How old are you?

Horace

Here goes...I am 46 (nearly 47) and I once had a massive debt on a credit card (big for me anyway it was £3,000) I was doing OK paying it off and then I had an accident which put paid to any work for a while. I managed to pay the debt off with the fortnightly sickpay that I received at the time.

As you can see from my sig, I have yet more debt (not helped this time by being made redundant:mad: ) Still I have managed to switch to a 0% interest card and I really must get round to sorting out my Amex because it still has that bloomin' RPI on it. Plus I owe my OH £700 because he bailed me out recently after the Troll that I worked for failed to pay me and as I had nothing to pay my rent with, he lent me some money.

Generally I am not too bad with money, and do have some lovely things to show for it as well as lovely holiday memories.

lindauk

21 - i got into a little debt at 19 (after a relationship breakup) cleared it and was debt free for a while and recently got a little debt when i had an unexpected expense of new glasses! (which i really couldn't cope without) hoping to have cleared that in a couple of months but then i move so who knows!

mcjordi

23 was in debt at 18 with student credit card lol

SmellyOldSock

i'm 36 years old and have been in debt since I was about 25! started with credit cards and catalogues, its now ending, paying it all off and no more credit!

fermi

How old are you?

Less than 34.:p

What age were you first in debt?

18 when I went to Uni. That seems to be the start of it for many here.

No debts apart from student loans now though. And I will treat credit in the future with the respect and wariness I should have shown before.:o

quick-smart

I'm 27, got into debt at 19 - wanted a Current Account instead of a standard cash card account, but struggled due to lack of credit rating so got a Capital One CC.
6 months later, got my Smile CC, Savings Acc and credit card, who despite all my (and their) problems, I'm still with as they appeal to my 'ethical nature' and on the whole, they're not so bad.

Original Credit limits were £200 on Capital One and £800 on smile, with a £500 overdraft that I never touched.

Now owe £1700 to Capital one, £2900 to smile (paid off and cancelled overdraft) £400 to Aqua £300 to Vanquis, £230 catalogue, £1000 loan and paying of £750 to The Money Shop!

In between, I've had a HFC HP loan, an extended HFC loan, 2 cahoot loans and a Next catalogue.

Yikes!!

thepinklady

I am 23 years old and have been in debt since i was about 18. All my debts have been fairly small, my first debt with was Dorothy Perkins, i never should have signed up as the APR was madness! Then i got a Barclaycard, another big mistake as the APR again was sky high. At 18 you don't really think of the APR, just want to go out spending money you don't have.

I have now got 3.5K debt left, hoping to have that cleared by November this year.

Ames

Anyone else reading this getting annoyed at the way the government have engineered things so that 18 year olds are pretty much guaranteed to get into debt going to uni? I mean, the student loan isn't enough to cover accommodation in many areas, never mind bills and study costs and that's without socialising! And then they complain about consumer debt spiralling out of control...

lilmissmup

23. 24 in a few months.

Been in debt since i turned 18 and got a credit card then my OH had a nasty landlord so got a loan to get a flat deposit etc, then more cards, then another loan and now on 3rd loan and 1 credit card left!. Aiming to be debt free by the age of 24 and 3 months and then the only debt i ever want again is a mortgage! Saving is so much more satisfying!

quick-smart

At last with student debt it'll always be pretty much the lowest interest rate going, and you dont' have to start paying until you his £15000.

I do think though, now they've changed the tax, they should increase that threshold as anyone coming out of Uni and starting a low paid job will get stung twice until they hit around £18000.

I do think that more help should be given, perhaps with more grants rather than loans, so the grant and loan can cover the cost of living and study, so that any other debt the student takes, such as overdrafts, can be kept to a minimum.