u/AnxiousCouch

I just want to start off by saying I don't mind because even though things could always be better I am comfortable and live within my means. I am 32 and I earn aprox 28k a year. My friends are somewhat near this anything between 25-35k realistically however, I see people posting on here about their 50k+ jobs and i think now the avg salary is 40k. Am I, and everyone I know massively under achieving or are there more people out there on more 'avg' (or below in this case ?) salaries than I think??

I’ve linked my original post.

I have a default on my credit report thanks to virgin. I heard back from them but they’re saying they’re unable to remove it because it’s due to ‘unreturned equipment’ and they’re unable to remove it. Where do I go from here? I need to take out a credit card asap but I feel like this is what’s stopping me. Just want it removed.

I returned the equipment early last year, I contacted their team not long after when I was still receiving emails from them to say it hadn’t returned, they confirmed it was an error and the charge would be removed, this was even confirmed in their latest email.

‘We have investigated your account and would like to clarify the position for you.
Your Virgin Media services were disconnected on 31/08/2025, and we can see that a balance of £39.97 was written off on your account. This charge relates to unreturned equipment (HUB 3.0), which remains outstanding on our system. Because the equipment has not yet been returned, the charge was applied and may have contributed to the default now appearing on your credit file.
Once the equipment is returned to us, we will be able to remove the charge from your account’

Virgin media put a default on my account last year and I only noticed a month ago when trying to take out a credit card.. they have admitted this was an 'accident' and I've spoken to them via the live chat twice and both times they've given me an e-mail but no response and it's still there. Anyone else had a similar issue or know what I can do? I am getting frustrated now.

My hard drive broke and I've potentially lost 10 years of data.. I know it's going to be expensive but has anyone sent it off to one of those professional places and had any luck? Where is the best place to send it to and realistically how much is it? - it's lighting up but it's not making any noise and the PC can't detect it so can only assume it's a disc issue. Please help 😞

edit: sorry in my panic i missed out that it's an external hard drive. A Seagate (STEA1000400) to be exact