old overdraft with santander

eyeballs

hi everyone. i have a old account with santander which still has an overdraft on it of £2,800. i no longer bank with then now as i have switched banks and am paying £50 a month into it which is all i can afford. the problem is every month they are charging me £41. in charges. there is no way i can pay it off in one go but does anyone know if there is anything i can do about it. any advice would be welcome . thanks.

curlytop12

hello and welcome,
we probably need to know :
what are the charges for?is it because you have gone over the agreed authorised limit?
what is the interest rate?
have you spoken to the bank about it at all?
there are lots of lovely more clever people than i who may be able to help you here.
good luck.G

eyeballs

hi gemma. the charges are for arranged overdraft interest and i have not spoken to them yet because i dont know what to say.

GeorgeUK

Are you in Scotland or England?

Unfortunately, there's really not much you can do to stop a bank charging interest or charges. Have you written to them requesting they stop? Have you set up a payment plan or have you not yet missed payments?

An alternative, if your credit rating is okay, is to try to get a credit card that offers a promotional rate for ‘money transfers’ or ‘super balance transfers’ . Only a few cards (like Virgin) allow this as most only allow creditcard to creditcard transfers, so be careful which you apply for. It would also help to know what cards you already have so that you don’t choose one with the same card issuer – you may not be accepted.

eyeballs

hi i have not spoken to them yet. and not set up a payment plan with them. i am just paying in £50 a month to try and bring it down. ps i am in the england. there is also no way i can borrow or balance transfer at this moment. is it best to call them and ask for a payment plan to bring it down.

[Deleted User]

If you post a statement of affairs people will get a clearer picture of your financial situation, and may be able to help you to find ways of making savings to increase the £50 that you apre paying towards the o/d. Effectively you are reducing the amout by £9 every month.

Do you have other debts? Are they charging you higher or lower APR's? Do you have a good/bad credit history?

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

GeorgeUK

The only problem with that is that it will have serious impact on your credit rating. Some banks won't even consider helping you until you have missed payment - then they 'help' by issuing a default and adding charges.

If you can continue to make the payments and only decrease the balance slowly, it may be worth continuing to do so. If you were to default, this could seriously impare yoru credit rating for 6 years.

Can i ask why getting more credit may not be an option?
Can you work out the equivalent APR you are getting with the interest and charges and see if it may be possible to get a loan from say a credit union?

eyeballs

i do have other debt to which i am paying off. my credit rating has gone down a bit and i am unable to get a c/card or a loan. i was hopeing to get a loan and settle all my debts that way.

GeorgeUK

Has your credit rating gone down due to missed payments or defaults? Have you been turned down for a card or laon recently?

The problem with getting a loan is that you are usually not able to pay it off early without incurring a charge unlike a credit card. Have you looked at using the tarting technique to transfer using new and existing cards?

eyeballs

hi . sorry its taken a while to come back to you. i had applied firstly for a loan and then a new credit card to do a balance transfer and both were declined. i have missed soem payments on credit cards hence the bad credit. i have also spoken to my own bank who i have a creit card with but they are unable to help at this stage.
i have bitten the bullet and just spoken to santander ref this and i have asked for them to stop charging the interest so that i can just bring the level down by the £50 permonth but unless i have gone over my overdraft limit there is nothing i can do. i dont want to go down the route of defaulting or sending a statemehent of earnings to all my creditors. i guess the only way would be to stop paying the £50 permonth into it and seeing if they contact me but then the credit file will be worse in the long run.

GeorgeUK

So no more looking for credit for a few months then. You can have about 3 credit check in a 6 month period before your credit score is affected. It's also better for the checks to be spaced out so you don't look desperate for credit.

Did you cantact the bank to find out why the loan and card request were declined? It might be a good idea to see if they can tell you anything incase it's something on one of your credit files. Not sure if it would be worth appealing, but if there's something on your credit file that shouldn't be, it may be worth trying.

£41 interest on £2,800 is approx 19% APR. Not sure you would get a better deal on a loan that small. It may be the late payments on your file that are stopping you from getting more credit - it may be best to wait 3 or 4 months before trying again as long as there are no more late payments. I would call the bank to see why you were turned down though so you are sure there aren't any other problems. You are on the electoral roll at your current address aren't you?