How many of you have racked up huge debts?

[Twiglett]

OK, up front I appreciate that this could be taken as an arsey thread but its not meant to be.

I was brought up not to borrow money and our only debt is our mortgage because quite honestly we were scared to incur other debts and went without instead

I find it difficult to truly understand whether this whole 'looming debt crisis' is for real or a media-invention

Do people re-mortgage every time their house value goes up, have you racked up loads on credit cards and taken personal loans every time they're offered .. if so why?

You may not think you have better reasons - but I certainly think you had better reasons...

dont get me wrong....the only reason why i dont have credit cards and things on higher purchase is because i know i would be shite at paying them back

I used to wonder about this.We were always very careful with money,had a small mortgage with no other debt.But I soon found out how quickly you can come unstuck,even whithout re mortgaging,loans ect [which we never did].

When dd2 was 3 wweeks old,we moved house to be nearer my work & parents.House neded & still does,complete renovation.

3 months later,FIL is dianosed with a terminal illness.Dh travelled 160 miles each weekend to help MIL look after him.This meant that I had to give up my weekend job,as he wasn't there to look after the dd's.Add to that the £70 extra we had to pay for petrol each weekend & we were soon struggling.We ended up putting the petrol on the credit card,as we had no other option at the time & it took us about 8 months to pay it off.

We couldn't have forseen this & there was nothing we could do about it-Dh needed to be with his dad,so that was that.But it took us a long time to recover financially & it taught me that debts aren't always acrued by splashing out on holidays/cars/t.v's. ect.

oops,didn't read the thread properly,they weren't huge debts,only about £1300,but it was the first time we couldn't pay for something & clear it immediately.

ran up almost £20,000 worth of credit card debt staying at home for 3 years after my son was born. reckless maybe, but i didnt want to leave him and it was worth every penny!

We have a mortgage, car loan, credit cards, over drafts - currently thinking about getting a loan to consolidate big overdrafts and a couple of credit cards.

I work in personal insolvency and always said I'd never get into debt cos I see it happen to people on a daily basis but it happens so easily - you use one card to pay for one thing then something else comes up before you get round to paying it off first time then Christmas comes then car repairs then something else - and before you know it you have a pile of debt that needs sorted.

Though I do tend to think its only debt if you cant pay it - which thankfully we can at the moment but I cant help but worrying that it is hanging over us.