Clear settlement debt? How?

[Malakie]

How do we clear the debt? I have enough credits to pay off the debt outright... How do we do so?

[Dirak2012]

You can't. You have to increase productivity until the debt is slowly paid off by itself.

[Mozzy]

There should be a ticking timer on your settlement administrator console when you view status - it shows if you are paying off debt or not.

If total production isn't higher than total costs, then you don't have any net positive income and debt won't be paid off. Once you get to net positive income, then debt is paid off as shown by ticking timer - more net income you have, faster debt gets paid off.

If you are not at net positive, only thing you can do is stop choosing choices that add debt, and pick buildings that provide more production vs happiness choice, etc

[raybow33]

Do not put any of your base computer building materials on settlement grounds. Only the save point is allowed. Make a save point before you enter the management office and choose one of the choices, if it is not the right one reload and choose the correct one. There will be visitors to the settlement that will offer gifts to help you give your citizens better housing and living quarters and many more improvements. Be patient the settlement mechanics will fix your problems, just make the right decision, use the save point.

[Crow]

It took 5 new buildings to get rid of my debt , it takes time

[taniwhat]

And you'll be asked by the citizens to burn money on parties.
I suspect until you get near 100% happiness "Yes" is the correct answer anyway.

I didn't worry too much and things worked out O.K., I don't get a LOT of surplus, but checking status & collecting booty BEFORE making decisions/spending units is a good idea.

[frazzled]

Many new buildings increase productivity. Some of the other actions, like settlement disputes or greeting visitors can also increase productivity or decrease maintenance costs. I just had one of the latter which cut my maintenance costs in half. That was huge.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Try to visualize it like the frigate missions. It is a slow process, but keep building building, make reasonable choices, and it will slowly expand your capacity and remove any negative traits of your settlement. Don't worry about the debt, it will be erased pretty quickly. I have not had any debt for four days now.

You will get situations where adding debt might be ultimately attractive based on what you get. Do those. It goes away quickly and worth the risks.

[Malakie]

OK all of those replies help! Thanks much.. I was thinking I could just pay off the debt and eventually building enough buildings would then overtake the debt climb and reverse into profit making.. Kinda odd we can't pay off the initial debt though but as long as it can reverse once we get enough built, it should not be an issue..

I was surprised to see the debt continues when logged off however... I went from -200,000 to almost -500,000 over two days of not playing.