Do you know anyone who doesn’t have/ hasn’t ever had any debt?

We relaxed our attitude to debt in the early years of our marriage. We virtuously saved up for six months to buy our living room furniture, only to pay nearly twice as much for it than we would have had we bought it six months earlier with the cost spread over six months. It was early 1970s, and inflation was rampant.

Our rule is only borrow money if you have sufficient savings to pay it off tomorrow if circumstances changed. So we have never (mortgage apart) owed money we were not in a position to pay back on demand.

I think part of the reason that debt is so "accepted" now is because many people who have been to university start life off in debt (even though they may never actually be required to pay if off).

@Fountain's experience is interesting.

What I'd like to know - and can't seem to find the answer to - is how far back credit searches go.

I have a really good record - I've paid off two mortgages without a default on any of them and I've had loans for cars and not defaulted.

However I have some credit card debt and I have missed payments (due to carelessness, not penury - I've always paid up in full)) and I'd be pretty miffed if these small oversights are buggering up my credit score.

Also intrigued to know from @Fountain - how the jeff do you go about getting a "financial health check up"??

It’s been so interesting reading all these posts and seems to me that it’s a generational thing - us oldies generally abhor debt and have as little to do with it as poss!

Youngsters generally have no qualms about it and mostly don’t even know what they used the credit card for and they never seem to clear the debt, whereas most on here will say it was for a particular thing or an unexpected expense to be cleared ASAP. I wonder when the changeover happened or was it just a gradual process?

well I wasn't in any debt till I borrowed money off my brother for a holiday .once that's paid off in july I will be debt free again.

I had a great aunt who went down to the local solicitor with a suitcase of money to pay for the house she and her aunt had lived in all their lives. They both were workers in the local factory and thought the government were wonderful to give them an old age pension. They managed to save off thier pensions too but never had an inside toilet . One was convinced that newsreaders on their little black and white TV might see them undressed especially that Gordon Honeyford.

Nope noone.

Its all well and good saying "if I can't afford it I don't buy it" but "essentials" have changed.

E.g. I once worked in an office based job where the only hired people with cars. Although the office had good public transport links there was a cultural perception in that office that public transport users were always late (yet my colleagues were often "stuck in traffic" ) They screened people by asking "did you find parking okay?" at the start of the interview. I had a friend on the inside who tipped my off so I borrowed DHs car for the interview

I was also expected to be available via email when outside of the office. So a smart phone or tablet was also essential.

Waiting until I could have afforded a car or smart phone would have =ed no job!!!!

We still have a mortgage, I have had debt in the past and would probably do so again if I felt it necessary. Having said that any furniture and clothes I buy are second hand..,amazing the quality of clothing you can buy on Ebay, we rarely eat out and I don't drink alcohol or have expensive beauty treatments or paid help in the home or garden, my husband does all our home maintenance.We are both on pensions and I sell a few paintings now and again and my husband still works part time. We shop frugally for food but live in a lovely big house and go on fab holidays. I have always felt that if we needed to we could downsize, I would never keep a load of cash in the home or walk around with a load of cash in my bag. But we have never kept account books, never keep track of money to the degree that
Lilyflower does, I take my hat off to her!!!!

When I was young, just married and starting a family, I bought quite a few items of household furniture on credit but never missed a payment. Now I'm older and and have no credit. If I want something expensive for myself I save for it out of my pension or if it's a household item, we pay cash. I can never understand why young people have to get in so much trouble with debts. They seem to want things but not pay for it or at least delay paying for as long as they can.

I think you are right Katek in that they are not typical of their age group, and I agree with Blinko that this thread shows how attitude to debt has changed. My mother never ceased to drum in to me how short of money we were when I was growing up, which has scarred my psyche so much that I feel guilty spending, even on necessities. There has to be a happy medium.

Dil’s parents divorced when she was a child and her mother brought the family up very frugally. Dil has carried this through and apart from their mortgage they have no other debts. Things are saved for, cars bought cash or second hand and she’s an expert in food budgeting. Sometimes I wish she could relax a little, but it’s the way she’s comfortable with.

Came as a bit of a shock to ds who was used to having all his salary to himself! He’s adapted after 12 years, though he still has hankerings for cars and trainers!

I think ds/dil are relatively unusual for their age group (late 30’s) when compared to their friends and colleagues.

This thread shows how attitudes to debt have changed and are changing over the years.

Totally agree Lilyflower. We went without if we couldn’t afford. Not smug, warily responsible with a bit of luck thrown in.

My parents only ever borrowed for their mortgage and to buy a cooker. Everything else was only bought after saving up. I do use credit cards bu pay them off every month except those on interest only deals. The money I owe to credit cards is always there in the bank earning a (very tiny) amount of interest. My ex H and I did once have a bank loan for a car but mostly paid cash. We always took advantage of interest free credit deals though if we couldn't get a discount for cash. When my daughter's car died I lent her the money to replace it as I didn't want her paying huge interest payments. She's paying me back slowly!

My parents eschewed debt to the extent that my dad once bought a house for £1000 he produced out of his pocket. When they divorced mum had no extra money and kept solvent by managing with cash only. My DH’s parents were from a generation which thought debt was virtually a sin and they paid cash for everything except for having a mortgage whic, being a loan secur3d against a rising asset, was perfectly respectable.

