Abbey. Need to stop interest/charges...

fuzzgun19

Hi,

My husband has a bank account overdraft with Abbey, that we are struggling to pay.

He has an overdraft of £1750, and we have been paying about £15 per week off it.

He is being charged approx £25 per month in interest, and usually a £20 fee for going over his OD.

He would like to sort this account out and try to freeze interest, & make token payments of about £15 per week, as this is all we can afford atm.

We dont want to get involved with debt management companies, so I was wondering if theres a letter I can send to Abbey requesting interest freeze/token payments?

Need help with the letter as I wouldnt know what to put in it.

fuzzgun19

Anyone......?

rog2

At that rate he is not going to clear his overdraft for donkeys' years - he is only clearing about £10.00 a month after charges and interests.
It may be better to open another account, in another bank, for salary etc, and to treat the overdraft as a debt on its own.
There are some template letters, and advice, on the national debtline (link at top of page) that he could use.
I also suggest he looks at the consumeraction website, with a view to trying to reclaim some of those punitive charges.

CLAPTON

you would be better advised to look at why you are going over your overdraft limit...is it because of a tempory situation (OH lost his job?) or is it an on going problem? is this your only debt or there many others; what is you income..can you increase it, what is you spending can you decrease it etc etc
best to post a statement of affairs SoA giving full details of income, spending, debts and family situation, OH, children, rent or buying, equity any savings etc. see

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

simply asking abbey to freeze interest and charges may work for a tempory period if there is a good reason but it might cause other unfortunate side effects

$17mma

Ring Abbey and ask them for a Manage DownIf the overdraft has already been removed then they will reinstate it under these terms so that your account is not overdrawn and you are no longer incurring any monthly charges. As long as you have a salary gonig into the acct they will accept this. If the overdraft is £1750 then over twelve months they will reduce it monthly on a date that is conveneint for you by £150 per month or try and stretch it over 18 months and pay £100 per month.If you have any pending charges they can include this in the manage down.

adw_2

As said above have a good read on comsumeractiongroup.com. You can claim back the bank charges (not the interest). Open a new bank account and then claim the past 6 years. I have just started down this road.

It does sound like you are paying too much interest. I have an OD with Abbey of £2650 and pay £15 - £17 per month.

PaulHick1975

I had a problem with the abbey and changed to alliance and leicester who are offering 0% Overdraft for a year then it changes to 5% which is consideably less than other banks charge.

lynzpower

Smile also offer a 500 interest free overdraft as standard. However I do agree with Clapton, is this really a problem of budgeting? How long has this been goin g on for?

fuzzgun19

Thanks for the replies.

He already has a basic account with Nationwide where his wages are paid into - has for a few months now.

Basically, we are trying to pay it off, but the charges/interest are stopping us.

We did manage to pay about £50 off his Abbey a few months back, and he asked Abbey to reduce the OD by £50, they replied saying they couldnt do it! as the OD was in place for 12 months or some !!!!!!!

Anyway.. My hub isnt bothered about keeping this account, so today I have sent off a letter (recorded) asking to freeze interest, and take pro-rata payments enclosing a budget sheet. - hope it works.

We already have several debts that we are paying off on 'agreement' so If the pro-rata payments with Abbey are sorted we will feel alot better about our financial situation. As it stands with this account we are getting nowhere.

As for the bank charges, we have asked them for 6 years statements on 14/09/06... havent heard anything yet. I think they are going to be difficult.
UPDATE: had acknowledgement from Abbey that they will send statements in next 40 days.