r/Debt

I’ve accrued debt from the age of 18, now aged 26, I would like to get rid of it and live debt free (as we all do). The issue is I feel as if I was irresponsibly lent money. I have a good credit score, never defaulted and have completed a few accounts (loans). However, I feel as if my report has always reflected a high usage/reliance on credit, several accounts open for a long period of time and others rectified by the opening of others.

My current balance stands at circa £15,000. I pay out about £500 a month across three credit cards and a PayPal credit account. The age of the PayPal credit account is around 4-5 Years, with the original lending being £2000, it is now at £3500 and doesn’t look to go down anytime soon due to interest. I also have a barclaycard I took out last year to try and rectify a Very account I had.

£3000 was applied for but I was given £8000. Since then, I have accrued more debt, transferred balances to another card (which gave me another exuberant amount VS what was applied for), paid off some loans I had in between but ultimately ended up in a worse situation. PayPal said I’m approaching Persistent Debt but I would and have argued I am there already, since I’ve only really ever made the minimum payments and gone over my limit, but was still granted increases.

I earn around £2.1K a month, with occasional additional freelance income. My total bills including debt amount to around £1300 - £1400 per month. I understand this is ultimately my fault, but I come from a household of poverty unfortunately and financial literacy wasn’t a priority in survival mode. It’s sad, but I have ultimately been in survival mode since becoming self sufficient. I would love some advice on whether I do have any standing with irresponsible lending and/or what my options are without an IVA as I would like to buy a house in my early thirties. Thanks for the help.

Hello everyone, right now I have $2000 in credit card debt, $200 in cash advances, and $400 in rent that I need to pay off. I am looking for a lender online that does not need a cosigner to at least give me $400 so I can payoff my rent. I only have a 498 credit score right now due to my credit card debt. Is there any place rhat would accept me?

I am not debating. I know I am in the wrong, I just don’t know what is my best course of action as I really just do not have any money.

I have been ignoring Ace cash phone calls and emails for the past six months, and finally got a call from a law firm, threatening to garnish wages. She advised me that she will try to work with me, but again due to my MIA it’s hard. I told her I will try to come up with some amount of money within 24 hours, but the problem is I literally just don’t have any money and will be door dashing to come up with something.

I truly am at the lowest point of my life as I have been unemployed for the six months, and I truly can’t tell you why. I never thought that I would be a person to blame my laziness on my mental health, but right now that that’s the only thing I can say. I will be going around town looking for jobs that I can start as quick as possible. I just don’t know what to do. I can’t file bankruptcy because I do live at home and, I don’t really have anything I can give up.

I am 34 with a two year-old and a husband. My husband has been out of work for six months and I am the sole breadwinner. I have been at my job for nearly 4 years and I make decent money a 85K or so depending on overtime. I have a lot of debt and I’m terrified of the possibility of my job doing layoffs. It doesn’t seem like it, but there has been a lot of changes up top and it’s just the fear I have. I have about seven credit cards that I am in debt with and I’m considering stopping payments on all of them so that I can get into some kind of hardship plan or just letting them all default and go to creditors to try to strike up a deal my reasoning is that we have zero savings and I I can’t save anything paying all these credit cards. I pay about $1400 a month monthly credit card debt. I have three from Citibank, which are under $600 each. I have two from Chase which are under $2000 each. I have one from Capital One which is under $3000 my Apple credit card is at $5000. My American Express is at less than $200 and my JetBlue is under $1200. I also have a $16,000 personal loan that I I was on a hardship plan that ended and they won’t renew. I was paying 270 a month but now it will jump to 480 a month at the end of this month and I absolutely cannot pay that so that’s definitely going into collections. I also took out against my 401(k) with my husband first lost his job. I took out $7000. If I were to lose my job, I know I’d have to pay that back so I want to at least be prepared somehow someway and I feel like my best route right now is to take the loss of ruining my credit score for a few years and sort of get a fresh start. Has anyone done this before I feel horrible? I am afraid I have so much anxiety. I’ve been paying all of these credit cards for years, i’ve never made a late payment. I have repeatedly pay them off and just got into that again. Now having a daughter has made me significantly more financially responsible and I just really need a fresh start. If you’ve done this before are you able to apply for credit cards with the same banks again? Should I only continue to pay the ones that are with Citibank and Chase so I don’t ruin my relationship with them? I can’t file for bankruptcy because I make too much. I also have Student Loans that are probably going to start charging me soon. Those are about 35K.. ugh 😣

