How long have you been in debt for?

katsu

It might be interesting to look at how much student debt affects people's attitude to takng on other debt.

I went to uni with a small amount of savings, which quickly went, and despite working, I still needed student loans, so went into debt at 19. My DH would have been a similar age. We were not completely debt free until our 30s, so around 13 years for me.

I have no regrets about getting into debt to fund my education - that has probably been our biggest "item" over the years. We added a small amount to our debt when we married, but the majority of it was education. Coming out into the world of work, moving away from home to find jobs led to borrowing towards deposits, not having any savings led to a loan for a cheap car, but throughout the time we were nearly always overpaying a debt when we could - just not snowballing so I paid the student loan off way too early and paid less money to CC debt in that time! If I knew at say 19 what I know now, I'm sure we would have been DF far sooner.

chickilegirl

Also started when I was at uni in 1994, student overdraft and a credit card which they gave me a 10k limit on when I was 18!!! Escalated from there really, re-mortgaged twice when house prices were shooting up to try and get out of it but me and OH never seemed to learn. My LBM came when he left me very suddenly and I had to face up to how much we owed - 22k. Part of the break up involved going halves on the debt but he also walked out on the mortgage leaving me to pay it all - that was at the end of 2007. Since then I have turned my spending habits around, became debt free last year, got my first ISA last month. The mortgage is now in my sole name and I am overpaying whilst Im on a low SVR to improve my LTV ratio. Being debt free is so fantastic, making that last payment in March 2010 was oddly exciting, I literally didn't sleep the night before after 15 years of debt I couldn't believe I was finally going to be free of it! I know the mortgage is a debt but I really don't see it the same way, I need somewhere to live regardless so if it wasn't a mortgage it'd be a rental payment. Good luck to everyone who is on the hard road to being debt free - stick with it, it really is worth it!

throughtherain

This is a really interesting thread. I got into debt when I started uni too and have been slowly adding to CC debt until last September when I was in a position to start tackling it. Up to this point I had thought that being in debt was fine and normal. I think this is a result of the attitude to debt sold to students.

I opened my student bank account 3 months before I started uni with an interest free overdraft, or, as I read it, £1000 of 'free' money that I must be expected to spend else why would it be standard issue for students? In addition, it was essential to take out a student loan to fund my course, which incidentally is an essential requirement for my career, but which added to my perspective that debt was ok. I vividly remember Martin MSE on TV saying that "debt isn't bad, bad debt is bad", and thinking that my small overdraft and my student loan were acceptable debts. While in principle I agree with this, the problem I found is that this mindset leads to small problems snowballing into larger problems, as 'not bad' debts can soon turn into 'bad' debts, when after a few years of graduating your interest-free overdraft is no longer interest-free, your credit card bills are now mounting as you try to survive post-graduate training or a low-paid entry-level job or keep up with the lifestyle that you've become a part of after graduating.

I was 'wise' enough to refuse a credit card at first but turned to them at some point during my course, despite working constantly alongside studying.

At this point I honestly do not know if having credit so freely available encouraged me to spend more than I had to, or whether my overdraft and CC's were lifesavers that enabled me to finish uni. I suspect there were times I needed them but I also suspect I would be in a much better position now, 8 years later, if I had learned to budget and cut my cloth accordingly back then, rather than waiting until I had £9000 of debt to deal with.

I have learned my lesson now (I think) but I despair thinking about students unwittingly entering this cycle now, and I'm not sure whether the increased tuition fees are enough to open some students' eyes to the terrible prospect of being in a lot of debt, or it will make it even more acceptable to be in a lot of debt.

costaerer

well im only 22 but ive been in debt since i was.....18! i owe about £10,000 in total including £2500 to my parents. I have 2 or 3 defaults and am on a DMP. Im hopefulling coming into some money in the next few months and will be able to pay all my debts off. My real concern is i am totally addicted to spending money, i cant bare to have money sitting in my bank account. I have to spend it!
So even if i pay my debts, im scared ill get into debt again. I cant get any new credit because of my defaults etc...

Superbiatch

I can thank Comet for starting me out in the credit world. I got my first flat at 18 and headed off to buy a microwave. Very easily I got talked into getting credit (was in full time employment) and actually ended up buying a tv, video recorder (my god does anybody know what they are these days!), a washing machine and a microwave! Probably about 1k and from then onwards life was always on credit.

I'm now 33 and trying to pay it all off

d3mon4ngel

Similar story to most... first got into debt with my student overdraft and credit card when I turned 18 so that makes it just over 10 years. Luckily I never ran it up to a huge amount, though I've lived in and out of my overdraft since getting it and had a balance on the credit card for at least 7 or 8 years (though finally now paid off). My debt at its highest was probably close to £8k and I'm currently at approximately £3k remaining, including £700 to my stepmum and £1k to an ex-boyfriend. I will be fully out of my overdraft by June this year (it's been a long time coming!) and hopefully I will never return! I've got to wait another 2 years for my default to drop off, and have to quit my wanderer ways and stay in one place until at least 2016 as I'm determined to have a "perfect" credit report for at least one day of my life

Malky

Thanks everyone for your comments so far. It seems that the common link is most people getting a credit card at 18 and the debts spiralling from there.

Nottoobadyet

I guess I was lucky as I didnt really have access to commercial credit (or the desire to get it) until essentially this year, mostly as I have moved around a lot so dont have much of a credit history.

I was in debt from September 2007 - October 2010, or ages 20-23. My debt was (13k!) tuition for my MSc, and with some effort I was able to pay it back two years after graduating. Ive used cards since, largely in an effort to build a credit history.