WEBVTT

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Unless you're lucky enough to have
an endless supply of free money,

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one day you're going to
have to borrow some cash

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and at some point, you'll
have to start paying it back.

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I never worried about
debt at university

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because I'd never even had a bank
account until my first year,

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so when I got my
student loan paid in,

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it just felt like, wow,
this is free money,

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you suddenly feel like you're rich.

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Whether it's going to Uni
and getting a student loan,

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or getting a mortgage to buy a house,

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debt seems unavoidable.

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We're offered money from
credit cards and loans all the time,

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so it seems perfectly
normal to take up the offer,

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but what happens when they
expect you to pay it back?

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Even though I worked
though university,

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I still was going into
enormous amounts of debt.

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On average, I'd normally
spend my loan money,

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which was a £1,000 a term,
by the 2nd or 3rd week.

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The main thing I spent
my money on, was going out,

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because obviously
being at university,

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there's always somebody going to the
pub or someone going to a club.

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At first, debt can just
seem like a way of life,

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but what happens when the debt gets
serious and you can't keep up with it?

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I came to London, found a job,

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I took out a bank loan

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and then it kind of escalated because
I wasn't earning very much money,

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so every month I'd be short.

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By the last week I'd have nothing,

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I wouldn't be able to afford my travel card

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or buy any dinner, or anything.

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It starts to build up and
you start to realise

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you're never going
to get out of it

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if you keep borrowing
more and more money.

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Every ten minutes a house is
being repossessed in the UK.

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Getting into debt can
have major repercussions.

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I am in about 25 grand's worth of debt,

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but I haven't been out of my overdraft

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since the first term of university,

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which was five, six years ago.

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You can't ever really forget about it.

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It strips you away from your freedom

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of being able to do even
just day to day things;

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cooking the dinner you feel like
or going to see your friends

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and it makes you feel very powerless.

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You have to be very
organised and planned

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as to what exactly you
can spend your money on.

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Someone at work says,

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'Can you buy me this cup of
coffee and I'll pay you back?'

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You have to say,'No, I can't,
I need you to give me that 50p.'

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In terms of family, I have
had to fall back on them

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and that has been stressful

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because they've always
been quite good with money,

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they've always saved.

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I think they're probably
a little bit disappointed.

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It's easy for debt to get
completely out of hand

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and the more you ignore it, 
the worse it gets.

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The whole of the UK is now paying
the price for doing exactly that.

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They're definitely very accommodating
in giving it to you,

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even when they can look at
your account and think,

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'Oh, this girl's really
not doing very well',

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but actually you are doing well

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because you're going to pay
the bank loads of interest.

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I regret trying to just
find more and more money

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to fulfil the depression
or whatever it was

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of not being able to afford stuff.

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It would just be this constant
rollercoaster of having nothing,

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to suddenly, wow, an
extension on my overdraft,

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I can go out again.

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With the recession in full swing,

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it's getting harder and harder for
people to pay off their debts.

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There are fewer jobs and everything
is getting more expensive.

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At the moment, it's probably
the worst it's ever been

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because I've got all these
debts to pay but no income.

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I went to see my  bank manager,
he said,

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'No way, we really can't help you,

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there are people that have been
made redundant or have got five kids'.

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It's hard to get a job
at the moment as well.

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I'm temping at the moment,
so my first pay-check

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I won't see a penny of it.

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It'll all just go into the bank

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and get swallowed up with
my loan payment and charges.

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So I'm just kind of
a wanderer really,

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crashing on friends' sofas and
relying on their kindness

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in cooking me dinner and
lending me money to get to work.

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So, once you're in this deep, is it
ever possible to get out of debt?

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My initial plan is to
pay off my credit card,

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but, to be honest, with my bank loan,

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it's just a case of
managing those payments.

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There's no way I'm ever
going to get eight grand

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to suddenly pay it off in one go.

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If I was going to give myself
some advice, five years ago,

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I'd probably say that the happiness
that you feel from having all this,

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what you feel is a disposable income,

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doesn't really cancel out the
stress and the worry that you feel

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when you can't pay it back.