Your Debt

this_year_2

Morning All,
Strange sort of question but how long have some of you been in debt for and how long have you been trying to clear it.

Or do you have that much that there is not enough time in your life to clear what you have...

I have been in debt for about 7yrs and will be clear in about 1 to 1.5 yrs (Only as I have just started to tackle my debts) and then for my sins will be getting a mortgage and will clear that just in time to retire at 65

immoral_angeluk

Both me and my husband have been in debt since the age of 18. Saying that I'm 21 and he's 28. We've been trying to clear it since October last year so not long really. I'm just glad we've had our LBM whilst we're still young so we don't make the same mistakes again!

GirlRacer_2

I have been in debt since about 1990, it has varied in degrees, some years it was manageable and some years horrendous. I had my lightbulb moment in February 2007 and even though my debt is manageable at the moment I have decided that this is the year it becomes non-existent.

redsquirrel80

Started when I was 18 with overdraft, first credit card, student loan, so just over 9 years.. was all manageable until about 2 years ago when I ended up with too much... head in the sand for a while then started trying to sort things out at end of last year when I got a new job, then over the last couple of months been thinking about how to clear it rather than just keeping up with minimum payments. At current rate it looks like taking me about five years to pay it all off (not counting student loans in that), hoping I can do it sooner though.. at the moment it feels like I'll never have the mortgage/ car/ holidays etc that some of my friends are managing to have in their late 20s-early 30s because they were more sensible than me!

southernscouser

Started when I was 18/19 odd!

Had my lighbulb moment in September 2005 and hope to be debt free this time next year!

crawley_girl

Like everyone else, since I was about 18 and all of those lovely credit card offers came thru my letter box!

I am now 28 and hope to be sorted this time next year

:heartpuls CG :heartpuls

okra

I first obtained credit at 18, like everyone else.. At that time, though, it was a cc being paid off every month so not what I consider 'debt'

I have got into debt with student loans, a credit card, an overdraft and a personal loan gradually - the first dates from 2000, and the last from mid-2005. If we paid the minimum repayments, it would take almost 5 years to clear the debt. However, I'm going back to work shortly (I hope!) and we will then be able to clear it in 12 months if we're careful.

I'm so grateful for having had my LBM in my 20's, when the debt was relatively small.

winkle1

i first got into debt aged 19, in my second year of university. got a credit card and student loan and I had 2 overdrafts. left uni and got a graduate loan to pay everything off, racked up store cards and credit cards, then got a 10K loan to pay everything off...

I'm 28 this year and I have a CC at 0% and a £500 overdraft which are manageable for me. I am also saving hard this year and when the 0% deal runs out I will use this money to pay the CC.

so 9 years of debt! gulp! i will be out of it this year though and then getting a mortgage next year so i suppose i'll be in debt forever!

aliG_3

been in a small amount of debt since 19 and was at uni. Debt have now escalated and partly due to our own and an evil MIL(long story) OUR DEBTS HAVE SPIRALLED OUT OF CONTROL. Terrified at the moment and feel like it is choking me. I am now 29 and cannot ever see us getting out of this one.

itsarichmansworld

Since 18 same old same old I got a student bank account and it all went down hill from there......

ani*fan

I also first got into debt when I left home at 18 and started uni. I opened a new student bank account at the start of each academic year and finished with 3 giant overdrafts! (Thought this was pretty clever at the time:embarasse )

My debt got giant then by some huge stroke of luck my flat sold for a huge amount and I paid everything off then put the rest straight into my new flat and doing a post grad course I'd always wanted to.

That year of study cost WAY more than I'd anticipated. Ended up using all the equity to keep afloat, then when I finished I struggled to get a job for 7 months. Meanwhile me and my partner split up, we sold the flat and got pretty much nothing.

Now I have no flat and just over £5,000 of debt. I do have a job I love though (finally) and a debt free date that's not too far away. :j