Credit Creep

What follows is a brief time-line of how I got to my situation today and, perhaps more importantly, my thinking and logic at the time.

All the figures are approximate. I apologise for this because one of the important things I’ve learnt is to be exact, but this is historical, and after all, if I’d written it down I wouldn’t be in this mess!

And so it begins:

At the end of 2001, whilst in a well paid job, I saved £4200 to buy a new car. Not quite being able to afford the one I wanted, rather than continue saving, I got my first credit card and put the remaining £2300 on it. Much like today, it was at a time when there were plenty of of 0% offers around. So I thought, “Well, if I save the money before the 0% offer runs out, I’ve not lost anything right? I even get £30 of a popular store’s point!”… the start of a very slippery slope, the first time I justified my spending actions to myself in a way that made it seem acceptable.

I enjoyed the buzz of driving around in a nice new car and, to my surprise, I quite enjoyed appearing well off to my friends. It makes me feel ashamed when I say it, but it’s the frightening reality of who I was at the time, “I quite enjoyed appearing well off to my friends”. That sounds horrible doesn’t it? I was getting pleasure from thinking that other people might want what I had. I now had my formula for racking up debt:

New toy + Appearance of doing well + Low cost borrowing = Green light to spend!