How did you get into debt

lvu · 3 July 2007 at 12:21PM

Up to the age of 23 I had done really well, no credit cards, an OD of about £50 only used at the end of the month and my student loan was the goverment one, only taken out for 2 years to pay fees, life was good.

Until, I was the victim of identity fraud. someone emptied my account 2 days after payday stealling £800, the bank knew it wasn't me but couldn't/wouldn't refund the money until their fraud department had okayed it. Instead they increased my OD to cover the amount which i could then reduce when they refunded my money. Good plan, lovely bank, except they refunded it in 3 small installments, also not being as internet banking savvy as i am now i missed them putting it in and never reduced the OD, 6 years later the OD reached £950 and they had earned £'s off me in interest.

I got my first credit card 3 years ago to buy something for about £400 thinking, will be easier to pay it off at 0% than the time it will take to save up. Again fastforward 3 years and the bill is now £950.

But thanks to this board i have done my snowball and reduced each debt by approx £2100 in the first month. Knowledge is power

Thaks MSE

smudgemanc26 · 3 July 2007 at 12:23PM

Mine was the same as IM i just paid the minimum payments each month and managed to put more onto my card and took everything they offered without even thinking like when cap one put up my limit instead of thinking to myself why are they doing this and having the power to ring them up and say stuff it i just let it happen then thought i was rich again! If only i knew then what i know now.

Some things i bought were for my house too im not justifying it at all but when i needed a new central heating system i didnt have the money to pay for it so i put that on my credit card. I wish i'd have just stayed cold and boiled water in a pan now!

Oh well they say you live and learn and they are right you do.

beckiem · 3 July 2007 at 12:46PM

i added mine up last nite £18,430.03p i got in to debt coz my partner was a very heavy drinker so we got in to debt took a £5000 loan then got in to debt again he was drinking his wages so i took out £8000 to pay off the last one and the debt then again £10,000 to pay it off the debt and loan again but the said on the first of august they may give me more so i can consolidate everything as my partner has been sober for three months!!!! after about 9 years so it would be a nice start for us again

nickelodeon · 3 July 2007 at 12:51PM

Well my loan is from my post-grad course which I had to do to get the job i'm now in, the fees alone were £7,500 but I also received a further £4,500 for living costs. To be honest most of that went on going out and buying clothes, shoes etc! I wasted so much money at uni and still have to overdraft to prove it!
Then I bought a flat a year ago and bought furniture for it on a 0% credit card, also used the credit card to pay for a skiing holiday, a flight to Spain and car insurance, car service etc! It all mounted up to over £3,000 pretty quickly!
At the time I didn't think too much about it, though that just because I was using a 0% credit card I was being clever with my money and not paying interest, luckily I have been able to shift the balance to another 0% credit card and so haven't paid any interest, but that's not really the point, I still have to pay it all back and have now stopped using my credit card and only buy what I can afford!

LJD1_2 · 3 July 2007 at 1:14PM

Our debt problem is totally our fault.

We bought a house that was too expensive for us but have to say that's the only good mistake we made as we've never had to move and we couldn't have afforded house prices now. We had to have some essential work done on the house and got totally stung for the loan as we just saw the monthly repayment rather than what it would cost us. Seven years later we owed more than we'd borrowed in the first place and remortgaged to be able to pay that off (since repayed the extra on the mortgage).

We used credit cards to buy things rather than save and they just grew and grew. Then we got the one account for our mortgage which meant we effectively didn't pay the mortgage for two years as we just kept spending up to our facility.

It's all paid off now. I won't get in debt again because I write everything down that I spend and we don't buy anything on impulse anymore.

So, all our fault and it won't happen again xx

Pooky · 3 July 2007 at 1:22PM

Mine was sheer stupidity.

Had no debt until 1998, we managed to get a mortgage for £39500 for a house that needed completely renovating, we were renting before that at £450 per month so the drop to £167 mortgage was ideal, we'd use the extra to start getting work done.