So the DH and I are avoiders if debt and go without if we haven’t the funds to buy something. We put money away to meet bills, run an account book which keeps track of every penny we get and spend and we save for what we want. We are so disciplined with money we have managed a chequebook mortgage for 25 years without splurging the equity - which it is perfectly possible to do!

A Gransnet poster said above that some comments such as this are ‘smug’. I can assure them that complacency has much less to do with solvency as fear of debt.

I am watching a drama series called ‘Cleaning Up’ about a woman who takes to financial fraud to cover gambling losses and who cannot stop her online roulette habit and I am finding it excruciating. It is almost unbearable to see how the character is putting herself ever further into debt and endangering herself, her family and friends.

So, not smugness.

*Don't, not din't.

Din't be disheartened, adverse marks on your files disappear after 6 years.
Check my File gives reports on the big 4 credit agencies so you can compare their ratings as each have widely differing scoring methods.

Unlike many posters on here my mother was permanently in debt and I used to dread the days the 'red letters' came in. Nothing extravagant I hasten to add, just everyday essentials like our clothes, shoes, beds etc. I too found it necessary to borrow eg broken boiler, washing machine, car breakdown, leaking roof etc etc. As a single (working) parent there was no other way. I still usually managed to squirrel a small amount of savings away towards such emergencies but they were never enough.

As DC got older I managed to save more but then Estranged ex popped up and wiped me out. Hey ho.... a few years working past retirement and I have now managed to retire (before the work finished me off) and for the first time in my life I am debt free. That's not to say I don't struggle but it is a novel feeling. Unfortunately things are now starting to 'break' and 'break down' so watch this space. It is likely from your posts that I no longer am a good credit risk!!

I can assure you that taking store cards do affect credit scores. I took out two over one year. One with Debenhams and one with the now defunct BHS. The Debenhams purchase was an expensive wedding outfit. BHS was a large household item. Both stores were offering 10% discount. I saved around £30 combined. In my haste to complete the forms at the cash desks and complete the transactions I did not notice that I was signing for a 5K credit limit on each. As I said in my earlier post, I paid off what I owed when the first statements arrived and never used the cards again.

I have a financial check up with bank each year and the adviser suggested I switch my credit card to one offering cash back. I thought it would be a formality but the application stalled at which point I was advised to check my credit score with Experian. It was in the 740 - 799 range so still very good but not considered exceptional and apparently not enough to get the cash back credit card. With some persistence I managed to speak to a real person at Experian who explained that to them it looked like I had provided myself with the means to spend 10K rather than obtain a £30 discount. The irony was that she said it would have been better for my credit score had I used the cards regularly and paid them off each month rather than just leave them unused. I argued that I was using a credit card regularly and paying it off in full each month but that wasn't enough. I guess that's also an example of credit diversity.

This link explains the various ways in which a credit score can be impacted. www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/score-basics/what-affects-your-credit-scores/

PayPal credit allows you to defer payment for 4 months with no fees for any purchase of £150 or more.
Of course, this doesn't mean that you can't pay it off sooner in dribs and drabs.
It could be handy for people who get bonuses twice yearly but want to buy items in a sale or buy for Christmas and pay in April.
As for store cards impacting your credit rating. Rarely would this happen, unless a lot of searches were registered without those companies offering you credit.
I noted on my Equifax file that Thames Water had marked numerous months, as many as 13 consecutively, with the mark 'NR'.
I rang and it transpired that whenever a complaint is raised, they do not report that your DD has been paid even though it has.
That didn't sound right as a credit file shows your ability to pay, nothing to do with non- financial complaints.
My gripe was that they kept sending paper bills when I am registered for paperless billing. It's been a saga lasting over 2 years as well as having to change my password 9 times in 8 years.
It's still not finalised but they did get Equifax to change all the NR marks to green blocks.
It pays to keep on top of your finances.

Witzend. The point I was making is that by taking that storecard you automatically reduced your credit score. That reduction in rating could affected you ability to obtain good deals in the future. I was refused a credit card offering cashback potential which would have exceed by far the discount I received for taking out the storecard. And, as I said, it can take much longer than the duration of the store card account to get your credit score back to where it was.

That whole episode was very instructive about what can affect a person's credit card rating. For example, having only a credit card and no other loans indicates lack of "credit diversity" and negatively affects scores. As can shopping around for best credit deals as each search will generate what is called a hard inquiry. Too many of those can knock your credit score although most credit scoring models will add the searches together and count them as one enquiry if all done within a short time frame.

lazigirl I’ve had the Budgetcard for over 20 years! It’s the only card I’ve seen which still uses a signature instead of a PIN, so it might have been phased out. I don’t know about the chargecard.

Willow10 that is such a sad story. Your poor brother must have been devastated. I hope things improve for him soon,

Yes, it's how we were brought up. You don't buy anything you can't afford. If there's something big you want, you save up for it and then buy it, not buy now pay later. It's too easy and tempting these days for people to get into debt, but once you owe its a downward spiral

I use a credit card for convenience (always paid in full) and we did have a mortgage many moons ago.
Apart from those I have never been in debt and never will. If I haven't the money to pay for something, I don't buy it. I don't think the younger generation understand that concept.

My parents. Never had a debt, even a mortgage in their lives. Rolling in dosh. When credit cards came out, they applied for one when they went on one of their (many, many) overseas trips, rather than taking travellers' cheques, and were told they had no credit rating so they couldn't have one!