Is it considered ‘normal’ to borrow a lot of money from the bank,from a family member,or to max out your credit cards?

Or is that frowned upon? Do people usually save money when they want to buy something,or do they borrow money?

36 comments

  1. Having debt is heavily frowned upon. Except if it’s a mortgage on a house, that’s normal (and a smart tax decision).

  2. Usually not.
    Credit Cards are rarely used the way they are in the US. Its mostly just a means of payments that takes money from your account and transfers it to someone else.

    Its not very common to have debts, except for mortgages on homes.

    In recent years, advertising fairly expensive car leases to a young target demographic has become fairly common. Thats definitely a type of debt thats on the rise.

    All in all, id say debt (other than mortgages) is mostly something poor people have around here.

  4. >Do people usually save money when they want to buy something,or do they borrow money?

    The Swiss save the money first, typically on bank accounts.

    But there are the more extreme ones: I know a couple which literally saves for future investments in cash. For instance, they’ve shown me a box in which they put 150 CHF for each week of the year in order to buy a new car – in cash of course. All now and then the smaller bills are swapped for [thousanders](https://www.reddit.com/r/Switzerland/comments/nm1mr4/fun_facts_about_the_compactness_of_the_1000/). I am pretty confident that there are more such boxes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    >max out your credit cards

    I know quite a few people only wanting a debit card: cheaper than credit cards.

    Debth = bad. Showing off money = bad. Stacking money = good.

  5. It is frowned upon when You borrow money to buy stuff that is not necessary – ie you buy new BMW instead of Skoda, however mortgage or buying non-premium car with finance is ok. Also taking loans in one of those quick-loan companies is considered a sign that you`ve hit the bottom in your life – people will start thinking that you`re a addicted to alcohol or gambling etc., so many guys are trying to hide that they`ve ever took such loan.

  8. I can’t tell about others but I learnt that I prefere to save up till I have the money to buy something I want rather than go in debt/loans to get it now.

    I’ve seen my mother doing so when a kid and suffering cause of monthly costs adding to the mortage and making our life difficult.

    If it’s not a house or a car I wanna save up.

    While renovating my house instead of doing one big overhaul asking for a loan I saved up as much as possible in cash and doing one room at time.

    Like in the past year doing so I changed all the windows with those cool ones with double/triple glass for thermal insulation since in Italy we could get a 50% discount when paying so I paid 4.900€ instead of almost 10000€. All in cash and asap (well limit cash pay in Italy is 1999€ so I mean no loands no debts) meaning I went to my bank with the cash I saved up and kept home and sent a transfer giving them the cash I had instead of using the money from my bank account.

    Same shit with renovation of a room saved up and pay: new floor , new electric system,new door and re-painting.

    Leroy Merlin offer kinda every service so whenever I have the money I make what I can do.

    I don’t want any other debt than my mortage.

    Once mortage is over I’ll change car

  9. Only borrow money for a house or for investments. The rest is heavily frowned upon. You don’t need a car, use public transport if you can’t afford one, or if you just want to save up a higher percentage of your income.

    Right now I’m considering not borrowing money for a mortgage and just build piece by piece.

    But with inflation of the construction sector I don’t know if that’s the right idea.

    I just don’t like borrowing money in general. So it definitely will need to be investment linked. Real investments, not buying existing property in hopes of it gaining value and then selling it. That’s just being a leech.

  10. Yes it’s very common, lots of people have credit card debt, car, phone, furniture, appliances etc on finance, we’re encouraged by media and advertising to live beyond our means to compete with our neighbours. It’s very bad, personally I only have a mortgage and only use a credit card to get the benefits and prefer to save for large purchases and don’t buy much consumerist crap but I know lots of people who have lots of debt to maintain a shopping habit they can’t afford.

  11. It depends on the kind of debt. If it’s for buying a house it’s pretty standard, just like a debt for school. Apart from those personal debts are seen as a bad thing.

  12. Having a controlled and sensible debt is encouraged here. It shows that you can be trusted with your money and the lenders will be more confident to give you better deals on your mortgage and car finance.

    On top of that, having debt can also be profitable if you have a rewards credit card (Amex or one of the cashback cards) and you know how to use it.

    People who are smart with their money will usually take advantage of the 0% interest rate finance and put the rest into savings, so that you actually earn money from the long-term purchase (like a sofa or a smartphone).

