I want to know about you!

I was watching Judge Judy last night (sorry, I love that show) and was fascinated by a case between an ex-boyfriend and girlfriend. In their short three year relationship, they had accumulated $38,000 in credit card debt in addition to their three car loans and multiple student loans.

I understand my debt is HORRIBLE and I can’t wait to be rid of it, but nearly $40,000 of credit card debt can’t be average right?

What are you numbers? And how long did it take you to get there?

Posted by Beks on February 10, 2010 at 10:39 PM in General Debt | 52 Comments »
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Keith Morris responded:
Posted: February 10th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
I’m up to $11,575 across two credit cards (paid two off last year). This was pretty motivating: I did some math and figured out how much I was spending per day on interest payments.
Claire in CA, USA responded:
Posted: February 10th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
They’re living the American dream, just not the way it was intended. So many young Americans have a sense of entitlement, and absolutely no patience. Our parents were “comfortable” until they were in their 40s usually. Now? At 25, Americans expect to have new cars, a house, and all the trappings. Parents need to step up and educate their kids that debt is slavery, no two ways about it…and that includes student loans. But that’s another story…

We had up to $20,000.00 in cc debt, but it was accumulated over a number of years, and mostly because we did a room addition that, of course, cost more than we anticipated. We have less than $3,500.00 now, no car loans, and our mortgage is our only other debt. We did the anti-Ramsey thing by re-financing our home to pay off our debt (about $15,000.00), but our house payment is even lower than before we re-fied, and we desperately needed to get rid of the ccs. Our income has declined over the past few years, and it’s not getting easier here in craptastic California. You gotta do what you gotta do.
TJ responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 12:45 am
I got most of my CC debt as a college/grad student. Over the years, buying what you need when you have no parental support, even if you work full time. It’s also hard to get cheap food when you don’t have a kitchen (from living on campus.) With the addition of some medical problems, I have about 9k in CC debt after 7 years. I’m getting $1800 back from taxes this year, and that will bring me down to $7200. I hope to be below 4k by the end of the year. It’s still hard not to accumulate debt when I have mortgage payment of student loans on top of it.
Iloveshoes responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 1:06 am
Our debt is really high….the last time I added it up it was around $48,000. I need to make myself do this but we lost a lot of income this year due to job losses and I’m too scared because I’m focusing on NOT LOSING OUR HOUSE. This weekend we should be all caught up on the mortgage and then I will make myself face the ugly truth. I hate this debt…I’ve always hated it and felt really helpless when we lost our jobs and even more so now that we had to stop paying on most of it to catch up the mortgage.
Angie responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 1:32 am
If you don’t like Cali, feel free to leave. Seriously, less traffic for the rest of us.
Claire in CA, USA responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 5:36 am
I’d love to leave, Angie. My spouse is not receptive, so here I sit. And btw, lots of people are leaving, along with their tax dollars. You just sit right there and enjoy the ride (in bumper to bumper traffic).
Dollar Bill responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 6:57 am
I’d kill to get back to California! I miss it immensely!!!

Anyhow, we started off at just over 66K in credit card debt. After two years we are down to 3K and have 7K in various savings accounts. We terminated a lease early for a financial benefit (cost 5K), moved across the country (3K) and have taken several vacations (estimated cost of 6K). We’d be out of credit card debt (we also have a house that is being rented, an RV that someone is currently making payments on, and an insane amount of student loans) ages ago but we also like to gamble.

