Deep Singh

Keep reading in all the rags that personal debt is spiralling out of control, but then its said its on average £2k per person. Is that really a big deal?

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

http://www.ananova.com/business/story/sm_1294817.html

4 grand

Tiggs

If it was it would be fine......but its not. plenty of people have no debt and plenty have £10,15,20K+

Its like saying that of 100 people 30 are dead...so the avarge is still alive! Not much good to the 30 though!

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Brilliant analogy

....and so true....

Andrew Timmins

Not so long back I met a couple who owed about £100,000 in loans and credit cards. They rented a flat, no mortgage debt in that figure.

They push the average well up.

moses

trust me it is bros, my biggest mistake was getting credit cards till i was 24 i avoided them like a plague until i had a chance of getting the celtic football club one and from their i got alot more

and its so sad i spent 15k from them when i saw nice evo products, and it was bad, made me sick that time it took me ages to pay it aff

God willing i will stay away from credit cards in the near future

bren.wright

I think there are lots of people with way too many credit cards and loans. I know lots of people who have ran up 50k+ on credit cards who are only earning 30k a year.

The credit card companies should stop dishing out cards to people who already have way too many.

dpb

LOL ....the intrest drop will 'help out' no doubt.....

mart360

i have no credit cards any more.... got fed up with paying minimum amounts off...

we dumped them all into a remortgage, pay far less than we were every month, and should we choose to carry on paying what we were every month, we can finish our mortgage early by 6 years...

M

BlackadderII

I think with having so much equity tied up in peoples houses they are confident of borrowing so much money as they know that money can be transferred to a mortgage, problem is that this keeps the house prices inflated and stops our youngsters getting a foothold on the property ladder.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

See it all the time, people at work, early twenties earning 15 grand as a clerk yet they expect all the stuff like the latest mobile, an Ipod, exotic holidays, Designer gear and a brand new car every 3 years, there is no way 15 grand pays for that. I get stick of some for wearing stuff from Asda to work, taking butties in and actually thinking about what I buy rather than putting it on a card, I have pointed out (though its not my style) that I dont owe any money, have money invested for our kids future and live in a 450 grand house that we own outright, I also say that I can still go mad at any time and buy a stupid car, go anywhere I choose on holiday whilst they struggle to pay their cards off but the point is that if I spend it its not there anymore, you can only spend it once.

Credit, helping poor people look rich since 1990 !

mart360

even with what we added on, its still way less than the average ftb mortgage

M

Petem95

I like that one!!!

You can go too far the other way tho - its one thing being sensible with money, but quite another when you are taking a packed lunch to the cinema and wearing Asda bargain bin suites to work!

BlackadderII

Mart

Dont get me wrong its defo the right thing to do but imagine racking up large CC debts and not being able to put those onto your mortgage because house prices werent rising or hadn't risen, if you see what i mean.

As Jacko illustrated people who are single live well beyond their means, although many of us do have a way out and a very good way out it is, many people dont and sadly its the vulnerable youngsters who get suckered into this way of thought that debt is good.

jods

4 Grand !
FOUR GRAND !!

I dream of the days when I only owed 4 grand.

Chicken feed that !!!

kin'ell I would look on a 4K credit card bill as an "iddy biddy baby"

Then again easy come...........

moses

take my advice if u want a happy life dont get a credit card, i swear u will be happier without it no bull and cut down your extravagant buys , something u dont need

my evo cost me more than a lambo gallardo would have

******* car i luv it and hate it, its a bit like smeagol and the ring, its my precious me luvs it and hates my car

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

I work for a company selling loans.

I wouldnt usually say its that bad, but today I dealt with one guy that earned £1300 per month and spent £1600 per month just on debts (before food petrol etc) he was in serious trouble! he was looking for money for a car, when I suggested he see a counciller for his debt, he said I dont have a problem with debt.

fooking scary!! I declined him as it wasnt sensible to lend him more! most people would have lent it to him though.

responsible lending is no more!

