Cashbacks to avoid bank charges method

pgreenwood70

When I was a student and I knew I would get money in the future (grant, student loan, birthday, etc), the bank was usually nasty and greedy and would never agree to increasing my money until I next got paid.

So I discovered that I could cash a cheque against the student bar and get cash. The other thing that was useful was knowing the bar manager and finding out when they put all their cheques in the bank. When you add the time to clear the cheque you end up with a date that you need your money to hit your account. This helped me ojn many occasions to avoid paying bank charges but still spend money that I did not have.

I adapted this method when supermarkets started to offer cashbacks and I was on the dole. You know you will receive your job seeker's allowance every two weeks but you need the money now - so you go into the supermarket, make your cashback and you have money. The supermarket will take 2-3 days before the money clears from your account. Then on the day it will clear, you do another cashback and pay this money into the account.

This method has the effect of allowing you to 'push' the debt forward in time and so avoid getting bank charges BUT >> you have to control your spending and look at your account quite often.

If you don't go on a big spending spree, this method can help to pass a lot less bank charges.