Living in my overdraft

KieranB

Hello guys,

I have an overdraft of £900 which i always meet every month, i know full well if my overdraft went to £800 next month i would meet that and not have any issues.

My only issue is that my self-control isnt fantastic. Would I have a credit check done if i went into my bank and asked them to reduce my overdraft allowance? I don't really want 9 credit checks over 9 months..

Cheers!

debrag

I can see why your bank would do a check to reduce a balance

GrammarGirl

Hello! I am exactly the same, but as you can see from my signature my OD is much bigger than yours! :rolleyes:

It depends which bank you are with, but you may find you'll get charged an arrangement fee for changing your OD limit more than once every 6 months. It's definitely the case with HSBC - if you change your limit yourself or exceed it without permission more than once in 6 months they will charge you £25.

Your bank won't do a credit search to reduce your limit, and if you did it just once in 6 months you won't get charged, but to change it every month may end up costing you.

I am also finding it hard to get out of my OD and having the balance there always means there's a temptation to spend! But I am trying, and soon I'll reduce my limit to £1,200 after quite a few months of reducing my outgoings. Then I'll wait 6 months, work my way further out and reduce the limit again.

Worth checking with your bank anyway.

KieranB

Cool thats good! NatWest I think don't charge so thats good news i suppose..

They recently increased my overdraft from £400 to £900 without me asking them to and it only took a few months to be living in that. I am not happy with myself but am very committed to getting it back to £0.

found_a_bargin

If not couldnt you put a set amount in to a savings account that you can touch for a set amount of months then as soon as you can pay off a large chunk in one go?

meerkat2007

I'm with NatWest and have changed my OD limit several times over the last few months - I've never been charged for changing it, either up or down.