Leslie

Moses is right, its a lot safer to use a debit card and to be prepared to wait to buy something when you have saved up for it.

Les

Reality

6 months ago we had government ministers / bank of England warning us about spiralling debt and how it needed to be kept under control. Yesterday we had a cut in interest rates to get people back into the shops spending money.

So the message is "Mortgages coming down - get spending".

So a couple with £250k mortgage will be £35 a month better off and they're gonna get back on the plastic.

It wouldn't have something to do with a third term would it ?

Somethings gonna have to give at some point

boxst

Hello

That debt must exclude mortgages and cars I assume? I actually owe £9K for a car that was on interest free credit for 3 years, and I have a £170K mortgage.

But I would class myself as "debt free" as I don't have any loans or outstanding credit card amounts.

Steve

sti-04!!

I was swamped with debt a few years ago, turned 18 & all this came upon me, i realised i could get loans galore, ended up spending it junk.

Took till i was 21 to pay it all off

I am glad to say that 4 years later only bit of debt i now have is my house & the mortgage is somewhere about 60%

JoeyDeacon

5 Years ago I had a £16K loan on a brand new Impreza, £7.5K house deposit which I put on a credit card (no 0% deals in those days), £4.5K on another loan and a further £3K on another credit card.

Plus my girlfriend (now wife) had an additional £10K of debt she had run up while she was a student.

£40K of unsecured debt in total, looking back I feel sick just thinking about it but at the time I wasn't worried at all. Luckily a few years later I had the lightbulb moment and started to realise how much I hated having all this debt. Sold the Impreza and have been paying the rest off ever since.

Next pay day I will be paying off the final £600 on my credit card (long since been cut up) and after that I am never, ever going to even consider taking out another loan or credit card ever again. Certainly looking forward to that extra £1000 or so a month we have been spending on clearing our debts. Going to be very satisfying saving the money each month and have the bank paying me interest for a change.

Thank god I had the sense to buy a house, even if I did put the deposit on a credit card.

We don't have brand new cars, new mobile phones, exotic holidays etc. but I certainly sleep a lot more soundly at night. I have had brand new cars and the novelty wears off pretty soon after the first finance payment has been taken. For those of you who are heavily in debt just think how much extra money you would have if you didn't have to meet those finance payments at the start of each month.

Debt is a government conspiracy anyway, they want you to be in debt up to your eyeballs so you have to work until the day you die and pay them lots of taxes. It's amazing how my attitude to working has changed as I have got less and less in debt. I now see work as something that is stopping me doing the things I really want to do in life, rather than allowing me to buy the things I want.

Basically being in debt is rubbish and you don't really need all the things you bought anyway.

Diablo

Yes its getting out of hand.

D

Leslie

Well said Joey Deacon.

Les

matt85

I will have £13k in student loans.

University- massive waste of time, money and effort.

Reality

Tony Blair doesn't think so - Keeps the young off the dole figures and burdens them with debt for 10 years or so .

Deep Singh

I used to have quite a bit of personal debt when I left Uni. Wanted everything NOW!
The first car I bought ( a luverly Sorrento green 205 GTi!!) was on a loan with 30% apr!!!!!!!
Then I went through a credit card phase. I'll say no more about that.

Grown out of all that now thank god!

Credit cards are a weapon of mass destruction! I've not used one for over 5 years!!

Spring Heeled Jack

I see people at the supermarket checkouts paying for food and basics on their Visa cards!?!

That's how close these people are to financial disaster. If I was doing that I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

boxst

Hello

I pay for food on my Credit Card? Supermarkets seem horrified when you want to pay in cash.

I do pay the Credit Card off in full at the end of every month.

Steve

Reality

Yep - Morgan Stanley - pay for everything on the card - pay it all off at the end of the month then every November they send me a cheque for £200 - £300 depending on how much I've spent in the year .