Is debt considered normal these days?

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Just that, really.

We have a car on finance (good deal) and mortgage but otherwise refuse to buy anything on credit - no pay later, overdrafts, credit cards etc. As soon as the car is paid I wouldn’t get another on finance either (husbands idea to do it and I don’t want to again!).

If we want something like a holiday, new furniture whatever we save for it.

A good friend of mine recently shared with me that her and her husband have just under £30k on credit cards, plus a holiday for £4K that needs paying before the summer. Plus car plus mortgage.

She said this without a care in the world - as though it was normal and she’d pay it off later.

They’re good earners so I think they must be living hugely out of their means but she seemed shocked that I was shocked by it?! I hate the car finance as it is and think I would feel incredibly stressed with that credit card debt sitting over me?

I know there’s an element of keeping up with the Joneses etc but I was so surprised (she spends a lot, regularly posts her days out etc on social media).

Not many people can afford to pay up front for everything. Like a house, for example.

I think using credit responsibly is sensible like maybe a new boiler or holiday on 0% interest free but pay it off within deal period. £30k on credit cards sounds like overspending but I guess it depends on income. Car finance is inevitable really due to cost of even used cars but we would usually try to save each month towards car replacements. We have paid cash for cars in recent years but we are now retired with no mortgage so it is easier to save for them.

I never did car finance but wd drive old bangers. I gave up driving 2 years ago as I work from home. I refuse to get into debt but very occasionally take 2 months to clear any Next balance. It does mean I live quite meagre but needs must.

We have no debt other than our mortgage (now down to 20% of house value 22 years after buying first house and moving/extending twice).
We only once bought a car on finance when we were both young and not earning enough to have built up savings.
Part of the reason for this is we’ve never lived beyond our means. We’re not interested in flashy cars, we buy good condition/low mileage, look after them and keep for around 10 years, during that time we put money into savings which allows us to buy the next car eventually. We also didn't used to go on fancy holidays that we couldn’t afford- over the years we’ve graduated from affordable UK self catering cottages to Eurocamp cabins in France and only in more recent years have done nice hotels in further away countries as our earnings have increased/childcare costs reduced.
Going into debt for non-essential things just to have a certain lifestyle seems absolutely bonkers to me.

Oh lord, here we go again - the Frugal Olympics klaxon has sounded and people will pile in to say how they haven't bought new clothes since 1999 and feed 10 for £20 a week and their starter home didn't have floors or windows and credit is the DEVIL.

Is it a good idea to constantly supplement your monthly budget with credit? No. Is it ideal to be sitting on a big pile of unsecured debt? No. But credit is a perfectly useful and legitimate tool to use in structuring your finances and funding important longer term spends sometimes. Businesses make use of credit daily because it makes sense to. If someone else can service their debt and are using it in a way that works for them, it's really no one else's business. And FTR my only debt is a mortgage.

I don’t have a choice. I don’t have enough spare money to be able to just drop £300 plus is my car breaks down, or my washing machine dies etc. I don’t lack sense, I lack a decent enough wage to be able to live with the basics.

My credit rating is virtually 100 per cent but I cleared my mortgage age 58. I see no point in having debts at my age of 61. In theory should be saving for retirement but cannot afford to do so. Better than being saddled with debt. I only work part time on health grounds.

I think this is why it surprised me. I think some debt is essential - mortgage is a great example.

I think it’s the lifestyle stuff that’s unnecessary that my friend spends on that I find a crazy reason to end up in debt (large amounts - I understand holiday for example but this is multiple and a £1000 handbag and things that just aren’t needed)

It’s how a lot of people live but IMO it’s very irresponsible if you have kids to have debt and no savings. If you lose your job you are at risk of losing your home. This happened to a family member. Credit cards should be for cash flow emergencies - big car repair just after you’ve been on holiday.

The idea of debt makes my skin crawl, even my mortgage I’m trying to pay off many years early.

If I can’t afford something I save up. People just want shit now these days.

Our mortgage is paid off and our cars, holidays and everyday expenses are all paid for upfront however I always seem to have a few hundred knocking about on a 0% credit card at any one time as I use it to pay for luxuries like clothes and home decor. I always pay the minimum amount every month and when possible pay it off in a big chunk. I never use a credit card if there’s an interest charge, I just pay it off and switch to a new one when the 0% offer runs out. My credit score is apparently ‘excellent’ and I do think Credit cards and finance plans are great if you can get 0% deals.
I could never run up debts to the tune your friends have unless a dire emergency. That would make me feel really anxious. I have a couple of friends that seem to live in a kind of dream world when it comes to spunking money on absolute shite and that’s up to them - personally I don’t feel that any sparkly Range Rover or designer handbag is going to make me feel better due to the debt it would put me into!

