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Original poster

Unsecured debt

153 replies

Cookiemonsieur · 29/12/2023 20:51

Cheeky question so feel free to scroll on-

How much unsecured debt do you carry as a household, and how does this compare to your income?

ours is 31k on a joint income of 72k and I’m uncomfortable with this and about to get intense with paying it back

OP posts:
teaandtoastwithmarmite · 29/12/2023 21:43

That's loan no credit card

pinksheetss · 29/12/2023 21:51

70k household income
No mortgage
20k debt

HappyMavis · 29/12/2023 22:07

No unsecured debt for a long time now, but managed and used correctly there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It just really gnaws at me when I do have it so I'd rather avoid; it's a personal thing.

Actually that's a slight lie as I have just taken a new credit card with Natwest which has an 0% interest rate on purchases/balance transfers for 14 months. I have a holiday coming up so I stuck it on that and will repay at the end of the period. That way, the cost of the holiday stays in my savings earning interest.

AnotherDayAnotherDoller · 29/12/2023 22:08

Talkinpeace · 29/12/2023 21:41

Credit card : pay £193 a month every month till gone.
Mortgage : overpay £10 a month if you can.

My 2014 spreadsheets thread is broken. I'll rewrite it and get the evidence base for you.

@Talkinpeace can you explain this? I'm curious

OnTheBoardwalk · 29/12/2023 22:11

@Cookiemonsieur is it credit cards/overdraft or fixed repayment plans?

a couple of loans/fixed car payments wouldnt concern me too much but no vehicle to pay it off and only paying interest would

Original poster
Cookiemonsieur · 29/12/2023 22:12

OnTheBoardwalk · 29/12/2023 22:11

@Cookiemonsieur is it credit cards/overdraft or fixed repayment plans?

a couple of loans/fixed car payments wouldnt concern me too much but no vehicle to pay it off and only paying interest would

It’s a loan and cards mostly at good rates. It’s definitely fixable with a few lifestyle tweaks

OP posts:
youveturnedupwelldone · 29/12/2023 22:13

£31k debt is a lot and shouldn't be normalised, it's a very significant proportion of your annual take home pay. You are right to be uncomfortable with it and I'm really glad you're planning to pull together and pay it down.

I used to work in a debt management type role, I assure you high levels of debt are not the preserve of the less well off! I saw many people who had very high incomes and therefore could access much more credit than your average earner.

Original poster
Cookiemonsieur · 29/12/2023 22:14

youveturnedupwelldone · 29/12/2023 22:13

£31k debt is a lot and shouldn't be normalised, it's a very significant proportion of your annual take home pay. You are right to be uncomfortable with it and I'm really glad you're planning to pull together and pay it down.

I used to work in a debt management type role, I assure you high levels of debt are not the preserve of the less well off! I saw many people who had very high incomes and therefore could access much more credit than your average earner.

What was the worst you saw? I can see how six figures of unsecured could easily happen

OP posts:
OnTheBoardwalk · 29/12/2023 22:17

Can you get a loan and cut up your cards? Least there’s an end date.

i got in a real mess with my Barclaycard early twenties. They kept increasing my limit and the interest alone was killing me. I was very lucky to get a loan off my mum as I say very lucky but meant I couldn’t increase the debt

Original poster
Cookiemonsieur · 29/12/2023 22:18

OnTheBoardwalk · 29/12/2023 22:17

Can you get a loan and cut up your cards? Least there’s an end date.

i got in a real mess with my Barclaycard early twenties. They kept increasing my limit and the interest alone was killing me. I was very lucky to get a loan off my mum as I say very lucky but meant I couldn’t increase the debt

I’m just gonna hammer it now rather than consolidate. Consolidation hasn’t really worked for me

OP posts:
decionsdecisions62 · 29/12/2023 22:20

The car lease - £250 a month and about £4k credit card debt on 0%. I'm paying that off rapidly though. No other loans etc bar the mortgage.

GeneCity · 29/12/2023 22:42

@Cookiemonsieur, do you have a good understanding of where your money goes every month, incmidung how much you spend on needs, wants, and debt re-payments?

Wazzzzzuuuuuuup · 29/12/2023 22:51

13k ish on a combined salary of 90k. I'm not worried. There's a cat payment and 2 x credit cards in there. I've had a tax screw up this year that has reduced my take home, plus a number of new short term expenses. I've got some positive financial changes happening this year and my car will be paid off in June. I'm then going to start hammering overpaying the mortgage.

Sometimes I carry some debt, sometimes I have none. I also have savings and whilst I could use this to pay off the debt, the cards are 0%, and having car finance feels entirely normal. I don't really consider the car finance as unsecured since the car value well outweighs what is owed.

YummyCookie · 29/12/2023 23:34

We probably have around £25k between us. Combined salary is £106k, plus DH will be getting a bonus soon which will shave a good chunk off. Within that there is finance for 2 cars, a loan and a couple of cards. Mostly 0% or low interest rates. I just move it about as needed. Hoping to have it all paid off within the next 2 years

AlmostAJillSandwich · 30/12/2023 02:23

Income 14k, £900 of debt, but £250 of that is on 0% and i have £900 in savings

nannynick · 30/12/2023 06:53

In 2017, I had £15k (credit cards, car loan) with income £26k.
Someone posted about Dave Ramsey and that led me down the becoming debt free route, and finding UK based podcasts/YouTube such as Meaningful Money.

Do it. Become debt free.

whirlyhead · 30/12/2023 07:08

6 figure sum owed to HMRC thanks to the loan charge so hoorah! Annoys me as I don’t think I should owe it to them for a number of reasons but arguing with HMRC is like arguing with a tree trunk.

otherwise no debts.

1975wasthebest · 30/12/2023 07:14

£13K post graduate loan debt to student finance. The amount of interest I’ve accrued since I took it out in 2018 makes me feel a bit nervous and am thinking of paying off a bit this year. One person household with yearly income that varies between £23 - £40K.

1984Winston · 30/12/2023 07:17

About 15k, we earn about 55k, hoping to borrow some more when we remortgage next month and clear it as it's keeping me awake at night, I'm very debt adverse but my DH isn't 🙄

MañanaramasCat · 30/12/2023 07:19

Boomer generation here, I was brought up in an environment where debt was seen as a major problem (even something shameful). That has stuck with me, so while we had a mortgage, we've never had any unsecured debt. We use credit cards but pay them off in full each month.
I think our attitiude might be more age related than class related?

namechanged221 · 30/12/2023 07:25

Household income about 90k
Mortgage only just over 100k left
Unsecured debt around 20k

adultsizedogbed · 30/12/2023 07:26

Zero debt
Zero mortgage
That amount of debt is a lot compared to your income .. I don't think there is much point in asking for comparisons but it sounds like you are doing well to get out of it .

ItsMyPartyParty · 30/12/2023 07:28

We have a large chunk of debt (less than 20% of combined gross income). I’m not worried about it. It’s a single loan, taken out for a specific purpose, rather than a build up of overspending. We’re paying it back on schedule. The interest rate is reasonable.

NewYearNameChanger · 30/12/2023 07:28

Our joint income is around £80k and we currently have £16k on 0% credit cards which I am determined to pay off this coming year. We mostly accrued them with home improvements after buying a fixer upper. We do have over half a million in equity though so I am not too concerned although I would like the debts gone so we can start saving for a new kitchen.