What do you consider debt free to be??

SuzySu

I think the majority of people who have a mortgage but owe nothing else would not consider themselves to be in debt. Before our finances went t1ts up I certainly would have been amongst them.

If you are in debt, your credit rating suffers. If you only have a mortgage (and keep up with repayments) it seems your credit rating improves.

Runnybabbit

AND ......... I'm not that old either although I do lip read at 2,000 per min!. Well you have to working in the NHS. Whoops wrong thread again.

LilacPixie

poorandindenial wrote: »

lol - I was just debating whether the user called meyore was mey-or-e (which sounds like it is being a bit itallian) or mey-ore (as in the winnie the pooh donkey but with an m on the front) but shav/chav is a much better conundrum.

Err and on the original topic - I think you are debt free when all but your mortgage is paid off, then you are eventually mortgage free (although I don't have one and am planning on getting debt free before I get a mortgage so I may not have a proper vote on this)

aaa but here is a conundrum. student loans are currently 4.8% apr. Mortgages are a bit more, mines is 5.69% fixed but the nexer deals seem to hang around the 7% mark so surely if snowballing correctly the mortgage should go before the student loan.

poorandindenial

Couldn't agree more Runny, just think how lacking most of our senses of humour would have been when we first descended onto these boards (I think most people come here in desperation, I know I did) and then we get a grip and our sense of humour returns - brilliant!!

poorandindenial

SuzySu wrote: »

IIf you are in debt, your credit rating suffers. If you only have a mortgage (and keep up with repayments) it seems your credit rating improves.

I have LOADS of debt (as you can see) and my rating is 'excellent', I think most debt improves your rating if you service it and don't have too much spare floating around, once you get into problems it seems to plumet faster though

molerat

IMO a debt is when you cannot repay it immediately or sell the asset the loan is based on to repay it. A mortgage is not a debt (at the moment but with the way the housing market is going it could be) as the house could be sold to repay it. A student loan is unless you have assets that you can realise to repay it immediately. I do not consider the finance I have on my sofa as a debt because I took a 12 month interest free loan instead of using the cash I had put aside for it, the payments coming from that money.

LilacPixie

Gee this debt business is complicated. See i do consider myself to be 'in debt' even tho, for the moment at least, minimum payments are more than managable and we are overpaying by a few hundred a month.

I love a fight with a DCA tho. They really really annoy me

skintas_2

i would class my self as debt free when ive paid of my credit cards fingers crossed end of the year, and have over £1,000 in the bank

vixsta7

I can't wait to be debt free... Have just used the snowball calculator which says I'll be debt free in 33 months!! Im really hoping I can do it before then.

new2civvystreet

I still see my student loan in the same light as loans/credit cards. Simply because the payments do make a dent in my pay cheque that I notice. I would love to get rid of it, but know that it makes sense not to. I won't consider myself debt free until it's gone. The only debt I have left is my car financing. I don't mind that so much as I could clear it, but, I get free servicing with it and as the interest was paid upfront, my money is better off in savings.