How did you get into debt

Jarlawuk

1) Being a brandho and spending far too much money in places like selfridges
2) Eating out far too much - like nearly every night which all adds up.
3) Buying rubbish that I never use - paid £300 for a slam man (a punching bag that lights up) that still sits at my mum's house half filled with sand.
4) Spending more than I earn - actual wage varies from month to month based on sales done that month

us,thecat&thedebt

all started at 18 when i wanted a argos card god knows why oh yeah to get a 100 camerea but they gave me a 650 limit which i spent on stuff i didnt need,,,

then i ran up a 600 tmobile bill

then the bank allowed me a cheque guarentee card tht i abused £1500 later

then my parents bailed me out with £2500

so i ran up another current account with chq guare £1000
and the argos card got used again tmobile to £500 again...
so now i owed 2500 to mum and 2100 to argos and tmob andbank

got a loan for 6000 to pay off all debts

oh lost his job i had major surgery used 2000 of loan to pay rent and bills for 2.5 months...

paid of bank 1000 and 600 argos and 700 to mum...

used argos to get new fridge 300
filltered rest of loan

now in 14,000 debt!!!!

moral NEVER get a consolidation loan EVER :eek: :eek: :eek:

frugglewump

Supporting my OH during company start-up until it failed and he got another job - whilst I was only on a PhD bursary + whatever overtime I could wangle. So the CCs mounted up. Consolidated into a cahoot flexible loan after graduation, but didn't get rid of the cards.

It was very much like swimming - once you're in the water you don't think too much about how deep it is.

impy78

Well, entirely my own fault, but it started by listening to the woman in Barclay's bank.

I had a £1500 overdratft - her advice? - take out a £6k graduate loan. I did.

Because of my new found crdit status I was offered loads of store and credit card, which I accepted (STUPID!)

I had the best 6 months of my life, followed by the the worst 7 years of my life!!!

I too was taken in by debt consolidation company, and realised I was paying more to them than the creditors!!!!

I managed to get a lower interest loan (by this time I had defaulted on the Barclays one to the nth degree) and a reasobaly paid (but soul destroying job) and have just paid off as much as I can possibly afford each month, whilst saving to make an early settlement on the loan.

youngandreckless

All my own fault. Constantly spending on clothes, cd's, going out, eating out etc etc. Did some work on my flat and then consolidated my overdraft and loan about five times! Got a handle on it now and have always made my payments on time, I hope to pay my loan off early and get some decent savings!

angelstar25

I came out of a long term relationship, got bought out of my house so had 20k in the bank spent at all with the lavish lifestyle I thought I deserved with putting up with so much crap, when the money was gone was still spending and ended up £25k in debt, now in the process of setting up an IVA the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but I can't answer the question as to why this happened but things happen don't they, I guess we all can help each other, one of the hardest things for me is actually filling out the forms and giving payplan authority to do this, life is hard but at least it will make my life better in the long run.

donnalove

mine started after the stillbirth of my little boy 12 years ago. up until then we had never had or wanted credit cards.we already had a daughter. it was through a stupid thing we got 1, we had bought a suite (yes on finance but we could afford it and were gonna get some compensation from a car accident and pay it off) anyway suite wasnt fit for purpose, it was expensive we gave them chance to put it right they didnt so canceled agreement. left us without a suite so a friend suggested we got a credit card to put deposit on a suite from uno and pay it off when we got our compensation we thought about it and thought why not.it spirralled from there really we didnt pay it off with compo we brought a telly kept using it for this and that, spoiled daughter as we thought something might happen to her. swapped for 0% didnt cancel applied for more you get the picture.

we finished iva in oct 2005 and i am feeling relieved we had to remortgage to complete early but we need a house extension cos of girls(they all got different mental dissabilities)so we didnt find that a problem at least we keep most of equity we still got £30,000 left in house so not to bad.

i now try and follow the boards on here, i got my self a book and wright down everything i spend and check my bank everyday, i also put 10% of money coming in away.

since i have been doing this my 2 eldest daughters have also asked for a book and they wright down what they spend there pocket money on, also 1 of them has started to save a pound a week in there bank, so hopefully somthing good has come out of this, i am certainly more aware, i now help mentally ill people(i am a volunteer in mental health) and i will never touch another credit card.

crashgoddess

buying a new car,going on holiday and moving house all at the same time

cjbaps

I acquired the usual student debt, and got my first job in 1998 - I was single until 2000 and managing my debts fine - paying things off and coping very well. WHen I met my ex, things started to go down hill, and he was encouraging me to get all sorts of things in my name (including loans, PC's). WHen I was on holiday without him, he run up my max on a next account I had never used. He decided to give up work and I was left trying to pay everything - and the rose tinted glasses were still on (for some unknown reason). I just wish there was some sort of name and shame place I could leave his details.

Funnily enough, since I left him over 2 years ago - I have got things sorted and am managing my money just fine!

PaleScene

We used to both earn and bought what we wanted as we saw it. I don't honestly think we were very extravagant, but probably skirting around the level of our means, and we never had the spare cash for a bigger purchase like furniture or holidays.

Then I got signed off and haven't been able to work in the five years since. It took us a really long time to learn how to budget and choose better by which time we'd ended up with a lump sum tacked onto the mortgage.

I've enjoyed becoming better informed and more controlled and I find it really useful to have a pot of money that is just mine for whatever purpose while everything else is considered and budgeted as best I can. The only fault I think is that because most of our finances are now 'handled' it's easy to catch yourself thinking 'I'm not in the overdraft or overspent on ccs anymore so no debt' occasionally - but a bigger mortgage (and the same tiny house) reminds me differently.