Average debt per person? Anyone debt free here?

“Average household debt in the UK (excluding mortgages) was £5,978 in May. This is up from a revised £5,966 in April”

According to http://www.creditaction.org.uk/helpful-resources/debt-statistics.html and can’t find the real source but some tabloids state “£3500 to £4500 of debt”.

Just wondered how true this really is.

I’ve just paid (luckily) back £4500 on a credit card last night, before the interest free period ended and was told that was nothing by my peers with new cars etc.

Debt free myself.

No debt here.

Zero here. And no mortgage either.

Debt free here, but then I don’t own much either 😆

Zero here. And no mortgage either.

+1

OH has a couple of mortgages and tenants paying them for her…

Yup, no personal debts or mortgage…

No debts here, but at some point in the near future we’ll be saddled with a large mortgage.

finally dug myself out of a pit of debt recently, mostly through hard work and little bit of good fortune.

About 400 quid left on the car loan. (finish October 1st) Wish someone would give me a mortgage though.

Mortgage, no ( unsecured/personal ) debt here.

4 months to go on the mortgage but we could pay it off today ,so yep debt free.

Student loan (comes out before tax, and im from the generation that got decent interest terms)
Last payment of a 0% finance deal (road bike…) gets paid next friday (a crushing £50)
Tend to go into my overdraft each month, but pay it off completely every month.
No mortgage

Debt free for 2 years now.
Good lump sum in the bank for a rainy 2 years day
Successive inheritances and living in a cheap area with zero drains on my income made it possible.

Sort of debt free – I keep dipping into my offset mortgage to invest in the stock market, hard to say no to 1% loan.

I’m one of them PhD student people so I’ve got an (Interest free) overdraft, but no bad debt.

I don’t have a mortgage though so a huge amount of my income goes to some bloke I don’t know to live in some house I don’t own.

EDIT: Forgot student loan! Yeah that’s fairly significant 🙁

Student loan (comes out before tax, and im from the generation that got decent interest terms)
Last payment of a 0% finance deal (road bike…) gets paid next friday (a crushing £50)
Tend to go into my overdraft each month, but pay it off completely every month.
No mortgage

So, in answer to the question, no 🙂

Every time this question comes round I’m always surprised by the number of people who don’t consider a mortgage to be debt.

Stop paying your unsecured debt, the bank will hassle you like mad.
Stop paying your mortgage, the bank will take your home.

I know which one I’d be most concerned about being able to pay.

[quote4 months to go on the mortgage but we could pay it off today ,so yep debt free.[/quote]

so no then

I have a student loan but apart from that I’ve come out of Uni debt free. Pretty happy with that.

No mortgage. Use them, but no credit card debt, ( thankfully) positive balance in acct.

It’s terribly easy to get into debt though personally I don’t understand why credit cards( debt) are called credit cards and debit cards ( money in bank ) are called debit cards, should in reality be the other way around !

Speaking to a young lady at work the other day, circa 25 years old. £12k of student loan debt. Her bf has same.

Made me quite sad for them, £25k burden before they even get started, neither earning great money 🙁

Every time this question comes round I’m always surprised by the number of people who don’t consider a mortgage to be debt.

If you were £100 overdrawn in your current account and had £100 in a savings account would you be in debt?

I lent a tenner off me old man last week. Other than that nothing. Don’t have it don’t buy it!

I didnt say I was debt free?

AP99, sometimes it’s beneficial to not pay off a mortgage, even if you have the cash to do so…

I don’t understand why credit cards( debt) are called credit cards and debit cards ( money in bank ) are called debit cards

Credit card – extension of “Credit”
Debit card – decreases the bank’s liability to you, hence it is a debit transaction

There’s a difference between being insolvent and being in debt – a mortgage is debt even though you have the property as an asset.

I have a student loan,

Nothing else.

neither earning great money

so neither having to pay back the loan then.

If you were £100 overdrawn in your current account and had £100 in a savings account would you be in debt?

scary how many people justify being ‘debt free’ because they have the money elsewhere to pay it off – then why dont you, whats the interest on the debt compared to the interest on the savings?

If you were £100 overdrawn in your current account and had £100 in a savings account would you be in debt?

Of course you are. Until that overdraft is settled you are in debt to the bank which provides your overdraft.

Is this a trick question?

Mortgage is my only debt. Its going to be a pretty biggun soon though 😐

this does seem to be a thread for those with no debt to go *look at me* and the rest of us to think *I’ll keep quiet*?

Nothing here, though I’m yet to have a mortgage.

There’s a difference between being insolvent and being in debt – a mortgage is debt even though you have the property as an asset.

True, but if your assets match or exceed your debt..

Of course you are. Until that overdraft is settled you are in debt.

Is this a trick question?
It appear so. Your net position is zero. You’re not in debt.

Which is why a mortgage is different to debt. You need to remove the asset value.

I’m always surprised by the number of people who don’t consider a mortgage to be debt

it shouldn’t be lumped in with other debt though should it, like loans and credit cards? it’s a mortgage – you either pay or you lose your house. with other debts, you pay or the debt increases.

I have no debt, but a big mortgage. I’m glad it’s not the other way round.

Just the mortgage.

Old school upbringing. If you can’t afford it, you can’t have it.

If you were £100 overdrawn in your current account and had £100 in a savings account would you be in debt?

Some banks let you link the accounts, so that depends. whether your plan is clever or not would also depend on the interest beind paid/collected by each account.

As an individual, I’m debt free, though the national debt won’t be paid off in a hurry.

http://www.debtbombshell.com/

Didnt it say in the OP the statistics didn’t include mortgages?

this does seem to be a thread for those with no debt to go *look at me* and the rest of us to think *I’ll keep quiet*?

Every person who has paid off their mortgage has has the advantage of time, go back 20 years and they’ll have had a big debt. So you’re just seeing older people with no / small mortgage, younger people with large mortgage etc.