Biggest debt you've been in?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 08-09-2014 8:16pm

Firefox11 wrote: »

Well if I was earning 100k a week then of course. But if I took out a 500k mortgage id still be in debt for a few weeks.

Unfortunately most people will never be super rich as not to have debt somewhere.

It has nothing to do with being super rich. It's called saving and cutting your cloth to match your means.

FairytaleGirl · 08-09-2014 8:22pm

My degree.

About £30,000 at the moment! An I earn £50 a year too little to start paying it back!Absolute crap though, never should have done an arts degree - I'd gladly hand it back to have the debt cleared.

Firefox11 · 08-09-2014 8:23pm

Eileen Fluffy Peppercorn wrote: »

It has nothing to do with being super rich. It's called saving and cutting your cloth to match your means.

Yes but most people (i know not all) will want buy a house, buy a car, go to college, set up a business, etc....basically...live. Most people will never earn enough money quick enough to pay for these things outright therefore will owe debt at some stage in there lives.

Grayson · 08-09-2014 8:25pm

Eileen Fluffy Peppercorn wrote: »

It has nothing to do with being super rich. It's called saving and cutting your cloth to match your means.

No it isn't. I just did a masters. Mammy and Daddy didn't pay for it. I got a loan so I could pay for it.

Most people will at some point need to spend more money than they have. It could be education or a mortgage, but it will happen to most people unless they have parents/relations who pay their way for them.

Rabbo · 08-09-2014 8:32pm

Eileen Fluffy Peppercorn wrote: »

It has nothing to do with being super rich. It's called saving and cutting your cloth to match your means.

Most people would find it difficult to be a homeowner without getting into debt. Debt isn't the monster people make it out to be as long as you are sensible about it

blade1 · 08-09-2014 8:37pm

About 10 years ago I got a loan of 7 grand for a motorbike.
I crashed the bike.
Whatever about owing money for something you have but paying back 7000 for something you don't have is a bit sickening!

indigo twist · 08-09-2014 8:51pm

Probably 5k at one stage in college, between car loan, interest free overdraft, interest free credit card.

Was debt-free for a few years, now I probably owe a few hundred on my credit card. No loans or overdraft, and working full-time, so it's nothing unmanageable. No intentions of loans or mortgages any time in the next few years. Would love to build some savings though if possible.

bear1 · 08-09-2014 8:54pm

Back in 2007 when I first got a job in a bank, you can see where this is going already.
I was driving a poxy 96 Fiesta. Took a 5k loan to buy a newer car and enough cash to tax it for the year and insure it.
Was paying it back no problem when I then decided to get a credit card which was approved on the spot - the same as the loan.
Had a 3k limit which I stupidly started using.
Trips to Malta, weekends to Copenhagen I was living the life.
My idiocy and thrill at getting cheap credit lead me to getting a top up of the original loan I had taken out.
At this point I'm about 10k in debt and signs of the crisis were starting.
I got laid off from the bank and now the real fear started to kick in, but luckily within the week I was in a new job but a lot less money.
I lowered the credit cards limit and removed the 100% pay back option so that I could have some breathing room.
However a month or so later and the new place I'm working at closes it's doors.
I am now well and truly fecked and subsequently I started missing payments.
I started getting hit with penalties for late payments, missed direct debits the lot. A nightmare.
I then signed on but was still not getting enough to be able to pay the debt and still live like a human.
By the end of 2007 I was in default.
The lowest point of my life.
I couldn't handle it and yet compared to what the banks had gambled it was a drop in the ocean. But this was my drop.
I met with the bank as the loan and credit card were with them and we worked out a payment plan but it effectively ended my credit history.
I stayed signed on and moved out of the flat I was renting and moved into a hell hole but I had to do it.
90% of what I got from the dole went to a savings account I had set up and the remainder was given to the bank and I stuck myself on a strict budget.
This lasted approx. 3years.
Around the start of 2011 I finally became debt free

Quite soon after that I got a job and my feet finally started touching the ground. I had a fantastic girlfriend (now wife) who stuck by me and motivated me.
My job developed and I got a raise and started getting bonus'. Finally the life I had in 2007 started to come back but without the debt.
Here we are in 2014 nearing 2015 and we have a nice savings account, we have just bought our own home, we have two cars and treat ourselves to a holiday once or twice a year and are now trying for a child.
A lesson learnt for me and I shall never take such stupid risks ever again.
Sorry for the long post but I think it can be a good eye opener for anyone thinking of getting a loan.

Liam McPoyle · 08-09-2014 8:59pm

About €6000 in student loans when I finished college. Paid them off two years ago and thankfully debt free since then.

