How did u get into debt ?

poppyjay

Morning all was just wondering how everyone else managed to get themselves into debt .
My story I's got my first CC at 19 and used it as free money bank offered me a loan to clear it.I never cut the card up and i did it again.




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danothy

I'm much the same as you but with using a student overdraft as free money. I guess luckily for me it was free (of interest at least). Also luckily they eventually stopped extending it and never offered me a loan or anything else so I had to face the problem before it started to spiral.

Paying that off was so much harder than it should have been, it's so psychologically damaging to have to drop money into the debt repayment black hole when you can't feel the benefit of having had that money previously.

I guess the moral is if you borrow money make sure that the benefits of what you use it for last for as least as long as the repayment period and outweigh the feeling of having a chunk of your income each month taken. That and make sure you can afford it.

Just_Plain_Jane

I got into debt after using my credit card to cover bills and general living expenses while my ex husband p*ssed his wages up the wall.

KS2008

I lived outside of my means. My main problem was that I could instantly increase my overdraft online by entering my password. Lethal.:o:eek: Managed to get all the way through university without an overdraft then managed to get all the way into a £3000 overdraft within a year, by increasing it by £50/£100 every few weeks. When I had no actual money left.

Same thing, saw it as free money. Now I realise that when my wages don't even bring me back into the black each month - and I pay interest on it all - it really isn't free money.

I also have a couple of credit cards which have massive interest rates - this site has made me realise that by just paying the min payments on everything I have probably paid for the trivial stuff that I have bought on them about 10 times over.

I am pleased to say though since discovering this site at the beginning of the year I have paid off a store card and my online shopping account. So am pretty pleased that I am tackling things. The next thing is my credit card with massive 56.9% interest. (Ouch). Will be gone and cut up in about 3 months

But my biggest regret is that stupid massive overdraft.

The thing that gets me most is that I have NOTHING to show for the debt that I have.

Trajal

I was earning a decent living and basically had an emergency right before my job went with the credit crunch. I ran up a large debt on a credit card (well nothing compared to many but for me it was large) by buying a car on a credit card for my ex-partner.

Had I kept my job for a further 4-5 months it would have been fine, but shortly afterwards I lost my job, discovered that the girl I had been living with was actually just a gold digger who fabricated a story to the police which led me to being removed from our flat and arrested.

The police later apologised, realising they had made a mistake but they told me I couldn't return to the flat (which had been rented in her name).

I then used further credit to live in a B&B until I could find a cheap room in a shared house, and got a job.

By the time I was back on my feet with a less well paying job, HSBC pulled the overdraft out from me, and I had run up several thousand pounds of debt which my new income couldn't realistically cover.

Took me about 18 months to get the debts to manageable levels consummate with my new income level, and now I'm very much on track, but I still have 1700 on the HSBC credit card left.

Whilst I was misguided over a few things, mostly it was a combination of bad luck and poor decisions rather than just going nuts with a credit card that I could never repay.

Fortunately since all that, I met a girl about 18 months ago who is very different and so I am very glad it all happened, because despite the debt, at least it exposed my previous partner for what she was and gave me the chance to get out. A very lucky escape and a small price to pay for it I think!

Gordon_Hose

Credits Cards. Spawn of Satan for the naive 18 year old I was.

I'll never ever get another one.

PM1CAS

For me it all began when I separated 3 years ago. I spent 5k on legal fees as my ex took me all the way to court.

Then there have been numerous things over the three years since, £840 this month for car repair/hire. previous car repairs, new dishwasher, £400. Throw in a month between jobs and two kids and it's been really hard.

I aim to be debt free by Christmas day. I can do it, I know I can.

morgan78_2

mine was online gambling and being useless withmoney didnt seem much all i was doing was entering the amount totally different to handing over cash, then lost my job that was nearly 5 years ago ran up just short of £42000 now am down to one creditor and am on track to pay that off by july, Learnt my lesson nearlycost me my marriage and kids but now am changed man and love to save

ElmerFudd

My debt life began in my second year at university when my bank started freezing my account (even with money in it) due to my student loans/ grants being late. This forced me to start using my credit cards, which in turn began to effect my whole budget. Vicious circle. Debt caused more debt and before too long I am where I am now. I've probably paid off what I originally owed 1000 times over, however some of the recent debt was due to some recent emergencies. I can honestly say though if the banks hadn't done that I wouldn't be in this much debt. I would have had savings by now to cover the emergencies.

Million_Percent

We ran up a bunch of debt while my OH was in universtiy. She went back later to do a degree and we put stuff on CCs as she wasn't earning plus we got married after she graduated. We fell into the trap of thinking we'll only get married once so pushed the boat out a bit (not loads but we had a full white wedding and nice honeymoon - family couldn't help with the cost so we had to pay for it all ourselves).

After all that we had about 23K of debt but it was all under control as we had been living on just one wage and once the OH started working we were paying it off at a rate of £1200 a month. Unfortuantely the Credit Crunch/Recession hit and she was made redundant. Had that not happened we'd have paid it all off by May 2010. As it was we could still cover the minimums but the interest was killing us so we consolidated 5 CCs onto a single 4 yr loan and cut up all but one of the CCs - the overall interest was lower than the combined CCs even though some were 0%. We now have around 9K left on the loan which should be paid off by Sept 2013.

If I could do things differently, I'd have budgeted more strictly while the OH was in uni so that we didn't overspend so much and then not spent so much on the wedding. It's all very well having a great wedding and honeymoon but not if you spend the next 5 years with your life on hold while you pay for it.

bobtail_5

As soon as I turned 18 my parents took out a provident loan in my name, I just had to sign on the dotted line and go along with it. Then they started charging me board when I was in my first year at college and only worked part time, could no longer afford clothing or bus fare so I took out store cards and credit cards. I did this for a couple of years and because I could no longer sustain my college lifestyle with my part time work (because of paying board) I just used the cards as free money. I bought an iPod on credit and had a year to pay it off without interest but that never happened.

Then my parents bribed me to take out a bank loan otherwise they wouldn't help me get to uni. I now have £5000 of debt from this loan which I pay myself as parents don't pay it on time. I also have two overdrafts I took out at uni to help with accommodation :-(