How long have you been in debt????

deepintrouble

Hi, I've been in debt ever since i was about 21 (now 33). I discovered this thing called a credit card. I can still remember the day now. It was like free money! Unfortunately i didnt have the brains to realise that it wasnt a good thing to keep paying the min payments and run up big bills. Have now resolved to pay off my debts (around £60k). With luck i'll be debt free by the time i'm 40. What a muppet!

Ela1

I have been in debt for quite a long time in excess of 10 years. Amost 2 years ago I contacted CCCS as I had reached the point of no return. I owed £41,737, however, I have repaid £16,500 and should be debt free in 2011. The biggest problem I have is with HBOS Visa card, I stared with a debt of 9,500 have paid 2,546 with a current balance of 8,519.91 !!!!!!!! they will not stop charging me interest and late payment fees even though the CCCS are paying regulary. I don't know what to do with them. They said today on the phone that they will not be referring me to a credit reference agency for at least 2 years, by that time the balance will be huge. Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this? many thanks.

I am desperate to be debt free.

Rainbow_Butterfly

I got my first CC at 18, and went BR in July this year. As a household we still have a 5k loan with 4 years left to run, and 2.5k on CC though. I am absolutely desperate to get rid of these.:o Hopefully now my debts are no more we should be able to start paying them off. xx

beanielou

Hi ela & welcome to MSE.
If you start your own thread then you will get some advice.
There is a start new thread button at the top of the page.
Hope this helps(HTH)

Broken_hearted

Student loans and mortgage at 18 all downhill from there.

rluc

I guess by the sounds of it there are a lot of people out there in the same long term set up like me!!
I spent a long time with my head in the sand trying not to think about it and the occasionaly trying to deal with it.
I wanted to try and give my ex wife everything she wanted but ultimately did not earn enough to be able to be able to do that so tried to keep it going through credit etc.
To be fair I had debts before I met her and like heppy says maybe there is a personality trait that makes you prone to debt as it has always seemed to be too easy to me to fall into every debt trap going:o
Ela- , I presume when you are on CCCS you cant move balances around to get a better deal? don't really know how it works good luck anyway.
To everyone else. Good luck as well:grouphug:

Ela1

rluc wrote: »

I guess by the sounds of it there are a lot of people out there in the same long term set up like me!!
I spent a long time with my head in the sand trying not to think about it and the occasionaly trying to deal with it.
I wanted to try and give my ex wife everything she wanted but ultimately did not earn enough to be able to be able to do that so tried to keep it going through credit etc.
To be fair I had debts before I met her and like heppy says maybe there is a personality trait that makes you prone to debt as it has always seemed to be too easy to me to fall into every debt trap going:o
Ela- , I presume when you are on CCCS you cant move balances around to get a better deal? don't really know how it works good luck anyway.
To everyone else. Good luck as well:grouphug:

No you can't move balances about, and you also can't stop payment to a particular creditor either. Thanks though.

meerkat2007

I'm 46 now, with debts as per my signature. It started with an £800 overdraft in about 1985, when I was 23 - I've spent half my life to date in debt, with nothing really to show for it.

It's probably going to be another 4 or 5 years before I'm debt-free, and I can't wait!

Parlesse

I've been in debt one way and another all of my adult life but nothing really unmanageable until 2001 when I was offered a bank loan by HBoS for a thousand pounds which really came in handy as I had moved house and needed various things. I then took my first computer on finance but I was really careful and worked out a budget and stuck to it rigidly. I upped my loan in the summer of 2002 when my daughter graduated from university intending to pay off various things including her graduation meal, ball gown etc and have just the one payment not realising that by doing so I was being screwed royally for interest and PPI. I helped my daughter financially through her teacher training year and then when she graduated I just went ballistic, I didn't want to budget any more, I wanted to enjoy myself with the help of a Platinum Barclaycard - credit limit three and a half grand. One thing led to another (including a couple of holidays I couldn't really afford) and at LBM I owed nearly eleven grand. I knew I couldn't juggle everything any more so despite being totally up to date with all my loans etc etc I sought help from PayPlan because I knew would have ended up taking more loans out to help pay the ones I already had and keep me afloat.

I felt so stupid, guilty and a complete failure and it's taken me a long time to get over those feelings but coming on here has helped me tremendously when I see people with much higher levels of debt than I had managing to deal with it and stay happy and positive although I'm sure they'll have bad days as well. If I could change anything in my life it would be that I would never ever have any debt whatsoever as I feel it has affected me in different ways since I was 23 when me and my then husband took out our first bank loan for a hundred pounds. I've paid just over half what I owe and hope to be debt free in 3 years and after that I never intend to go through this again. I only wish I had found this site a long time ago cos I think you're all absolutely fantastic - don't worry, you will get there even though sometimes it doesn't feel like it. I had a slight hiccup for a while there when it all seemed to be getting too much but have got over it and am now back on the straight and narrow and looking forward to a debt free future

lilmissmup

Since i was 18, am now 24 so 6 years but only 20 days until its all paid and then the only debt i ever want is a mortgage and will get rid of that quickly too!