What is your unsecured debt as a % of income?

Million_Percent

I've often thought that there should be a legal limit on the amount of unsecured debt an individual can have in relation to their income. Just curious, what is your unsecured debt as a percentage of your income?

Mine is currently 28.3%. Three years ago it was over 60% (planning for it to be 0% in two years time!)

Phelpsie001

At the moment mine is 16.12% but on the 16th of next month will be 15.44%

My highest was in August 2009 when I had 33.33% eeeek....

Sparkerly

Ours is currently somewhere aroound 40%, but that is because since getting the debt I have stopped working. As peoples circumstances change all the time and can be working one minute and not the next it would probably be hard to enforce.

However I'm not sure just the lenders should take responsibilty for this as maybe as borrowers its up to us if we try to get into even more debt. Not trying to be argumentative but I do think that responsible lending is a two way street - yes it would be good if the lenders said no, but then there may be a lot of people who could really suffer as a result of setting a max percentage. Just a thought and would be interested in hearing other peolples opinion on this.

beachie

Assuming we are talking about annual salary/income my amount is 14.61%.

On average I am paying 0.5% of this off a month, so should be debt free in 21.5 months or so.

It is taking longer because I am overpaying on the mortgage as well.

Phelpsie001

I have unsecured debts of £4220 and pay off £180 a month, so thats approx 4.3% a month. I have large secured debt (mortgage) which eats up more than 50% of my salary though =(

Million_Percent

Sparkerly wrote: »

Ours is currently somewhere aroound 40%, but that is because since getting the debt I have stopped working. As peoples circumstances change all the time and can be working one minute and not the next it would probably be hard to enforce.

However I'm not sure just the lenders should take responsibilty for this as maybe as borrowers its up to us if we try to get into even more debt. Not trying to be argumentative but I do think that responsible lending is a two way street - yes it would be good if the lenders said no, but then there may be a lot of people who could really suffer as a result of setting a max percentage. Just a thought and would be interested in hearing other peolples opinion on this.

I agree it is a 2 way street. When taking out credit, there should be a legal responsibility on the borrower to declare their income and exisiting debt coupled with a responsibility on the lender to not exceed a given amount. Perhaps a guideline rather than a legal limit?

I guess there is also the problem that ignorant people will want to blame the system if they end up with financial problems even though they stayed below the max percentage.

Better financial education is the answer but I do think some people need protecting from themselves and the banks sure as hell ain't gonna do it.

Hovel_lady

Wish I hadn't worked this out..
Assuming you mean annual salary and total debt it's 70% :eek::eek:
Think I'll go for a lie down now

monicamj

Ah another figure to add to my spreadsheet! 35%

somethingcorporate

Unsecured it's <1%, secured it's upwards of 400% :eek:

Cat2011

I wish I hadn't looked now... 33.02%.

Best get back to the NSD's!

x_Kaz_x

Mine's around 13.5% of our annual income and with a goal to be paid off in 2 years