Anyone else with 'big' debts

bamgbost

Had my lightbulb moment a year ago and it was 67k! Still on the journey. Read my story, the thread is in my signature and see if you relate at all. Comment or PM me for any Qs.

DjangoUnchained

had about £60k credit card debt 5 years ago when my mortgage came to an end. Defaulted on all the cards and agreed zero interest payments with most of them. £4.5k sold to debt company which 4 years later still cant provide the CCA so unenforceable. currently under £3k left which i could pay off today but its all zero interest so can pay it over 2 years. i sleep well at night.

pippa_pelada

My husband and I had debts of around £56,000 back in 2018 and we didn't really get going with paying anything back other than the bare minimums until Nov 2019 but we're on a roll now and we're aiming to have everything paid back by May 2022 - then we'll start to tackle the mortgage with overpayments. It's frustratingly slow but it helps to look back on how far you've come every so often.

Ex_welsh_borrower

Hi Warren80, I'm just starting now to try and get myself of CC, Loan and Store Card debt I've gotten myself into over years of ridiculous financial mismanagement. I'm starting at 51k in those debts as well as 84k mortgage.

I'm into my first month of a DMP having realised through many hours reading on here and the advice of StepChange that I needed to do something about it. 

Its been scary getting letters from a couple of my 9 creditors confirming the default notice but also that they are pausing the interest charges which were crippling me. Just the other 7 to go 😳

Clearly I've got a long way to go and I really need to learn how to manage money (at 35 🤦🏼) but I do feel like the clouds are starting to break.
Debt Free Date March 2027 😩

One-step-at-a-time

Yep, we started dealing with things 4 years ago with debts of 50k (which is still higher than our household income). £7535 to go and we've done it with no missed payments, payment holidays , windfalls or DMP, just a plan and a hefty dose of stubbornness

Ex_welsh_borrower

One-step-at-a-time said:

Yep, we started dealing with things 4 years ago with debts of 50k (which is still higher than our household income). £7535 to go and we've done it with no missed payments, payment holidays , windfalls or DMP, just a plan and a hefty dose of stubbornness

Well done that's really impressive, just wish I'd started dealing with this sooner.
3 have agreed to pause interest now, (6 to go) new account transferred today as my previous account was with one of my creditors.
I'm actually looking forward to my DMP payment going out on Monday, is that odd? 

Brenster

About 10 years ago i had aprox £30k, have paid off over the years (no bankrupcy or DMP), just good old fasioned hard work (and money saving advise from this forum), and probably managed to become debt free in 2015, since then i have tackled aprox £6k of student loan debt and cleared, and started saving and putting money away into my pension, and am now focusedon paying off my mortgage and acheiving an early retirement.

I feel the dedication to paying off debt really does give you a financial education for when you start accruing money, the similarities from seeing debts reduce flipped on its head to seeing savings accrue really are amazing.    

Aspiration

Hi Warren,
We started properly in April 2020 with a pretty big number of £102.222. Currently at £67k now and fortunately have some investments being released this year. We will have this cleared by Oct 2021. 

Whilst outgoings will still be high through some choices we make, it will be huge to not pay any interest on anything.

In truth, I should have made cut backs earlier in life and never got in this position. We’ve learnt to enjoy budgeting and It’s always strange getting paid as where we budget it doesn’t make a difference.

One of the big transformations for us has been Monzo, spending a lot of time setting up a spreadsheet and learning from experiences throughout the year. 

DM if you do want to as it can feel a bit mundane.

powellypowelly

I had around 60k of unsecured debt when I started, took me 9 years to get rid. Like some else said above, 2k and no plan can be worse than 60k with a plan. You're definitely not alone, and MSE is somewhere you can be frank about it.