Finally i’m debt free!

DaveH93

This feels like a slightly odd post to be putting as my first ever post on this forum, however it also feels the perfect place to share my story.

I’m Dave, i’m  27, and for the past 7 years I had been in debt, it all started in 2013 with a credit card which I got solely as “protection” for going to Las Vegas in case of emergencies, unfortunately, the week before I went away, I was made redundant from my job, this meant that when I returned from America I had a month gap between my unemployment and finding a new job. I was lucky in that i managed to find a job quickly, but unlucky in that i’d had my first taste of CREDIT and fell victim to the lure of have now and buy later. 

It started off gradually, with a few purchases, but paying it back relatively quickly, but then it grew, I would find myself buying things on the credit card but then having the attitude of; “it’s okay, i’ll just pay more next month” but then it became a vicious circle, I found the debt building up slowly. 

Fast forward to 2016, and I owed £3500 on my barclays credit card, I was frustrated because I would be paying the repayments but the value never seemed to decrease, the interest was killing me! I moved into my first rented flat at the start of 2017, and the debt had stabilised, and I tried to get a balance transfer interest free card but my credit was causing me to be declined. By June my application for a transfer account with Lloyds was accepted, and I was able to transfer £2000 across with 24 months interest free. 

 In September 2017 I bought my now ex-girlfriend an iPad through Very on a store credit scheme, repaying it on a monthly basis over the course of 12 months, only a week after signing the agreement on the iPad, we broke up! Leaving me to pay £500 for this device whilst not even having it - the joke was on me!

At the turn of 2018, my cars head gasket decided to give up, and the cost to repair was more costly than the car was worth, I panicked and rushed into getting a barclays loan for £8000, thinking i’d be able to get a car and consolidate my debts into one  place, the term was 5 years, at a rate of 24.1%, I was paying approximately £220 a month, and i was due to pay approx £13,000 in total. This initially was great, i’d managed to clear both credit cards, and had a car. But I’d spent the entire £8,000. 

To start with, I was happy with this, the repayments were manageable, I felt i’d had a fresh start. Fast forward to November 2018, i’d been In a new relationship for 4 months, we were talking about all these exciting plans for the future, but I knew I had to tell her about my debt, it felt like a cloud hanging over me, I felt so ashamed, growing up i’d always been very short sighted regarding my future, I’d suffered with depression since the age of 16, and never believed myself worthy of anything, which is why i’d never tried to plan ahead to far. but speaking with her, telling her what I considered my worst parts, I realised that I wanted to clear this sooner, I wanted to be debt free.

I looked at the payments i’d made, I realised that in the 11 months that I’d been paying the loan, only a small portion was actually to the loan, and the majority was paying the interest, I felt so frustrated and annoyed, I had been very naive when I took out the initial loan and it was coming back to bite me. I ended up looking around at other loan options, and found one with Post Office Money loans, it was for £9000 over 24 months, at 11.9% with total repayable of £10,097.04, it meant I was paying £420.71 per month, this was more of a commitment financially, but meant i’d be debt free quicker. 

My first payment was December 2018, in June 2019 I made my first ‘overpayment’ and felt so happy, I paid an extra month off and received an interest rebate - I didn’t even know these existed. After that date, I set myself a goal to clear my loan as soon as final payment was initially set to be November 2020, but i’m so ecstatic to say, that since I started my loan in December 2018, I made overpayments totalling £2,756.42, and received total interest rebates of just under £200. 

I scrimped, and I worked incredibly hard to save where I could, restricting on other things to ensure I put as much as I could into my loan, but as of 23rd April 2020, I am officially DEBT FREE.

if you’ve made it this far, thank you, I appreciate you reading this, I hope someone may read this and take inspiration in that, you can become debt free, I think the main thing I learnt is that you just need your mindset to be in the right place. It wasn’t until I decided what I wanted for my future, that I decided to address my past.