Hey guys, need ur suggestions
So i hv my own business for the last 12-13 yrs but somehow got stuck in this never ending payday loop few mnths back, was in urgent need of money n the business was slow, had to procure some good for business and ended up using these payday apps showing my own company as employer, i earn around 2lacs every month but those 2 months went slow, n i had to take various loans, total ranging around 3 lacs, its taking a toll on me now, have alrdy asked my parents/frnds, all mocked and said a big no, since its been 2 days my due date has passed im getting multiple calls from morning to night and im not answering them, i just dont know wat to do, my cibil got hit coz of various enquiries hence im unable to procure loans from neither nbfc or banks now, i dont have any asset, got a car on loan last year, even if i sell it, i wont get anythn, rather i would hv to pay more coz the principal amount exceeds the current car value, pls suggest shall i continue ignoring the calls, i wish i had a lil amount to close the loans and renew them as im expecting a good amount next mnth which will help in closing them all, but at the moment stuck, need just 40k and unable to arrange from anywhere, any guidance will help

Hi everyone,

I underwent some serious manic mental health issues in college and ended blowing through thousands of dollars. Not an excuse but just wanted to explain how it happened so fast. Now, I have a super low credit score, have around $5900 with interest in credit card debt, like 4k dollars in random pay in 4 and buy now pay later purchases that I'm having trouble even tracking, and 5k in student loans.

Where do I even start? Anyone have any advice on how to tackle this? I feel so lost but finally doing so much better and I'm finally able to work, right now I make almost 3k a month and my monthly expenses include groceries (roughly 80-100 biweekly) and two bills (300 a month) plus toiletries and some on eating out/going out.

Also, any advice/hope (lol) from people that have gone through similar troubles?

Thanks.

Looking for advice, not criticizing. 60 yr old local box truck delivery driver owner operator. Credit rating just over 700.

3 paid off vehicles between 10 and 20 yrs old including box truck.

80k in unsecured CC debt including 1 personal loan that has less than a year left.

Townhouse owes 100k with 200k equity. Equity is my only retirement fund. Only secured debt we have.

3 options to consider

#1. Total refinance would leave me with appx 75k equity but manageable payments until I can't work anymore, then ? Social Security won't cover payments.

#2. Bankruptcy everything but townhouse. Cost is $2000 down and $5500 over 3 years.

#3. Stop paying all unsecured cards and deal with the creditor calls.

Situation is that I probably have less than 10 years working life left and one health issue could mean no income. All cards are near limits, but I don't see any need for future credit. Tempted to bank all possible income instead of paying CCs until that time, then sell the townhouse in South Florida and move to Eastern Tennessee or somewhere cheap to live out my days.

Wife has $45k unsecured debt at 72 yrs old, planning to do a consolidation loan and pay off until deceased, keeping credit decent just in case.

Currently paying monthly

$2700 mine $1200 hers (before consolidating) $2600 mortgage, insurances, utilities

$6500 total not including food and gas + truck diesel

Current income could change at any time, especially as this economy and inflation gets worse. Already under water or maybe break even each month depending on jobs.

I took a big pay cut and had to switch jobs about 1.5 years ago. I racked up 12k in CC debt with the interest rates being between 19-29%. The interest is brutal. pros and cons to getting a personal loan to pay off the CC debt and then paying off that person loan quicker than I would the CC loan?

I’m about $40k in debt. Three years ago it was closer to $60k, so I have made progress, and I try to remind myself of that. But this remaining $40k feels impossible some days.

