Curious how much debt is normal?

[Mummabear04]

Just being nosey really to see what's the average for other people but how much debt are you in excluding your mortgage? I have just under 4k of debt between DH and I due to student loans but don't have anything else other than the mortgage (we have put paying back our loans first and only saving a little each month instead). How about you?

The average is just over £4k for UK households Statistics Archive - The Money Charity

I went to uni before the £9k fees kicked in. Left uni with about £10k debt in total from living costs across the 3 years. My older sister went pre fees so graduated with very little debt and my parents and a very kind relative paid off my debt for me so that I was on an equal footing with my sister.

I briefly had a credit card, but rarely remembered to pay it on time so cut it up about 20 years ago so I wouldn't accumulate any more debt.

Just have my mortgage left to clear now, but I am maxed out so will likely be late 60s before that is paid off (I'm 43 now).

About £2k but that’s only because it’s interest free and prefer to keep my savings in my ISA

I’ve £1.5k on credit card at the moment as I paid for a weekend holiday cottage. This will be cleared in full on next payment date (I always clear the CC each month - I use it to ensure I have credit info on my credit file and to take advantage of offers and other benefits) . I’ve paid off my mortgage and don’t have any other debt unless you count 2 mobile phone contracts?

Bar the mortgage, just a few hundred on the credit card and that will be paid at the end of the month.

£10k left on DH student loans. £2k credit card.

I spend £1,000 or more each month on my credit card but always clear it in full at the end of the month. DH does the same.

No other debt.

6k of debt which I want to shift ASAP as it feels like a weight around my neck (lone parent here). Only took it out,well more than that, to buy ex out. I'm on the home straight

What are these credit card points everyone is talking about?
To answer the question, my number is 0 (but I never went to uni, or bothered with having a wedding, my car is small, ugly and old, mortgage affordable, generally stingy with myself)

Mid 40s low income single parent, thousands (maybe 25) in student loans i will take to the grave with me with no regrets and no care at all. £1000 for last year's holiday and this years Christmas and £500 with Next for our clothes and whatever.

Early 40s, student loans paid off, own a second hand car outright and pay off credit card every month, however £300k mortgage... 😬

I don't even think about student loans as a debt, more like an extra bit of tax, no idea what I owe.

Oh I have a student loan too from 19 years ago. It gets paid out of my salary. Random tangent but does anyone know how I find out how much is left on the balance? I've moved house a few times and no longer get letters.

Nothing, except £600 on my credit card which will be paid off in January.
No mortgage either.

generally 0
no mortgage
plenty of savings
I think I have maybe 7-800 on my card for Xmas stuff but that will be paid off this week

Never had any other debt than mortgage and student loans. Student loans have been written off now. My parents were always drowning in debt so I vowed never to borrow. Never even had a credit card. We save in advance for all holidays, big purchases etc.

£6k on 0% CC. I hate it. It feels like a noose. But my dh was in a car accident 2yrs ago and hasn’t been in work so we’re struggling.

We’ve got to the point were we no longer add to it. But it feels like I’ll never clear it.

None ever for me, except the mortgage which went at 44. We're 53 now.
DH was paying off student overdraft for a couple of years early twenties, that's it.

Thing is with these threads you tend to get mostly responses from people with no debt. So it's meaningless really.

About 9.5k CC & personal loan. Hate it and can't wait to be free of it!

We have £20k on credit cards from some essential house work that was required this year, a couple of years before we planned to do it!

We managed to get 0% for £10k each and used that to fund it- it was cheaper than any other way of funding it! We usually get work bonuses in Jan that will reduce it by 70% anyway and the final part we will pay off before the end of next year and before the 0% period closes. Overall the debt will be paid off within 18 months of us taking it out.

I also have £3k left on a student loan and we will be paying this off with the bonuses also in Jan because the interest on it is about 6% so it's a higher priority than the credit cards. Student loan has been paid back over 10 years ish and the last 2 years or so the interest has been awful. It would have been a priority to pay back had we not a bathroom that leaked in every possible way!

Should also add that we do have nearly as much as the debt in savings but as it's in stocks and shares and the debt is 0%, it is more beneficial in the long term to use the credit cards than cash in stocks and shares.

We also overpay our mortgage because that saves us more interest than we are paying on the debt!

36, I have a small mortgage left but no other debts thankfully.

None of the answers to this question are meaningful. Everyone's circumstances are different, there's no "typical" level of debt. It's all very apples and oranges.

The main reason I have debt is that I didn't qualify for any government assistance during COVID, because I was a contractor through a limited company. For some reason the government at the time thought people like me could live off thin air. Turns out we can't.

I was 17 when they sold me a student loan. I've still got the marketing material with wild statements about the future riches a degree would reep. It's a mis-selling case waiting to happen is student loans.