Novella · 08-09-2014 9:12pm

No debt at all. I moved to the US recently and when I was about to rent my apartment a form I filled asked how much I owe on credit cards, loans etc. I wrote 0.

Got a phone call that evening questioning if I'd made a mistake. Said no, that I don't owe money, never took out a loan for anything. The lady on the phone was like, "Wow, how do you buy things?"

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 08-09-2014 9:28pm

Grayson wrote: »

No it isn't. I just did a masters. Mammy and Daddy didn't pay for it. I got a loan so I could pay for it.

Most people will at some point need to spend more money than they have. It could be education or a mortgage, but it will happen to most people unless they have parents/relations who pay their way for them.

Just to be clear. Firstly I was talking about myself and not most people - as asked by the OP. Secondly my parents paid for nothing for me. They had nothing - no car, no phone nor holidays, not even an inside loo until I put one in for them in the 1970s. I paid my own way and worked from leaving school and then paid my own way to a degree, master and PhD: while still working full time/ I was fortunate to do well and retired just over 15 years ago. So don't assume all are in similar situations as yourself or that those who aren't have had some privileges not afforded to you. I find it best in life to realise there are all sorts out there.
.

ShadowHearth · 08-09-2014 9:31pm

Right now I am completely dept free. I am actually +10eu on visa.
I own my car and all my stuff right now.

The most I have taken out was 5k eu for a car. Payed about 200eu per month and it was noticeable. I don't think I will ever go that much anymore. I do like to get 2k loan when buying a car, even if I got enough money to buy car from my own money. I just like to have extra cash.

I personally think that credit cards are amazing things. Just a lot of people used them stupidly.
I like to have my visa fully payed off or have extra money on it. For example I will buy car tax for 200eu for my car with visa. Then I just pay off each week to visa as much as I want thanks to Internet banking. So it just becomes a loan, but with extremely flexible payments. I got only 500eu limit on it and I would never ever go for bigger one.

Bafucin · 08-09-2014 9:51pm

About 35 K including personal credit card and student debt now. :-( I can't be trusted with a credit card not even when I was working.

I did a second degree after dropping out just prior to my finals of my first degree. I studying for a PHD in engineering so if I go abroad when I finish I think I can get a pretty good starting salary and clear it pretty fast maybe 5 yrs.

But I am honestly terrible with money.It sucks being broke!

My family indicated that if I do finish and get a job they may help with the clearing part of it but I can't count on that. It's day to day living that tends to get me. I might have to go abroad for part of my PHD and am terrified of the cost of that. I will get accommodation but I imagine there are unforeseen expensiveness.

House of Blaze · 08-09-2014 10:11pm

Took out €3500 in 2006 for a holiday (the last holiday I had!) to Rome with the missus.

Managed to pay it back handy since I was on good money at the time. Would have sucked to be still in debt when I finally lost my job. I have no idea how people handle the pressure of large debt.

Bafucin · 08-09-2014 10:18pm

House of Blaze wrote: »

Took out €3500 in 2006 for a holiday (the last holiday I had!) to Rome with the missus.

Managed to pay it back handy since I was on good money at the time. Would have sucked to be still in debt when I finally lost my job. I have no idea how people handle the pressure of large debt.

I have done this for traveling with friends twice in the past. Not the brightest.

wiseoldelf34 · 08-09-2014 10:24pm

what's wrong with the credit unions

pajor · 08-09-2014 11:01pm

I managed to avoid the temptation of the student credit card that the bank were dangling in front of me, so fortunately debt free.

For now.

House of Blaze · 08-09-2014 11:04pm

wiseoldelf34 wrote: »

what's wrong with the credit unions

They are fiddly and f**k abouty as far as I recall.

If you could get paid into a credit union account, withdraw money from an atm with a credit union account or not have to physically go in to a branch to use a credit union account then i would consider it.

Frigga_92 · 08-09-2014 11:17pm

I'm 27 and debt free. My husband is 38 and debt free. We own our own home and live comfortably and feel very very fortunate in our lives.

I don't know where I got my sense.
My parents had money when we were younger but never spent it. We never went on holiday, not even around Ireland, literally never had a family holiday, and they never threw birthday parties for us, we didn't even get a birthday cake. The only birthday party I had was when I was 5 and it was actually a going away party for when we moved house. They stopped Christmas presents when I was 11 and my mum stopped even putting up Christmas decorations when I was 14.
That's not how I operate at all but I wonder did growing up like that impact how I am with money.

bigroad · 08-09-2014 11:20pm

Mortgage for the next 35 years already did 5 and that was 20k.Bummer.