    But…. it doesn’t mean everyone is good at managing their money. Some people abuse the lender’s trust and take up a lot of debt which becomes unmanagable. Thankfully, the most people who end up in a bad state with their money only do so because of [life events like redunancy](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/qlq97m/ama_we_are_the_uks_largest_debt_charity/hj5i30f/).

  13. I think in the UK people would say that having debt is bad, frowned upon, but many wouldn’t hesitate to make purchases on finance without realising the implications of it. Not to talk down making an informed decision about using finance options to make a necessary purchase – it can be worth the trade off, but I know several people who’ve essentially been refused mortgages due to having cars on finance, aka a large chunk of debt next to their name.

    I think credit cards here are viewed differently to mainland Europe though, most people have them, but most people pay them off in full every month. I treat mine like a debit card in that I never spend more than the actual money I have in my account, only you get benefits for using it and an improved credit rating by always paying it off.

  14. Depends on the people.

    I know people who live from loan to loan.

    I was always taught to never take any loans and if I own someone money, I have to repay them asap. Only thing that is not frowned upon is mortgage to pay for a house.

  15. Mortgage on a house, or small loans for cars or private tuition/masters level is pretty normal (mortgages on homes is almost a must now, houses are extremely expensive)

  16. Here in Germany the word for debt is the same as the word for guilt.

    I guess that tells you all you need to know about German attitudes to debt.

  17. The attitude is quite interesting in the Netherlands. On the one end consumer debt for say cars, phones etc is pretty frowned upon and most people don’t carry CC debt. The government is also anti debt and carries a lot less debt compared to most countries.

    On the other hand we have mountains of mortgage debt in the Netherlands. Due to the low interest rates it usually works pretty well, and not many people default on their mortgages.

    So we are sort of anti debt in general, but overall we carry a massive debt due to high housing prices.

  18. Debt is frowned upon for frivolous purchases or items which lose value over time such as usually anything thats in your house. There’s two big exceptions and a small one:

    Debt is okay for buying a real estate property (usually doesn’t lose value) and for buying a car (loses value but many people are dependant on it and it’s also a status symbol for quite a bit of the population).

    The small exception is for mobile phones. Often the contracts for the data plan include a new phone every 2 years by buying the phone on instalments (technically debt). In the minds of the buyer this is part of the subscription cost of the phone plan and hence not considered debt.

  19. Like in most European countries it is frowned upon, but Portugal has very low financial literacy rates, so it is not unheard of, of people getting credits to buy a new TV, car, or something else not essential.

    Surely, I have heard several cases of people who got rekted by it.

  20. In Ireland it would be very much looked down on to have debt unless for a essential reasons i.e. mortgage. And as far as I’m aware very little people have other forms of debt, quicker go poor and move home to their parents than rack up debt

  21. Economy is a private thing and we dont involve ourself in others economy. Most people have either student debt, credit card or a mortage.

  22. Getting random consumer loans is frowned upon. People save up for stuff like a new phone or computer.

    Car leasing depends on the circles. Some people see it as normal, other people see it as a need to flex with an expensive car that you don’t even own.

    House mortgage is the only generally accepted one. But if you have a low paying job and max out your loan to live in a really fancy setting and then struggle to pay for that, people will roll their eyes at you regardless. House mortgage also seems to be the only money topic that is ok to talk about: friends compare the interest rates and benefits of shorter vs longer loan periods or downpayment sizes.

  23. Debts are pretty frowned up on. Unless if it’s a mortgage. That’s considered a pretty good thing. Because Belgians have a baksteen in de maag.

    Credit cards are not as widely used as debit cards… I do everything with a debit card. I don’t even own a credit card haha

  24. You can have a mortgage or some starter loan for your bussines, or a loan for house renovation – also reasonable debts for cars are somewhat OK.

    But if you have credit card debt/consumer goods debt, it speaks badly of your financial management capability and can be also interpreted as a moral failing. Quick-loans are taken as signs of serious problems – that you are probably very stupid, or addicted to something.

  26. I would say mortgages, smaller (reasonable) car loans, business loans, and loans to renovations are all „acceptable“ debt. What is frowned upon is taking too large of a debt for your income or debt for frivolous purchases

  27. Its very normal in the UK.

    Many(esp younger) are obsessed with keeping up with the joneses. They only way they can do this is by getting into increasing levels of debt.

