Natwest overdraft extension

meandu229

My natwest overdraft will be extended for my 2nd year by £250 i could really do with this now. i went into a branch yesterday and the woman told me i could do it from saturday(1st july) but now i have been told September,, does anybody know which is true, and if there anyway to get it pushed forward if it is september.
thanks

melancholly

i'd always deal with the branch directly - at natwest i've found the call centre people not as good as a university branch in knowing how to deal with students. wait until july 1st and go in, then you'll know for sure what the situation is.

natwest were very keen to throw credit cards and overdrafts at me as a student so i can't imagine that they'd be too fussy over a few months - good luck!

Eoin_McLove

You should get it on 1st July, no problem. When I completed my first degree last July, I went into my Natwest branch and asked if I could increase my overdraft (which was already on the £1,500 maximum for third-year students). There and then they updated my account from a student to a graduate account, thereby giving me a £2,000 overdraft!

All you have to say is that you've completed your first year, and that now you're going into your second. That should be sufficient to get your overdraft increased. After all, it doesn't really make any difference to Natwest. They want you to be overdrawn by as much as possible so that when you finish university, you'll be stuck with them for a bit longer whilst you pay off your overdraft.

Incidentally, I'm an MA student at the moment, with a £2,000 overdraft (on the graduate account), which has to be reduced to £1,000 by the end of July. I've discovered that Natwest offers a 'Graduate Overdraft Repayment Plan', whereby you can borrow up to £2,000 interest-free after you graduate, over a maximum of three years. So, should you take out the maximum overdraft of £1,500 in your third year, and then £2,000 for the year after your graduate (or for the year you do your Masters, as I have), you can use this repayment plan to pay off your overdraft gradually, interest-free. If you were to borrow £2,000, it works out at around £56 per month for three years. It's good to know that there is a solution to paying off your overdraft, because, sadly, one day you actually have to!

But needless to say, if you can get by without using too much of your overdraft in the next couple of years, do try. I'm burdened with this £2,000 overdraft (plus an £8,000 Career Development Loan to fund my MA!) when I start work as a chartered accountant this August. But like you probably, I had no choice but to use it.