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At the tender age of 18 (12 years ago and before a single reality tv show and debt is evil headline) I acquired a store card (soon to become four), credit card and overdraft. The store cards started at £300 and ended up at £1,500 a piece, the credit card was £2k and the overdraft £500. Add to that the car loan to buy a car for an ex boyfriend that is best left unmentioned my debt suddenly soared to around £15,000. I was earning £9k, living in a flat that cost £500 a month with a boyfriend that was out of work, needed money for fags, petrol and 'going out'.

I think we can see where this is going. After hanging on by the skin of my teeth paying no household bills and a food budget of £15 a week, I politely asked my ex to pay my wage cheque into my account for me (this is how long ago this was!). Two weeks later I was flummoxed as to why it still had not cleared after several reassurances that 'yes, I paid it in the day you asked' so I visited the bank to find out why. Cue the appearance of the manager, who swiftly swept me into a private room, took my card and cheque book away from me, arranged a consolidation loan to pay off the charges I had incurred and informed me that if I wanted to get money out of my account I was to make an appointment with him personally so that he could okay it.

So.....Two months late on the rent I did a moonlight flit to stay with my sister, started using an old and very empty savings account (without even so much as a cash card), wrote 'gone away' on the front of every letter I received, declined to answer the phone, declined to register on the electoral roll and told my parents that in no way should they ever tell anyone that called for me at their house where I was.

I never paid a penny of it back.

However....I still do not own a cheque book, switch card or credit card (with the exception of the card kindly given to me by my husband). I am not on our mortgage and I still jump every time a letter that looks like a bill pops through the letter box. On the plus side, after I married I did go back on the electoral roll so I do get to vote like a real person now.

Would I have done anything differently? Fuck yeah, I'd have spent that £5k loan on me instead of my fuckwit ex boyfriend.

No apologies for length, I didn't even mention the court summonses for non payment of council tax and the fact that the car was written off six months after it was bought.
(Mooma, Fri 24 Nov 2006, 19:54, Reply)