to buy a new car in maybe 5 years, and buying a car on the Amex the air miles would be incredible- it would probably pay for a holiday by itself.

It's easy to have no debt / credit when you have money. You can put money away for big purchases and cope with sudden demands.

It is FAR harder if you have a limited income and can't just fix the boiler, or replace the cooker without resorting to credit cards or loans.

The issue with this is that it is precisely those with less resources who end up paying more for things as they have to cover interest as well as the cost of the item.

Couple of hundred on a card, no mortgage or loan. I do use it for an expensive purchase e.g. over £200 then don't use it again till it's cleared.

No debt other than my mortgage (about £60k). I have a credit card and authorised overdraft facilities available. I never use the overdraft but do most of my shopping (particularly online) on the credit card. It's set to repay the full balance by direct debit each month so it's really just for rewards/purchase protection.

I have a business with credit accounts, we have access to hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of business and personal credit.
This fluctuates widely depending on demand and needs. We always keep an eye on liabilities and assets. We have various measures to manage credit control and payments.

We run a tight ship.

None now bar what's left in the mortgage. It's a great relief.

I wasn’t given any sound financial advice growing up. When I left home and went to uni, I was offered all sorts of overdrafts, loans and credit cards and I took them. I saw my credit limit as ‘money available to spend’. By the time I left uni, I owed about £3500, lived on my own in the city with high costs that my wage at the time didn’t comfortably cover and was paying an extra £200 a month in interest. It was a vicious circle because I would end up buying food on my credit card as I’d spent all my available money keeping up with debt repayments.

Once I finally sorted myself out, I vowed not to use credit unless I absolutely had to. I stuck to that, changed my spending habits and started saving.

I’m in a much more fortunate position now and can afford to save up relatively quickly for expensive purchases. I do use a credit card for all my purchases, but stick firmly within my means and then pay it off in full every month.

Credit is a lifeline for when you have a financial emergency, but it’s dangerous when you’re tempted into buying things which are more extravagant than your pay packet should allow..

None/2k depending how you look at it. We put loads on the credit card but pay it off each month. So I'll always have about £800-£3000 on the card at any time but much more in the current account. We accrue BA points that way.

I have a mortgage of £55k and £2.5k on interest fee credit for a boiler replacement.

About 900 left on a loan I took out five years ago and about the same in respect of a tax credits fuckup (the usual 'notified a change, they said it made no difference, then came back after I had ended the claim to say well, actually, you owe us thousands and we want it NOW') from about ten years ago.

Been in debt before as a result of trying to make ends meet, not due to spending on lipstick and takeaways. Always scraped through at the very last moment, but that's no way to live.

We have more than other people would like but it comes and goes. We have a £250k mortgage, 2 cars on PCP and about £7k on cc. But the £7k is from our kitchen we are renovating and will be paid off by the end of the year. We had large loans and cc for our previous house after renovation (about £20k combined), but we made over £100k on the sale price so made a huge print in the end so the short term debt was worthwhile. Hopefully we will find similar for the new house. We do it all ourselves so we keep prices down as much as possible. The cars on PCP cost a lot, but are reliable for long commutes and we can change cars regularly which we like. It's not the life many would choose but it works for us.

None.
First husband was stupid with money. After the divorce I had only what I could afford for me and the children. Bought a small house and a reliable
car with mortgage and bank loan.Paid loan off .Mortgage well within my means . Met 2nd husband. He very well off but had same attitude to money as me. Mortgage now paid off, retired early , no credit card debts, no loans. Ex husband currently going through 2nd divorce. Living in tiny rented flat .Massive debts. Hey ho.

Only our car which was bought on interest free credit card money transfer as our car died before we could afford a new one.

We have used it for sofa and mattress too in the past but we’ve had the sofa for 6 years and expect to have it a similar amount of time. Paid off ages ago.

Just the mortgage. I do use a credit card but pay it off in full every month. DH is still paying his student loan too.

Just mortgage. We only use credit cards occasionally for online purchases for the protection it offers, we pay the balance immediately.

It's just curiosity about how other people look at things. Personally, I'm like you OP and would be stressed out with having debt for such reasons, too much so to enjoy said "stuff".

None - mortgage is paid and credit card paid monthly.

I was in a relationship with a gambler who built up debt almost losing our home. So I am very conscious of not having debt.

Just my mortgage which is around £155K