Living with the overdraft.

DanielJ_2

Hello all. I was wondering if this board could help me with something.

I have had a whirl of a time with student finance lately. I wont go into the full details (unless asked ) but it means I will not get my full student loan (with the maitenance grant) untill around mid-october. This puts me in a difficult position before I even goto Uni.

Rent for my accomadation (£1566) is due on the 4th October 2010. To pay this I will have to use up my entire maitenance loan and savings (£1250+£380) and be already in the negative and having to eat into my £500 interest free overdraft. The bank of Mum has given me £100 for going away with.

Is this advisable? I have a job that i've managed to transfer to and will get all my overtime ive done in September in my wages for October. Around that time Student Finance said my full loan will be backdated (with according to the online calculator will be £2700 in 3 installments). On top of this part way through November I will receive an £850 scholarship and £300 bursary payment from uni.

I have emailed the accomodation and explained my problem. I have asked if I could pay £1000 when the rent is due and then the remainder when I get my loan. They have not replied yet.

If you guys could help me out with some advice here I'd really appreciate it.

MrsManda

Providing you are sensible and have put together a budget for your year at university so that you know how much you have to spend I don't see why you shouldn't use your overdraft to tide you over until you get your full loan. I've always looked at student overdrafts as an interest free loan for emergencies such as bridging the gap between bills and student finance loans/grants when the bill arrives before the loan.

Just remember that the overdraft can be removed/reduced at any time so it should be used for emergencies rather than as a regular fund to dip in to.