Breakdown:
- ~$16k credit cards
- ~$16k car loan
- ~$7k private student loan
- ~$20k federal student loans

It’s affecting everything. It makes career advancement harder to consider, especially opportunities that involve relocation. It’s putting strain on my relationship too, because my partner is essentially debt-free aside from the mortgage. I constantly feel like every step forward financially gets canceled out by something else.

Now my car needs brakes, rotors, and an oil change, and I only have about $750 in savings.

I’m already working 44 hours a week, and I’m disabled, so most of my time off is spent recovering enough to go back to work. Picking up a second job honestly doesn’t feel sustainable physically.

I guess I’m just looking for advice from people who have dug themselves out of this kind of hole without completely burning themselves out in the process.

Filed ch 7 today. Haven’t paid my car since end of February. How long until Santander comes to take the car ? Decided to surrender the car because the payments have become overwhelming.
Trying to figure out when to go out and get another vehicle as my commute everyday is 45 min.
Went looking last week and was quoted at 25% 😳 stating my credit score was low & they’re taking a risk seeing the other car on my credit still.
Wondering if a letter from my attorney would help?

I get letters about once a month or so for a credit card from years ago that went into collections. On my credit report it says "account closed by credit grantor" and was last reported in 2024 though it went to collections around 2020/2021. There is no collection account on my report, just the original closed account from the card. The amount is ~$500. I ignore the letters since there is no negative impact as of right now but is there any chance the account begins reporting in the future?

I don't want to respond or pay for anything and risk it resetting something or popping up on my report like it's brand new, even if paid for. I cleaned up my finances and credit situation years ago and I'm squeaky clean at this point but that $500 feels like it's just lurking around.

I feel that most indebted people in China end up in a situation of borrowing to repay loans—using credit cards or online loans to rob Peter to pay Paul. Do you Americans do the same?

Hello,

I am an American that owes $27k in CC debt. I have changed my spending habits and created a tight budget for myself to ensure I don’t dig myself any deeper.

After long talks with AI, it seems my best option is to stop using the credit card for all purchases, pay $1,000 to the CC per month ($500 is just for interest). This will take about 4.5 years to pay off. I don’t have room in my budget to be more aggressive, and I don’t have room for more income as I already work 45-55 hours per week as a restaurant GM.

One suggestion I got was to open a 0% APR credit card with Citi and transfer the balance, however Citi is me a limit of $5,000, which isn’t a large enough relief to be worth the hassle of splitting payments.

Is there any recommendation on what to do from here? Obviously the simple approach is effective, but is there anything else?

Took a 35k loan to consolidate cc debt. In jan 2026.

9.26 apr

$3,506.21 of $35,000.00 paid toward principal

I have no assets to sell.

Monthly payment is $1117.28

Im 30 if it matters. So ill be paying into my 401k for like 25 more years at least i assume.

I have 42k in a 401k and i have 24k in a 401k from a former employer i havent rolled over yet.

I googled it and i just see too many yes and no answers. Seems like individual situation influences the answer so im asking for my own situation.

Should i take a loan against my 401k to pay off the personal loan? I can max out my 401k contributions if i dont have that 1k monthly payment.

Upstart says i have 32 payments left until paid off.

Hi!
So I owed Apple about 9k…. (Don’t even want to get into the reasons why)
Anyways I tried to do a payment plan and I couldn’t keep up. So I just stopped paying. It’s been at least over a year. Anyways now they sold my debt to resurgence acquisitions LLC.
I really don’t know what to do or where to even start. I’m ashamed and embarrassed.
Any help would be appreciated,
Thank you

Hello, I'm new here and I'm currently trying to investigate these random numbers that I keep getting on my phone every day for months now. They call once a day, every number is different with a different area code, they never leave a message, and every one of them I've googled has said it was something like Midlands Credit Management. I've never received a letter either. I searched for one of these numbers on Robokiller and it pulled up an alert for it as a phantom debt collector scam, but the other numbers seem regional.

