advice needed reclaiming bank charges/ credit cards

sam4321

Hi all,

I need a little advice regarding my current situation. Please be patient when reading this as it's quite long!

I am thinking of reclaiming my bank charges but am overdrawn. I’ve read the advice by Martin on reclaiming when overdrawn but have a few questions unique to my own situation. It might help if I give a bit of background first:

Bank situation:
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]I’m currently very close to my overdraft limit. My overdraft is not interest free. This has been the case for a number of months. Occasionally I end up going into a ‘reserve’ that the bank has set up for me and incur a £22.00 charge plus interest each time. I’d like to put a stop to this but have no prospects of increasing my income/decreasing my bills in order to be able to cover this.
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]My overdraft limit is 2.5k having built up a good relationship with the bank from years of having the account.

Credit card situation:
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Credit card A - 6k of debt on it. (balance transfers at 0%, allows credit transferred to bank account (as cash))
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Credit card B - 4k of credit on it (not interest free)

I want to reclaim my bank charges as I feel they will be quite a substantial amount. I’m reluctant to do so when I’m overdrawn in case they close the account (I’m certain I will not be able to get an overdraft as big given my current credit situation and am keen to keep this overdraft as an emergency source of cash as opposed to using credit cards).

My questions are as follow:

-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Is it advisable for me to use credit card B to pay off 2.5k on credit card and then use this to pay off my overdraft (in order to make an application to reclaim charges whilst in the black)?

If so,

-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Will credit card B charge extra interest/charges for paying off another credit card with it or will it be treated as a normal transaction?
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Will credit card A charge extra interest/charges for paying into a bank account?

Longterm…

-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]is it advisable for me to switch my direct debits (bills) onto a credit card instead of my bank account? This would allow me to clear my overdraft over 4 months. I can afford to pay off my credit cards and not default on any payments.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any help would be much appreciated.

esmerellda

I would cancel the reserve on your account for starters.

Yes start your reclaim on charges, they can't close your account as retalitory, although you are right they may decide to reduce or remove the overdraft. I assume your credit record is pretty good, so you wont want to dump the overdraft and arrange repayments, if you are managing your credit cards okay and the 0% has a long time left to run then you could use the card to pay off the overdraft (and then reduce it by a lot or cancel it so you don't end up in the same position a year down the line).

I would also leave your DD/Bills going from your bank account, credit cards are expensive.