    Unfortunately, interest rates are going to significantly rise in the next few years. Consequently, Mrs and Mr Jones are going to find themselves in serious financial trouble .

    If you want to make easy money in the UK and have no moral scruples, then debt collection is going to be a boom area.

    In the UK you will never be short of unfortunate customers up to their eyes in debt.

  28. Quite frowned upon in FI. I kinda fucked my studies by not taking the 0,01% interest student loans and getting left out from activities and opportunities. Grades don’t help you when you have no experience!

  29. Okay let’s be honest here: Everyone will say that mortage is good reason to take loans. Those from lower income countries will be accepting of taking loan for, for example, used car or new washing machine, those from higher income countries will find it unwise because to them it seems you can just save for a month.

  30. Paying for stuff over multiple months has become really popular, for a TV or a vacuum cleaner nowadays you pay a fourth of the price every month for four months without fees called “paiement en 4 fois sans frais”.

    It feels like debt is frowned upon (credit cards are not even a thing here, we use the word crédit for debit cards), but debt becomes acceptable if it’s from the company selling the product and not the bank. Same with cars with “location avec option d’achat” where you have the option to pay a small amount every month and at the end of the contract you pay the remaining amount for your new car.

    Of course it’s still accepted to have debt if it’s for a house.

  31. In France we don’t have a “credit card” culture. We do call them credit cards but they’re usually debit cards. There is no concept of maxing it out, either you have the money or you don’t. The American credit card is seen as a red flag by most people I know. Credit score is seen as a scam.

    There are few scenarios where borrowing money makes sense. Buying a car if you really need one for work or buying a house.

    Borrowing money for school can be done but is more of a gray area.

    Borrowing money for anything else would be a red flag on the individual’s finances. This is especially true for mid-range spendings like a big car repair or a new washing machine. You should have an emergency fund.

    Even worse if you borrowed money for something superfluous like a new TV. Some credit brands like “cofidis” are associated with the stereotype of poor people making their situation worse by trying to look rich.

  32. Common attitude is that debt is “entertainment” as long as it is not your own debt or problems. Luksusfellen as it is called in norwegian, “the luxury trap” in english if you want. Believe it or not, but we have program going on TV here for 23 seasons (ca. 10 episodes per season) where economical expert, psychologs etc help people who have run into deep problems with their debt. It’s kind of the weirdest tv-show you might see here of ordinarty people totally making their own catastrophes totally public. Given that there must have been over 200 episodes, pretty sure at least one of them “lives” in your neighbourhood or city. Some of the episode is pure entertainment when they go through the economy of the person.. remember one of those cases.. the person drank [7 litres](https://www.seher.no/kjendis/jeg-drikker-sju-liter-melk-om-dagen/64262972) of milk pr. day (drinking milk for ca. 350 euros pr month), on top of that 300 euros on tobacco pr month. Otherwise generally many examples of people being “king of the nightlife” with their credit cards … or buying countless cars etc.. The swedes also have their version of this show.

  34. Heavily frowned upon in Sweden, then current prime minister Göran Persson wrote a book in 1997 called “He who is in debt is never free” and I’d say that’s a common view.

  35. The favourite investment product for Norwegians is property. “Everyone” has a mortgage, and since our mortgage interest rate has been below 5% for the last 15-20 yrs, we now have large mortgages, especially young people who has never experienced high interest rates. A mortgage is a totally acceptable type of debt and we will talk fairly openly about it. Mortgages are our cheapest debt in terms of interest rate.

    We also have a lot of consumer debt, even though it’s frowned upon. We do love our new kitchens and TVs. Car loans are fine, but more expensive than mortgages.

    Some info on the situation in Norwegian. https://forskning.no/finans-helse-okonomi/nordmenn-er-et-av-verdens-mest-gjeldstyngede-folk-og-na-gar-renta-opp-forskere-advarer-mot-at-gjeldsproblemer-gir-folk-darlig-psykisk-helse/1919239

  36. It’s normal. For most it’s the only way they can buy a house or a car. They’d rather pay the bank for the rest of their lives than to pay rent and be at the mercy of the owner.

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