Getting A Bank To Stop Charging Interest

Required

Hello

I recieved a depressing letter in the post in the form of a loan statement. It showed that even though I pay them £160 a month they charge £80 per month just for having the loan. On top of this I also pay the bank £50 per month for account fee and overdraft interest.

While I am at the moment not over my agreed overdraft limit or behind in my loan payments my credit history for the last 12 months is not great therefore I can not get any new credit or move it to another bank.

I am now starting to get on top of things and feel that I am throwing away £130 per month and therefore taking longer to repay the debts.

Has anyone got any experience of getting banks to cut interest rates on existing loans or overdrafts? Or even better getting them to freeze interest for a period or time?

If so do you try it at the branch or write a letter to their head office?

talana

The first thing you could do is change your account from a fee-paying premium account to a standard account (or whatever terms your bank use for them).
No-one has to pay an account fee, that's your choice.

talana

Required wrote: »

While I am at the moment not over my agreed overdraft limit or behind in my loan payments my credit history for the last 12 months is not great therefore I can not get any new credit or move it to another bank.

Then without wanting to sound harsh, why should the banks lower the interest rates for you? What's in it for them? You're not behind with your payments at all. Just not fancying the idea of paying the interest isn't going to get you very far, or we'd all be doing the same.

Why not post an SOA and we can help you free some extra cash from somewhere.

Required

My thinking was along the lines of if I change to an account where I no longer pay a fee then the overdraft interest rate jumps from 10% to 25%.

I was thinking that if I went to the bank and said that if they reduce the amount of interest I am paying (across all services) I will consider staying with them if not I move to a different bank.

talana

Required wrote: »

My thinking was along the lines of if I change to an account where I no longer pay a fee then the overdraft interest rate jumps from 10% to 25%.

How much is the account fee per month and if the overdraft rate jumped from 10% to 25% how much extra would you pay in interest?

I was thinking that if I went to the bank and said that if they reduce the amount of interest I am paying (across all services) I will consider staying with them if not I move to a different bank.

I think they'd probably shrug their shoulders and wave you goodbye essentially.
And unless a different bank will also match your overdraft you won't have solved the problem. You need to free some more cash and pay it off quicker in the end.

gfplux

Required wrote: »

My thinking was along the lines of if I change to an account where I no longer pay a fee then the overdraft interest rate jumps from 10% to 25%.

I was thinking that if I went to the bank and said that if they reduce the amount of interest I am paying (across all services) I will consider staying with them if not I move to a different bank.

Sorry required, but I don't think you have a snowballs chance in Hell.
But, you should try some thing good may come out of a meeting with your Bank.

Have you ever posted a SOA. You might get some good advise if you did.
here is the link http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

good Luck, looking forward to your next post.

Deep_In_Debt

Usually banks and other creditors will only freeze interest if you are showing difficulty in paying your debts back, like those of us on dmps, and even then it's usually only temporary.

As you are not been struggling or on a dmp, I think that banks will assume that you can afford to pay them therefore I think it's unlikely that they will freeze interest. Tbh, I don't think they really care whether they lose your business or not (don't mean to sound rude or harsh with this statement) as they will probably be making plenty of money out of other people anyway so the loss of a person is not going to make any difference to them.