Capt'n Midnight · 08-09-2014 11:21pm

Keats and Chapman once lived near a church. There was a heavy debt on it. The pastor made many efforts to clear the debt by promoting whist drives and raffles and the like, but was making little headway. He then heard of the popularity of these carnivals where you have swing-boats and round-abouts and fruit-machines and la boule and shooting galleries and every modern convenience. He thought to entertain the town with a week of this and hoped to make some money to reduce the debt. He hired one of these outfits but with his diminutive financial status he could only induce a very third-rate company to come. All their machinery was old and broken. On the opening day, as the steam organ blared forth, the heavens opened and disgorged sheets of icy rain. The scene, with its drenched and tawdry trappings, assumed the gaiety of a morgue. Keats and Chapman waded from stall to stall, soaked and disconsolate.

Chapman (unwisely, perhaps) asked the poet what he thought of the fiesta. ‘A fête worse than debt,’ Keats said.

Chapman collapsed into a trough of mud.

- Flann O’Brien.

EmilyHoward · 08-09-2014 11:28pm

I'm in the black.

--LOS-- · 08-09-2014 11:29pm

For the people that have big student debts.......where did you loan the money from? I always thought it made no sense how there was no system in place in Ireland where you could pay off the debt once you graduated. I had a loan from the credit union at one point coz they were the only place that didn't have crazy interest, but I was paying back the loan with the loan?!

Now I'm in the same situation again, studying, no income, my course is full on so no opportunity to earn an income, nowhere I can loan it from that I don't have to start paying back immediately with money that I don't have...... I mean I kinda want a debt and I can't have a debt, it's laughable

House of Blaze · 08-09-2014 11:34pm

26sdrawkcab wrote: »

I'm 27 and debt free. My husband is 38 and debt free. We own our own home and live comfortably and feel very very fortunate in our lives.

I don't know where I got my sense.
My parents had money when we were younger but never spent it. We never went on holiday, not even around Ireland, literally never had a family holiday, and they never threw birthday parties for us, we didn't even get a birthday cake. The only birthday party I had was when I was 5 and it was actually a going away party for when we moved house. They stopped Christmas presents when I was 11 and my mum stopped even putting up Christmas decorations when I was 14.
That's not how I operate at all but I wonder did growing up like that impact how I am with money.

Jesus christ thats grim.

I hope you will be able to get your own back when it comes time to 'look after' them in their old age..

lukesmom · 09-09-2014 12:15am

House of Blaze wrote: »

Jesus christ thats grim.

I hope you will be able to get your own back when it comes time to 'look after' them in their old age..

Really? She never said they were abusive or neglected her, just that they didn't celebrate things like others do.

shruikan2553 · 09-09-2014 12:19am

--LOS-- wrote: »

For the people that have big student debts.......where did you loan the money from? I always thought it made no sense how there was no system in place in Ireland where you could pay off the debt once you graduated. I had a loan from the credit union at one point coz they were the only place that didn't have crazy interest, but I was paying back the loan with the loan?!

Now I'm in the same situation again, studying, no income, my course is full on so no opportunity to earn an income, nowhere I can loan it from that I don't have to start paying back immediately with money that I don't have...... I mean I kinda want a debt and I can't have a debt, it's laughable

Most of them mention pounds so I'm assuming they went to college in the UK because like you said, in Ireland you can get a loan but you'll be paying it back while still at college.

House of Blaze · 09-09-2014 12:30am

lukesmom wrote: »

Really? She never said they were abusive or neglected her, just that they didn't celebrate things like others do.

I was thinking more 'stick them in a cheapskate home' not like, murder them or something!

Oregano_State · 09-09-2014 12:40am

20k on a masters in the UK, although as the loan is from the credit union I've being paying it off for the past year so I've a chunk of it paid already.

Still at it btw, I'm handing up my thesis in two days.

I had savings that have been completely wiped on the repayments and living expenses so yeah that sucks.

Bafucin · 09-09-2014 12:42am

--LOS-- wrote: »

For the people that have big student debts.......where did you loan the money from? I always thought it made no sense how there was no system in place in Ireland where you could pay off the debt once you graduated. I had a loan from the credit union at one point coz they were the only place that didn't have crazy interest, but I was paying back the loan with the loan?!

Now I'm in the same situation again, studying, no income, my course is full on so no opportunity to earn an income, nowhere I can loan it from that I don't have to start paying back immediately with money that I don't have...... I mean I kinda want a debt and I can't have a debt, it's laughable

BOI for me ..I also had other debt though. I had to get it co-signed too.

thomur · 09-09-2014 12:55am

Rebuilt the family homeplace and went mad and had a 10500 credit card debt after with no way to repay it. Was made redundant 12 months after and redundancy paid it. Lucky and doubly lucky to get another job

Biggest debt you've been in?

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