Best route??

Annie021063

Can you advise me on a problem please???
I have two current accounts which both have overdrafts on them. I ususally keep under them (just) but occasionally I get the £30 charge. I would love to clear them and be in the black again. I would like to claim back the bank charges but understand that in some cases the banks have decided to close the accounts being claimed back from. If this happened whilst in the red it would cause me enormous problems hence wanting to clear them. Both accounts are with barclays and are the additions accounts for which I pay a monthly fee. So...... what do I do ? Do I pay off the O/D with interest free C/Card, open new accounts else where in readiness and then claim. One other point is that my current mortgage rate is due to expire in January and I want to sort that out as quickly and easily as possible is it best to have overdrafts or extra cc debt when applying for new mortgage rate?
I estimate I have £1500 in claims to come back which would pay abouit 1/2 of the overdraft back when I get it from a claim. I reckon I pay about £50 a month for the pleasure of the accounts and overdrafts. Can someone help me to sort this out? which would be best route, stay as is until mortgage is sorted or go for it now?
Thanks for listening

rog2

I would suggest that you do open another account, at a different bank, just in case.
Also, can you look into the monthly chatge? What do you get for this? Could you convert one account to a 'no monthly charge account?
I'm not sure that you can use the 0% card to clear your overdraft - some cards do allow this, so worth checking.

CLAPTON

the first thing to do is to address the issue of why you are always in the red... if you dont you'll simply run up a new overdraft with the new bank, either immediately or once any 0% balance period has run out.

post a SoA and see whether people can help to reduce spending

best to open the new a/c before trying to claim back charges. keep the existing a/c open as credit rating is helped by being with a bank for a long time (i.e. when applying for the remortgage).
if you can get a 0% CC or low LOB CC then this will help to kep the interest paid down but best to work towards getting rid of the overdraft altogether.