22yo Long time form lurker, on a DMP journey

PJ90

Hi all,

I have to admit, I've been reading these forums, especially the debt free wannabe board for quite a long time and just wanted to share my experiences.

Over the past about 3 years, I did a year at University, moved out with a few friends and was introduced to the world of easy to obtain credit. When I finished college it seemed that everyone wanted to lend me money- I ended up with two interest free overdrafts and a lovely little student credit card. As a result, I felt quite rich and spent without thinking, giving me £2500 debt that I only needed to make a small payment to the credit card to keep out of trouble...

I carried on living a bit of a whirlwind, moving out of my parents house and in with a few friends and generally enjoying myself. I got myself a great job that I enjoy that was contracted part time, but gave me pretty much full time hours every week so I carried on spending what I earned and just letting my overdrafts and credit card tick over. After a few months, my hours started getting a bit erratic and I started relying on payday loans to pay the bills and ended up having accounts with 5 different companies. Somehow I managed to get by for about a year. Rolling over payday loans and paying off one with another one month-to-month. Looking back, I'd got so irresponsible and thought nothing about lending money. I even ended up buying a few tablet pc's through a catalogue account to sell on ebay so I could pay the rent with them.

Then I was told my hours were being reduced permanently to half of what they'd been for the past 18 months. This was my Light Bulb Moment. I'd just turned 22, and I'd somehow ended up with around £11,000 of debt. This included 2 overdrafts, a credit card, 4 payday loans, council tax arrears and electricity bill arrears.

I can honestly say I've never felt so low in my entire life. I felt like such a failure at such a young age. I'd been suffering from the dreaded ostritch syndrome (head in the sand) and I couldn't believe how flippantly I'd been borrowing money. I withdrew from everyone. I went to work in the morning and came home just to stay in my room in the dark watching TV and getting even more depressed. I'd reached the stage where I just couldn't afford to pay anything off and I'd ran out of options to borrow any more money.

I'd poked around moneysavingexpert a few times in the past, but I'd found my way back here after googling about payday loans and how to deal with them. I found my way to the debt free wannabe board and I am so glad I found it. I didn't sign up but by reading about other people's experiences I began to feel a bit less alone and got an idea about where to look for help.

In november 2012 I got in touch with stepchange and I made my first payment on my DMP on the first of January 2013 (Happy New Year!). I moved back in with Mum and Dad (telling them it was because of my reduced hours).

Since then, I've found another job within the same company with full time hours and my debt is now at around £6,000 and I should be debt free by March next year. By which time I'll be 23 and hopefully have plenty of time to rebuild my credit rating and get my life in order.

I guess the main reason I'm writing this is because I didn't see many people my age on the forum having trouble with debt so I hope that if anybody around my age sees this and it helps then it'll be worth it.

I feel great nowadays. I'm beginning to feel responsible and like everything is on the up. I hope if anyone is struggling you can see my story and believe that things do get better! In fact, I do see my debt free journey as a positive- once it's all paid off I'll definitely be a lot more responsible with my money!

Thank you all on these boards for all the help you've given me so far - (Without even knowing!!)