Life is a bit of a pain.

Often in life you are rich at the end where you don't really need that much money. And poor at the beginning when you do.

So getting into debt when you are younger to fund a better lifestyle edit : than when you are older kind of makes sense.

Until you find you are older and can't pay it off of course. And then it all gets pretty miserable in your old age.

In short it's a gamble that makes sense for a lot of people.

46% of adults have consumer debt. Average consumer debt £8k. So if you didn't have your car on credit, which puts you in with the 46% who have debt, you'd be in a slim majority. However, that majority will include a lot of older people who no longer have debt and a lot of people who are unable to be given credit due to low income, poor credit history and do on, so that skews the figures for the average, younger, working population who are probably more likely to have debt than not.

Debt IMHO is common these days, unfortunately. It is a very different world now, and people are in debt for all sorts of reasons; some that cannot be helped, and some that can. Very sadly the cost of living is just far too high, meaning it isn't just people living beyond their means through frivolity in debt now.

Too many people live beyond their means. It does seem to be accepted now because some people dont have the patience to wait.

We use credit cards for the consumer protection, for convenience and tend to get better rates if withdrawing cash abroad. They get paid off each month.

We bought a pre-registered car. Leasing was considered but I negotiated a decent price and fair trade in value for our previous car.

Having been very low income for a good long while I built a fairly substantial debt (for me) which I have finally completely paid off - I owe nothing anywhere. That being said I always use my credit card for purchases and then pay them in full or over 3 months if its a huge purchase. Being in debt can be so overwhelming that its easier just to accept it and live with it than tackle it. At my worst I was happy to see my overdraft at £1000 overdrawn and devastated when I hit my £2000 overdraft limit - so plenty of people feel its normal.

Yes. I just wanted a £1700 old banger after my £800 old banger died only 9 months after buying it just for the fun of it. I just want ‘shit’ so I can fulfill my contract with my employer. How very irresponsible.

Must be lovely to have enough cushioning that you can afford the basics as food, bills, basic clothes etc AND be able to save for when something breaks down.

We lived forever in overdraft and had credit cards when DD was growing up (2000s) so we could afford to make ends meet, never for holidays or flash tvs. DH was self employed in a seasonal (tourism) industry so in the lean months we used credit to pay for food etc, and then pay it off when DH was earning the big bucks in peak season. But the debt never exceeded a couple of grand.

Not sure if I could cope with debt in five figures.

I’m not talking about a house. I’m referring to everything else.

Oh, stop with the patience to wait rubbish. There are scores of people working two jobs, and they're barely able to make ends meet. It is a tougher world. My boomer parents got an 100 percent mortgage, and it was common place to get your car in with it. They didn't do this, but many did. Only one of them worked, and we had a fairly decent lifestyle based on one average wage, a nice house in a decent area. They owned their house by the time they were in their 50s. People cannot even get on the housing ladder now, how well off will they be when they're in their 50s?

People had the means to save up for things back then. Today, there is nothing left for a lot of people to save with.

We've got a lot of debt, and have ended up in a cycle of needing to spend so much of our monthly income on repayments, that our only option is to then use a credit card to fund the basics towards the end of each month. It's a silly and irresponsible way to live, and we've both felt so overwhelmed by it that it's just become the norm, as trying to tackle it felt impossible. At the start of this year we decided enough was enough, and last week I paid off and closed two of our credit cards. We still have one more card, two loans and a finance agreement to pay off, and it'll take us around 4 years to be debt free (other than the mortgage).

It's easily done, and I didn't consider our situation unusual, until we actually sat down and looked at the figures - at which point I felt sick at just how much money we owe. We'll need to have a few frugal years, but thankfully we're coming to the end of any nursery fees after the summer so we can really start to throw everything at clearing balances.

We're not a high income family at all, especially compared to a lot of the household incomes that get shared on MN. However once we're debt free we should be able to live relatively comfortably, and it will be lovely having peace of mind knowing that we don't owe money all over the place.

How much was your ‘pre-registered’ car? And how much trade in value did you get from your other car?

People had the means to save up for things back then. Today, there is nothing left for a lot of people to save with

People used to use hire purchase to buy or even rent basics like cookers, fridges and washing machines too.

Living life “on tick” isn’t a new phenomenon.

Well yeah because by the time we save for something it has again risen in price....

I`ve posted on other threads about being debt free.
And i am debt free i owe nothing to no one ive never owned a credit card either.
If i want something i buy it out right so its mine nothing on lone.
Household bills up to date i have meters elc /
gas so i top them up myself my water is 15-20 a month but i pay extra to keep in front.
I live cheap.
Ive never been in to brands names i look expensive but its all cheap.
However i do own a louis vuitton hand bag not bragging but it was cheap dirt cheap.