I currently have debt from different things, one for Citi Bank, one for a few subsidized and unsubsidized student loans from Edfinacial, and a few from a few ER visits last year, but I'm currently paying them off from the hospital billing department and the only debt collectors I officially know of I'm currently paying them off from their payment plans, which are official debt collectors from the hospital.

A few examples of the current numbers calling me right now are:

1-320-207-5126

1-209-916-2703

1-947-666-8604

1-800-218-9570

1-800-299-0523...

..and so on...

I'm too scared to call them back because I've gotten scammed before and I don't know if this is a legitimate debt collector or not. I've read on Robokiller that a lot of people with debt get spoofed numbers because our names show up on third party lists afterwards, so I was just going to start here maybe and ask questions to see if anyone else has information on this particular supposed debt collector or any of these kinds of phone number callers. Are these possible scams? Is Midlands Credit Management legit? Any help is appreciated . Thanks

Im in like $59k debt from personal loans (Best Egg, Upstart, Sofi) and credit debt. I fell prey to the lifestyle creep haha, anyways. Ive thinking about having it sent to collections and just accepting my credit score to tank as I cannot keep on paying these off, this is just what its come to

Ive thought of the following 3 options regarding collections, and am asking if anyone has any insight on them:

Option 1: Defaulting on everything, saving that debt money and growing my cash reserves for when settlement offers come about, I can access some cash for that, but I risk lawsuits?

Option 2: Defaulting on everything except for Sofi, who is the biggest debt holder at $22k, could be at risk for a lawsuit from what i hear? So I would continue paying that off to lower risk

Option 3: National Debt Relief

For reference I make about $70k, debt is as follows:

Personal Loans
Sofi: 22k w/ $495 monthly payments
Best Egg: $10k w/ $300 monthly payments
Upstart: $11k w/ $300 monthly payments

Credit
Citi: $8k w/ $300 monthly payments
Capital One: $2.6k w/ $80 monthly payments
AppleCard: $5k, i use this card to pay bills and such and it slowly crept up on me every month, $1,200 is the amount i pay every month.

So I'm 30 years old and American and haven't had a credit card or anything before because I've been scared of ruining my life with it. I do (did, I guess now) have a bank account and I was going to get over my fear of credit cards and save up money to apply for one through that same bank to build credit through that because I'm sick of being limited by not having credit. Sounds like a great plan and all, right?

I overdrew my bank a bit ago and because of medical issues, I haven't been able to earn the money to put back in the account. Now, today, I wake up to my account being closed, my bank telling me they're filing a report with some credit bureau, and the amount I needed to repay going to a third party collection agency.

So simple question: is my credit now completely screwed over before I even try to build it just for a $53 amount I was genuinely planning to fix through my own effort?

So I’m pretty new to this debt stuff (im 20F)

All of my debt is on my cc and it totals out to $800. At first i was able to pay double my minimum no problem but i recently lost my job and I’m focusing most of my saved money on my phone bill, public transport and other basic necessities.

Now here is where i am a little stuck. I’m going back to school in August usually i get around $2400 back in fafsa refunds (in a community college). I want to become a nail tech and want to work on getting my license in order to have a job while in school, but tuition is around $1400 which i could pay with my refund. The only issue is ill have $1000 left but im left to choose between my cc’s or saving that 1000 for emergencies like my phone bill or other things. If i pay my cc off ill only have 200 left, my phone bill is usually 100 (i know its so bad💔) and the nail school i will be attending is around 4 months long, i wouldnt want to last 2 months without a phone but i also kind of feel like its a little childish to think that way.

Honestly what is the best option here? I already have a salon i can start working at once i get my license but until then i won’t have another source of income besides the refund.

I have a lot of student loan debt from both undergrad and graduate school. I was financially illiterate and naive in my 20s and now I’m paying for it (literally). I’m strongly considering getting a job in London since I believe I can find a good opportunity abroad with my degree. If I were to move how would I pay them in pounds? If I didn’t pay, could they just garnish my uk wages like they can here?