It took about 7-8 years to accumulate most of the debt (9 years of school to get to the student loan debt).
waytoomuch responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Mine is about $35K, built up over more than 10 years.
Mysti responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 7:51 am
Our debt is over a number of years. But the grand total is just under 75K. 35k in CC, 30K in student loans, 7700 for the car, and about 1900 in medical.
Georgia Plodder responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 7:55 am
At its peak, our credit card debt was around $17,000 and we had a car loan for $25,000. The credit card debt accumulated over just about 3 years…furniture, expensive nights out, gifts, and general “living above our means”. We decided to get serious about getting out of debt just after I started reading this Blog back in 2007 (?unsure about the exact date). We paid off all of our consumer debt in about 18 months and are now debt-free except for the house. It’s a great feeling, but living within our means is something that we have to work on each day. All of the temptations are still there!
Bucksome responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 8:17 am
After eight months of declining balances my credit card debt is at $16K. It took five years to accumulate (from zero balances).
gina responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 9:09 am
me and my husband have 70,000 in personal loans, car, student and cc. we have a mortgage and 3 kids. not sure, but we started with some when got married and me staying home it just goes up and up. we are doing the dave ramsey plan and if we stick together will be without all 70000 in 5 years.
Ann responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 9:26 am
I’m 23, married with a house and 2 cars. We have $3000 in debt (excluding the mortgage), some of which is work related and will be reimbursed. Not all young Americans think they are entitled. Some know how to work hard, save their money and get what they want. I know many more people in their 40s that are in much deeper debt. I don’t think it’s all the young Americans that need a wake up call, it’s all Americans.
Cynthia responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Our cc debt was almost $8K before we decided enough was enough. That was accumulated over several years (5-6ish). We also had some student loan debt and a HELOC to pay off. It all added up to $27K in debt which we paid off in less than two years. Now we do have a truck loan (at 0%) that we are paying off on the scheduled payoff timeline so we can build our emergency fund instead.
B responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 10:32 am
I got up to around $8,000 when I was 25, living too large out of college. It took me about 2 years to pay off,now I’m debt free except my mortgage and plan to never go back to credit cards again…
Laura responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 10:47 am
My main debt is my mortgage. I had a small car loan (about 8K) but paid it off in less than two years of having the car. I use my credit card but always pay it in full. I do owe some my mom close to 28K for college, but she keeps telling me not to pay it back. I pay her a couple hundred each month.
Lynn responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Luckily for my husband and I we have never accumulated any credit card debt. Not including our mortgage, we have 29K in student loan debt from my husband (he just celebrated his 10th anniversary at his job so its time to kick this sucker our of our lives!) and 25K in a HELOC. We just paid off my husband’s truck 2 years early so I am thrilled about that! Now onto the student loan!!!!
Honey responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 11:41 am
My boyfriend had about $50K in credit card debt. He accumulated it in law school (you’re not allowed to have a job while you’re in school and student loans wouldn’t pay for it all). Plus $100K in student loans. No undergraduate debt of any kind.

I have ~$4K in credit card debt, paying off what I accumulated getting my PhD (anticipate paying it off completely this summer). Also $100K in student loans between my MA and PhD (8 years of graduate school). No undergraduate debt of any kind.

No mortgage for either of us – we think mortgage debt is way scarier than credit card debt.
Brianne responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
I had as much as $20K in credit card debt that I have paid off, as well as paying off a car note of $17K in a little over two years. I had about $40K in student loan debt that is down to $27K now but I’m focusing on saving up for my June wedding now instead of paying that down. At least the student loan debt is deferred while I’m in grad school but I graduate in May.
Stephanie responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
We are credit card debt free but it reached almost $20K at its highest.
Alice responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I had $18k in student loans and $4k cc upon college graduation. After a few years, a layoff and buying a place of my own my cc debt was $15k at its highest. Now I am at less than $14K student loans and less than $7.5k for cc. Will have cc paid off by the end of 2011. Student loan is here to stay as I am planning on going to graduate school to add to it. But no more cc debt EVER!
Ken responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
We have about 22K in CC debt over about 10 years. Trying to get a plan to get it down….got tax credit coming to put a dent in it. I despise it.
jennifer youngblood responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I have 25K in student debt from undergrad, which is currently deferred while I get my PhD (I’m fortunate my grad school is completely free & funded). The student debt is all I have, no mortgage, no car loans, no cc debt. 5K of the student debt while be at 5% and the rest at 2.7% or so. I’ll get rid of that 5% first (maybe in one lump sum) and depending on my earnings at my new job and the returns I get on my savings/CDs/etc (currently less than 2.7%) plow through that as fast as makes sense. I know student debt is supposedly not bad debt to have, especially at low rates, but I hate having ANY debt…it just hangs over me!!
Sim responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I have about $9K in credit card debt I’m working on paying it off, so I’m hoping that by the end of May, I’ll be done. But it still sucks to pay interest charges every month
Rick responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
We’re carrying about $50,000 in debt.
It took us about 5 years to accumulate.
The debt represents a wedding,honeymoon,car and
adding a bathroom and bedroom in our basement.
Currently our interest rate is at 3.25%
Beks responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Wow. Thanks for sharing! It looks like we all finance the same things! I’m glad to see so many of you with plans to be debt free.
Val responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
My husband and I have been married for 14 years and have 72k in debt (not including the house). It is mostly vehicle & student loan but we have $5500 in cc debt. We hope to get this all paid off in the next 3 years.
one charge at a time responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
We own our own business, so a lot of debt that I’m listing is from that CC alone is $133,000….Student loans $50,000…Cars $23,000…House…$62,000….Personal loan $4,000…Total = 272,000.00…we don’t go on vacation, we don’t have fancy clothes or a fancy house. Its one charge at a time kinda thing!
Nicole responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
My husband and I have been carrying the same $20,000 credit card debt for about 10 years now. We are determined to get rid of it for good after taking the Dave Ramsey course. I sure hope we do!
jeremiah responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
I married into most of mine, without forehand knowledge of it. Being the breadwinner this infuriated me. Now over 60% of my check goes to paying my inlaws money my wife borrowed before I met her. The rest is student loan debt and credit card debt from before I knew her but that I knew about when I married her.

i’m actually considering suicide to get out from under it – she keeps borrowing.
Ashley responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
I had $6200 or something that I put on a CC right before I graduated. It was the last of my tuition for my last semester of college. It was actually a good idea because it was 0% and I paid it off in a little over a year.

