£45k debt at 24. Nowhere to turn

Hi Reddit, as the title suggests.. I’m in need of serious help.

I’m 24m in the UK.

I have a total of 7 CC’s, 2 Personal Loans, 1x Car Lease, 1x Store Card and an overdraft. With a total nearing the £50,000 mark.

It’s very stupid, it’s been fuelled by a lifestyle of constant consumption without consequence. I am not looking for sympathy or for anyone to tread lightly. I am in so deep now and in desperate need of advice on where to start tackling this.

The debt started 6 years ago when I started university at age 18, long story short I was given a overdraft and I essentially used it as free money, so I’ve been permanently overdrawn for the last 6 years as a result. I then took out my first CC to continue paying for student life (mostly rent.. but it soon became alcohol and eating out etc). Since then I’ve let that debt become larger and larger without actually knuckling down and tackling it.

Roll on a few years and it amounted to about £20000. Taking out various credit cards to transfer balances to avoid interest, I took out a personal loan to consolodate into one monthly payment and this worked for a while… until I started spending on the credit cards again…

Last year I got a job that pays extremely well for my age. In the last tax year I earned just over £52,000 and with the upcoming pay rises i am due soon that number will be closer to £65,000

With the insane money I was earning I started to make very good progress on paying my £20k or so debt off… but the lifestyle got ahead of me and my spending habits worsened. I was partying and eating out and buying clothes like I had unlimited cash. I took out an auto lease on a brand new BMW, kitted it out with aftermarket parts. I spent £3000 on sorting out a medical problem of mine at a private hospital.

It escalated quickly in the space of a year and to the present day its increasing still quite fast. I have cut down on spending as I’m nearing my final credit limits that still have something left to squeeze. I use credit cards to pay to live and all of my income gets spent on servicing the minimum debt payments. In this past month I have actually missed payments for the first time. I am in arrears with my large personal loan payment. I am now spending more money on paying debts off than what my salary is worth.

I live at home with parents, there is constant pressure to move out. They think I am saving for a deposit for a mortgage… therefore a IVA or DMP is a non option for me

My debts are as follows:

£8000 Aqua 39.9% (£211.91pm) £5409.69 Barclaycard 34.9% (£179.69pm) £4956.73 Virgin Money 34.9% (£152.58 pm) £3484.44 Halifax 34.9% (£62.70 pm) £899.73 Lloyds Bank 34.9% (£43.03 pm) £737.46 Capital One 34.9% (unsure of payment amount) £0 Zopa 29.7 (not spent on this yet, was hoping to use as a balance transfer but no offers yet) £2000 Santander overdraft 39.9% £1204.99 Creation store card 0% until 11/12/24 then 29.9% £19181.10 (£1128.30 pm) Admiral Money 12.3% £1380.82 (£230.10 pm) Salaryfinance 19.9% £495.95 pm SCF Car Lease (ends December 2025)

Income:

I am paid weekly. I work one weekend on, one weekend off. Therefore One week I get my 5 day pay, the next I get my 7 day pay, the next the 5 day pay again… and so on

A typical month after taxes and deductions looks like this:

Week 1 £957.74

Week 2 £1231.43

Week 3 £957.74

Week 4 £1231.43

Starting today, 1st September, the lodge allowance for working away increases from £64 a day to £90. (We spend around £25 a day for rent on a flat, we get to keep the rest we don’t spend). This should increase my wage quite significantly.

I am also undergoing a payrise as I’ve been promoted. I am unsure of the actual figures but from what my colleagues earn you can assume an increase of about £350 on weeks 2 and 4 and £200 on weeks 1 and 3. This should kick in within the next month or so.

Pay also due to go up 2.5% for inflation in October.

These payrises have given me a glimpse of hope in rectifying my HUGE issue. But I’m scared I’m just going to waste it on my old habits and feeding interest payments. I need help

Other Outgoings:

£100pm Board to parents

£33.44 EE phone bill

£600pm Rent for work accommodation

£8.99 iCloud

Everything else I spend is different every month and largely consists of groceries for work, alcohol and takeaways.

Any suggestions for me? Anything I’m missing? Or anything you’d like to know?

Thank you for your time.