Singletons dangerously naive over partner's debts

Singletons are living in a dangerous fantasy land. A new study has revealed an alarming number of people on the dating scene are ether hopelessly naive about the chance of their partner being in debt - or utterly blind to the problems that these debts could cause.

The study, by credit scoring site Noddle, discovered that almost one in three people would consider breaking up with someone they were dating if they discovered they were in a lot of debt, while one in 20 said they would 'definitely' do so. Meanwhile just one in five said they'd stick with someone who owed a lot of money.

Blind to debt

This reveals two alarming things about singletons. The first is that they think that their potential partner hasn't run up debts. The vast majority of people in the UK have some kind of debt. According to PwC, by the end of 2016, the average household in the UK will owe £10,000 in unsecured debts like loans and credit cards. The average credit card debt is already over £1,000.

Older singletons may be carrying a mortgage. They may also have been through an expensive divorce, and are trying to run two households off an income that used to cover one. Meanwhile, younger singletons who have been through university can easily face debts of £50,000 by the time they finish.

When fewer than two in ten people over the age of 30 have never owed any money to anyone (excluding mortgages), it's barmy for singletons to expect their potential partner to be the exception to the rule.
%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar-debt-advice%
Secret

The other major concern comes from the fact that people are so judgmental over debt when it comes to their new partner. If someone you are dating suspects that their debts could land them on the scrap heap, there's a real risk they could try to hide them.

A huge number of singletons think that they wouldn't mind this at all. One in ten told researchers that they wouldn't want to know about their partner's financial affairs until they moved in together, and a terrifying 10% of people said they'd never want to know.

However, you have to ask whether it's a terribly sensible idea for daters to desperately try to keep up appearances, buying things they cannot afford, and going on mini-breaks that drive them even deeper into debt.

When things get serious, your debts are highly likely to emerge. At the point you start making joint financial decisions - such as buying a home or a car together - if you need to borrow cash, the cat will be out of the bag.

Even if you can hide your debts, you won't be doing your partner any favours. As soon as you get a joint account or any kind of financial product together, your credit records will be linked by the ratings agencies, so your debts could have a serious impact on your partner's financial position.

When you're making plans for your life together, you have to ask whether its fair to hide a financial problem that could have serious implications on your ability to buy a house, or face the costs associated with getting married or starting a family.

What should you do?

The researchers are calling for 'full financial disclosure', encouraging people to be open about their financial position. They say it's important to be honest about money early in the relationship, and not to try to sugar-coat the situation or hide the worst of their problems.

However, the solution starts before this point - being realistic about debt. Before we start dating we need to understand that there's a very high likelihood that our partner owes money to someone.

We need to get to grips with what constitutes a sensible level of borrowing that is under control and in the process of being paid off - including student debts and mortgages - and what constitutes problem debts.

Only when we understand both of these things are we in a position to have an honest conversation with our partner about their borrowing, without over-reacting.

But what do you think? Would you date someone with debts? Let us know in the comments.

Debt stories on AOL Money

Store cards "a complete scandal"

Over 2 million people have debts run up by their ex

Once you declare yourself bankrupt you're bankrupt for life ...