If I would have taken out another private loan, (had already done all of the federal I could do for that semester), it would have been at 9% at the start, and would have added to the 10k I have there already.

So, now I sit at $0 on my CCs, but still 31k in student loans. (graduated Dec. 07. Age 25.)
Sandy responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
I have $1030 in personal credit card debt (interest free until April). And $1600 joint with the spouse (interest free for another 12 months). Our problem is not the credit card, but our mortgage. We are still waiting/hoping/praying to get it modified because my spouse lost his job 3 months ago. Its a stressful time for us now but we are determined to come out on top.
Beks responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Jeremiah – I understand your frustration but I sincerely hope you are joking about the suicidal thoughts.

When my husband and I married, he had taken on a lot of debt from his family members. I was angry and it made our first few years a real struggle. Unfortunately we were forced to pay the debt taken out by his family and deal with their collections that were in his name but we worked our way through it. I’m still angry but far less than I was 5 years ago. We cut financial ties, I cancelled my husbands accounts, and they have been unable to take out debt in his name again (nor will they EVER have that kind of access again). Had the debt been his and he continued to take out debt, I don’t think we could have made it. I would have considered divorce before suicide. I hope it works out for you. Let me know how things go.
Beks responded:
Posted: February 11th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Sandy – I’m with you on the loan modification. When my husband lost his job, we applied. It’s been 4 months and we have had no progress. I hope they are better with you! Best of luck!
Henrietta responded:
Posted: February 12th, 2010 at 7:39 am
As a UK resident in my 40’s, I was fortunate enough to a free higher education, as was the policy in up until about ten years ago. However, the Blair/Brown Government’s refusal to regulate the housing market in the early years of this century has resulted in an extremely harsh split in UK society, between those fortunate enough to acquire property prior to the year 2000, and those who couldn’t or chose not to. The result is, that in order to live a semblance of a normal life, and I am not talking ‘extravagant’, one has no choice but to be plunged into debt. My partner and I were foolish enough to start a family in 2000, the prohibitive childcare costs and renting prices have made life living on our combined wages extremely difficult. Not to mention the strain that it placed on our relationship. Our solution is quite radical, but will be right for some. It does however take nerve and commitment
Jen responded:
Posted: February 12th, 2010 at 8:29 am
No credit card debt. No car loans (cars are very old!) School loan for me, about $7K, but husband’s is more like $82K. I hate debt.
emmi responded:
Posted: February 12th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Iloveshoes, my heartfelt wishes for wrestling that debt beast back in the pit where he belongs. facing facts does help with the stress, really it does. be sure to look that beast straight in the eye. you can’t defeat what you don’t understand well.

denial is probably a household-wide problem, which means you probably aren’t sitting down weekly to go over every last thing everyone spent money on. make sure you make this a group effort, and best of luck!
Didi responded:
Posted: February 12th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Got serious about paying off debt a few years ago so now my husband and I are debt free except for our mortgage.. that will be gone in less than 10 years. I feel so fortunate about all this. At it’s worst, I was in about 15,000 cc and line of credit debt. Now, the banks pay me money on my savings rather than me paying them on crap that I bought years and years ago! Pay off your debt as fast as you can folks – you will love the feeling when you are debt free! Good luck to all
emmi responded:
Posted: February 12th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
jeremiah,

Ouch! Your anger is totally justified but your solutions are not.

Counseling, personal or marriage would be a really good idea right about now. Or call this number: 1-800-784-2433
Really, the people on this line are waiting to talk to someone just like you. You’d make them happy if you called.
Debtrunsme responded:
Posted: February 12th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
My husband and I have around 48k in cc debt and much more in car loans and student loans. We just started in January making a real commitment to pay it down. It is a struggle every day.

