I need advice please! Student, overdraft, debt, etc.

grahamglos

Ideally, someone will read this and tell me how I can get around this pickle!

I've been working really hard over the last few months to get away from using my overdrafts with all my banks...

In 4 months I've brought my balances up from -£500 to £0 across two current accounts, and I haven't touched them since.

However, I'm a student and I dived headfirst into a Natwest Student Account, with a tasty-looking £1250 overdraft. Which I took advantage of and spent very quickly. Now, in the last month I'd worked really hard to keep saving and stay on the right path. Nevertheless, in my infinite naiivety I went on holdiday my balance went from -£850 to -£1325. This is a real kick in the teeth, because whilst I check my balance before I spend any money, it said I was in the clear until I go to look at my online banking and I've spent all the money I'd saved and now I just feel crappy about the whole situation.

So, I want to go forwards from this and I've had a look at a number of solutions.

I don't want to bias replies, but this is my aim;

Halifax offer a £3000 overdraft which you can change the limit of at any time - I know I can probably do this with my Natwest account but I just hadn't thought about it.

I want to change banks, yeah it's nice to have a railcard with my student account, but I'm fed up of not being able to talk to customer services representatives, all I get is machines! I rang Halifax and they said they can offer me all the perks of their student account but only if I close the other student account first. So that's my aim, working out a way to source £1325 or so to clear my overdraft and open a HAlifax student account.

Would it be wise to apply for a loan, or overdraft, or what can I do so I can get a Halifax account? I just want some help to get out of my pickle.

Thankyou so much in advance

Budgeted

Do you have a family member that would lend you the money which you could pay back (maybe with interest) over x amount of months?

I would suggest to you that you cancel your overdraft protection for now, until you have real money in the bank, or truly need it, then limit yourself to only a couple hundred dollars of it.

inaspin_3

Hi, I don't think i'll be much help, but I don't know if a loan would be advisable.... would you need to pay an early settlement fee seeing as you shouldn't need it too long? Would you be able to afford the repayments on it? Would you be able to get a 0% balance transfer on a credit card? repayments would be at the minimum (normally 3-5% of balance which would prob be cheaper than loan repayment) then you could pay it back off asap. As long as you don't spend on the card as as you'll pay the balance transfer off first then the other amount you spend on it would be paid last meaning you're paying interest. Sorry i'm not much help, but didn't want to read and run. Hope you sort it all out.

Lokolo

Halifax are extremely unlikely to give you the £3k overdraft straight away. A lot of people when first opening the accounts were given £500, then next year it was upped. Halifax would most probably limit it to £1500 in your second uni year (first year with them) so I highly doubt there is going to be any chance of any difference.

Why did you go on holiday if you couldn't afford it? :rolleyes: (just to clarify, I only went on a 3 day trip to Paris this summer and I managed to work and get £1600 from working!)

I would go down to local branch and ask to speak to an advisor. Charges will be put on your account as you are over your agreed limits. I would ask if you could have it extended for a little while until you get everything sorted, they maybe nice and give you this.

However - you are going to make sure you need a job during university otherwise you're in a lot of dog poo.

jennifernil

Halifax are most unlikely to give you a good overdraft.

DD started with them in 1st year with an OD of £500, which she never used. In 2nd year they put it up to £1250, still she never used it.

Then, at the end of her 4th year (she is in Scotland) she was offered to do a PhD. She had 8 weeks work over the summer vac, always in credit. Then there was a big disagreement between her sponsor and the Uni, which resulted in her getting no money at all until the end of December. So she used up her overdraft just to live on.

In fact a lot more than her overdraft, we had to lend her £2500, and we are OAPs. Luckily we could manage it.

She explained the situation to Halifax and asked for a bigger overdraft to tide her over. They refused because she had no regular income! Doh!

If she had a regular income, she would not have needed the increased overdraft!!

So she, as a Post Grad student, is still on an OD of £1250.

She recently applied to up it, but was refused again, so has given up.

ldn-100

They will not tell you your overdraft limit (which it appears is decided entirely by machines) until after the account is opened. I would not close any account before you find out what this will be. As others have said the usual amount seems to be £500. As a third year student I asked them to match £1,400 I had with NatWest and the person that I spoke to in branch said they would match it, but they didn't. I complained and got a lacklustre response. Basically they will say anything to get you to move to them, and not keep their promises.