I'm new! And Overdrafts

LondonGirl252

Hi all,

After browsing on here for a little while I thought I'd pluck up the courage and post!

I seem to overspend each month and each month my overdraft gets bigger and bigger and now my bank is charging me £1 a day which usually works out at around £28 a month.

I managed to clear it once before by using some money I made from selling my car but I can't do that again and I desperatley want to get rid of it as I also have some money on credit cards and I dont want to get any more out of control.

Currently the credit card balance is being paid off £100 a month and the balance is interest free for a little while longer, without looking at a statement I think my balance is around £2k at the minute.

Im just really looking for some overdraft clearing tips from those who are doing/have done it!

Thanks for any replies :beer:

Thrifty_Pixie

Welcome burnsey

There are really only two ways to clear an overdraft or debt of any kind:
1) increase your earnings, or
2) decrease your spends



Having said that, if you post up your statement of affairs (on the 'SOA Calculator' sticky at the top of this forum) listing all your incomings and outgoings I'm sure the nice wee people here will have some suggestions!

Also - SPENDING DIARY! Keep one! Not only will it tell you where you're overspending each month, but it can help to make you conscious of everything you spend too

Fergie76

Burnsey wrote: »

Hi all,

After browsing on here for a little while I thought I'd pluck up the courage and post!

I seem to overspend each month and each month my overdraft gets bigger and bigger and now my bank is charging me £1 a day which usually works out at around £28 a month.

I managed to clear it once before by using some money I made from selling my car but I can't do that again and I desperatley want to get rid of it as I also have some money on credit cards and I dont want to get any more out of control.

Currently the credit card balance is being paid off £100 a month and the balance is interest free for a little while longer, without looking at a statement I think my balance is around £2k at the minute.

Im just really looking for some overdraft clearing tips from those who are doing/have done it!

Thanks for any replies :beer:

Ask your bank to decrease your overdraft by £20, £30 or even £50 each month depending how much you can afford.

LondonGirl252

Thanks for the replies!

I didnt know you could ask your bank to reduce it each month - I'll call them as soon as I get home.

I started doing a SOA but as I didnt have all my statements in front of me I decided to wait till I got home so I'll also do that tonight and then post up tomorrow.

Thanks again

Thrifty_Pixie

Burnsey wrote: »

Thanks for the replies!

I didnt know you could ask your bank to reduce it each month - I'll call them as soon as I get home.

I started doing a SOA but as I didnt have all my statements in front of me I decided to wait till I got home so I'll also do that tonight and then post up tomorrow.

Thanks again

As i see it, asking the bank to reduce your overdraft each month (which not all banks will do btw) will only bring more overdraft fees unless you're actually planning on staying within your o/d each month? Maybe I'm misunderstanding but I thought your o/d was increasing each month? Hence why your SOA will help. Start getting the o/d down and then decrease its limit as you decrease your usage.

Fergie76

Thrifty_Pixie wrote: »

As i see it, asking the bank to reduce your overdraft each month (which not all banks will do btw) will only bring more overdraft fees unless you're actually planning on staying within your o/d each month? Maybe I'm misunderstanding but I thought your o/d was increasing each month? Hence why your SOA will help. Start getting the o/d down and then decrease its limit as you decrease your usage.

My reading of it is, that she's staying in her agreed od, but is in her od after a couple of days each month.

I think she must be with Halifax as I think they charge a £1 per day flat fee now for authorised od. So by reducing her OD each month if she can eventually she will be out of her OD, and not incurring any charges.

DarkConvict

You could move the OD onto a 0% credit card, and make say £30-50 monthly payments against the credit card to reduce the debt instead of it been swalled in charges. Only Virgina nd MBNA allow this at the moment - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/cut-loan-overdraft-costs

LondonGirl252

Hi,

Yes I'm with Halifax and suffering from the £1 a day charges, I stay within my agreed overdraft but this is the charge for that.
I tried to clear it previously with a Virgin card but got rejected and that is when I got the Barclaycard without realising that they wouldn't do account transfers. Instead I transferred the bulk of the Halifax card debt onto the Barclaycard, leaving what I thought Id manage to pay off to Halifax before the interest free period ran out. That's in a month or so so when that date come I'll be paying interest on the Halifax c card plus the overdraft fees. I need to get rid of both of them ASAP really but just don't know how.

I posted my SOA in a new thread on this board and it did help realise where I need to cut down etc so I will of course do these things as much as possible.

Thanks