I took out a credit card in my name (£5k limit even though I wasn't working) - used it to fund some of the bigger purchases, i.e. kitchen (MFI ex display for £300) and new bathroom suite. Then we had a roof problem, so spent £3k (a loan - in my name only as I was the only one there at the time to sign the papers) having that reroofed and new gutters etc - so £8k and money was getting tight. Then the car broke down - bought a £500 run about (another credit card - in my name as I was the one that phoned for it) that was more trouble than it was worth.

The marriage died, I asked him to leave and then realised I was alone with 2 small children, a mortgage, debt and no job. But boy was it worth it to be out of that marriage.

Met a lovely bloke - he had £11k of his own debts so we struggled - didn't help he was 150 miles away - we didn't eat all week so he had the petrol money to come and visit. So there we were with £19.5k of debt and no way of getting out of it unless we sold the house - which we needed to spend more on to finish - took the bull by the horns, spent another £3k to get the house done and then got a letter to say that due to exh's debts he'd run up since leaving - the house was going to have to be sold - we argued that he shouldn't get half the proceeds as he'd not paid for work - went on for months and months - finally sold the house and between us made a profit of £47k - which the courts said needed to be split between us (wasn't happy but what can you do!!)..cleared mine and new DH's debts.

Stupidly 7 years later we're in debt again - new DH had even more debts chasing him that he'd tried to ignore, we had a car written off 3 weeks after buying it - leaving us with a car loan and no car and a substantial loss on the insurance.

We're now in a position that we're not paying interest on anything, DH is now earning over £40k a year and we should be debt free in 10 months.

I'd hate to think that we'd be in this position again but you never know what life is going to throw at you - at least I know how to deal with it and that it really isn't the end of the world as long as you've got love and support and beautiful kids.

nicola1982_2 · 3 July 2007 at 1:41PM

My story has two parts. The first begins with an idiot ex and a monkey. Back when I was with my ex I couldn't drive and depended on him entirely for lifts etc. Problem was he never had money to put petrol inhis car, not even enough to get to me so I could repay it. So I took out a credit card in my name with a card for him to use for petrol. Stupidly I trusted him and didn't set a limit on spending. It was only when I got a call from the cc company regarding excessive spending in HMV I started to question what he'd done. By then it was too late - he'd run up £3500 within a month spending on things such as a monkey and cage (which he stupidly lied to me about the cost, despite the fact I got the bill for it), and Apple Mac and various CDs/DVDs and musical equipment. After we'd broken up he continued repaying it until I started seeing OH when he started to miss payments and moan when I rang asking for money. I ended up telling him to forget it and have never spoken to him again.

Making the repayments on the debt left me short at university so I used my cards to get me through. I also spend time studying in Canada which cost alot more than I'd expected. It all built up and soon I was £14k in debt.

shamu95 · 3 July 2007 at 1:45PM

hi, Think everyone knows my story but here it is.
Got ill when pregnant with 2nd child which was 3mths in hosp and a year off work. payment protection paid out on a loan but that was it-only had mat pay coming in so borrowed off my cards to pay other things like my share of mort etc.
Wouldnt say ive spent an awful lot just everything went on the cc-the car ins aswell and my income had decreased so much it just got out of control and when there was no more money left i consolidated. Worst thing ever- now here i am again as i again robbed peter to pay paul.

thevoiceofalan · 3 July 2007 at 2:37PM

nicola1982 wrote: »

By then it was too late - he'd run up £3500 within a month spending on things such as a monkey and cage

Seriously a monkey in a cage ... a real monkey??? Where did he buy that? I thought I am bad for impulse buys :eek:

For me uni far too many students loans, paid off my OD's now and my cc was at £3000 basically honours year living interest free card paid rent off it etc got me my degree which off the back of that I have paid most of this off.

newlywed · 3 July 2007 at 2:58PM

Mine was buying too much stuff, going on holidays and spending too much whilst thinking I could afford the minimum payment, and then when I struggled to pay that, consolidating and not cutting up the credit cards

.

When the 5th consolidation loan was declined and I had to borrow money from one card to pay the minimum on the others i was stuck. Then they put up the interest rates on each of the cards.

I never added up the totals till I found this site. Wish your credit report or something would add it up for you so you could see it in black and white every month, loans, cards and catalogues all there and a big huge total.

How did you get into debt

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