I currently have 470k worth of debt – Follow my journey to financial freedom
erlindayana responded:
Posted: February 13th, 2010 at 6:52 am
I’m up to $10,575 across three credit cards (paid one off last year). This was pretty motivating : I did some math and figured out how much I was spending per day on interest payments.
Mar responded:
Posted: February 13th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
My only debt is the mortgage. I had a lot of credit card debt about 13 years ago when my daughter was 1 and I was a single Mom without child support (long story, don’t ask!) I also did something that it is recommended you never do and took a loan against my 401K. I paid it off in 5 years. I still had about $1,500 in CC debt laying around and just decided to suck it up and paid it off in about 3 months. I think my original CC debt may have been as high as $15-20K, but I really don’t remember because it’s been gone for 7 or 8 years now. Money was really, really tight back then because I was not only paying off debt but paying for child care and all the other child expenses. However, it was doable and totally worth it.

Right now, I’m saving for the next car in a year or two, but will probably be taking out a loan to pay for at least part of it. Hopefully it will be $10K or less and I’ll pay it off in 2 years or less because it is soooooo much easier to not have any debt. I can’t wait until I pay off the mortgage in about 10 years, too.
Single Mom, Single Money responded:
Posted: February 14th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
My credit card debt is about 3200. It took about a year. It was necessary because I depleted my savings and had to use my credit cards while I went through an unpaid training session to get a new job paying 3xs as much as I was making before. I am working hard to pay it down and it should be paid off my the end of the year.. what a nice graduation present that will make for me!
mahanda responded:
Posted: February 15th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
right now i am about $18000 c c debt, gave up my car-doing public transportation and putting money saved on c c debt, frugality all the way now. was over $30000 little over a year ago. single income family (front line govt employee =low wages) with three highschoolers and one in c c college (all grandkids i raise). plan on being out of debt in four or less years. never will retire but changing careers when leave current job. it keeps getting better
C responded:
Posted: February 15th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I knew I had a lot of credit card debt, but never actually knew how much, until I decided to be brave and add it all up. Turns out it was just shy of $30,000. After I completely freaked out (what on EARTH had I bought?) I came up with a plan of attack. After three years I can proudly say that I’m credit card debt free, and have been debt free for about a year now. It feels great!!! Now the money that I had used to paying off the debt is going straight to savings, and will probably be used as a downpayment for a house at some point. Right now, I’m enjoying not owing anyone anything!
Love this site; thanks for writing!
Divine and Debt Free responded:
Posted: February 16th, 2010 at 7:30 am
I started out at 40k at age 25, I have been on the debt snowball since Jan 2008 and I am down to 19,000 which will be paid off by October!!

man I wanna buy a new tv and couch so bad!!
Nick responded:
Posted: February 16th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Our total debt was $161,262 in September. 107,902 in student loans and $53,380 in credit card debt and accumulated over the past 2 years. The credit card debt was mostly as a result of investing in company stock and real estate investments. Five months later, we’re down to about $146,551, including $36,380 in credit card debt. It’s going to take a while to get out of this hole, but we’re making progress.
Michelle responded:
Posted: February 16th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
I have a $50,000 student loan, about 6800 left on the vehicle loan and my husband and I together had about $16,500 in CC debt. We just paid off aobut $4000, so we are down to $12,200 or so in CC Debt and we’re on the debt snowball…just started actually. Got serious with Dave Ramsey’s FPU classes beginning of this year. We hope to be down to just the student loan and mortgage by August. We’re currently going on one vehicle in our family … our commuter vehicle bit the dust in January…we are carpooling to work and it’s working out well for now. It takes planning, though, to run a family of 6 (two full-time jobs + school and activities for kiddos)…but I’d rather plan than get any further in debt or stop my climb out!
CanadianDebtGirl responded:
Posted: February 16th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
About 10 months ago I had over $30K in credit card debt. 12 months ago I had about $35K!

Add to that a mortgage, student loans, and a car loan.

The credit card debt took over 10 years (during school and out of school in a low-paying entry level job), and the student loan took 5 years to accumulate.

But its getting paid off now, slowly but surely.

I’m in Canada, not the U.S..
Sarah responded:
Posted: February 17th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Currently, we have $73,067 in debt. That includes 3 credit cards with low balances, back taxes still owed, 2 cars and my husband’s student loans. The student loans are for my husband long before we met and $2,158 of the IRS is from about 8 years ago for my husband and his first wife. We also have a mortgage which hopefully in the next 6-8 months we’ll be able to refinance at a lower rate and for only 15 years instead of 30.
AP responded:
Posted: February 17th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
$70,000 in Student Loan debt plus $16,000 in car debt as of 2007. I will be debt free in 2 more months as long as God is willing!
Erin responded:
Posted: March 5th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
75k! And definately not proud of it. It took my husband and I about 10 years of living beyond our means. Now, going through a divorce and will get about 35k to take with me. Exciting huh? 27, single mom, part time worker, and 35k in debt. I’ll be tackling it the Dave Ramsey way!