She thought the cards were ‘free money’.
A woman who racked up £40,000 in debt after she became hooked on online shopping didn’t realise she would have to pay back the money she’d spent.
Maddy Alexander-Grout was 18-years-old when she received several credit cards during her freshers week at university.
In the subsequent years, Maddy became addicted to spending online, and would often pick up the tab for her friends on night’s out.
She was unaware that she was slowly and steadily building up thousands of pounds of debt.
The now 40-year-old Mum told the Manchester Evening News that it was only when she moved out of her university halls and had to pay her own way that she realised she had gotten herself into severe financial difficulty.
“I was hooked on shopping,” she said.
“I didn’t realise why I’d splashed out £40k. I took out credit cards and overdrafts. At one point I even got a university hardship grant, a hardship loan, store cards all sorts. I genuinely had a spending addiction.
“It was my low mood, lack of dopamine. Now I know it was because of my ADHD I got diagnosed in 2021. It was out of control,”
Maddy lived in constant fear of debt collectors knocking on her door and couldn’t cover her living expenses, which caused problems with the people she lived with.
She eventually managed to secure a job in recruitment, but regularly found herself spiralling again into unnecessary and reckless spending.
A low point for Maddy was when a banking client asked her to run a credit check, revealing her county court judgements and debt relief orders.
She was forced to own up to her financial issues to her boss, and luckily managed to hold on to her job.
She said: “They basically told me I couldn’t work with any banking clients. It was embarrassing. I had overdrafts with six different banks. It was horrible. It was horrendous.”
At this stage of her adulthood, Maddy had fallen into the trap of a payday loan cycle, consistently using finance companies with sky-high interest rates just to get by.
She hit rock bottom at the age of 24 when she moved to Warrington with her boyfriend, hoping that her money problems would remain a thing of the past back in her hometown of Southampton.
Soon after, the debt collectors found her at her new address. Madde risked tarnishing her relationships with friends and family, having to resort to asking those close to her to bail her out.
The anxiety and stress of that encounter eventually led to her moving back to Southampton and reaching out to Citizens Advice Bureau for help.
The extent of her debt finally began to hit home and she went to drastic measures to scrimp and save as much money as she possibly could.
Maddy lived off a stripped back diet, began selling her clothes and other items online, and regularly went to car boots to make a few extra pounds.
By 2011, she had paid off every last bit of her 40k debt.
She has gone one step further by becoming a money saving influencer on TikTok, offering followers tips and advice on how to save money and reduce debt quickly.
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