Question about Halifax & their generous overdraft limits

QuantumSuccess

I have a £5000 overdraft limit at Halifax. It will be up for renewal early next year. I checked to see what my current "Guaranteed Overdraft Limit" is and it is now down to:eek: £4600. If I reduced my overdraft limit to say £4950 right now, would that mean it will remain at £4950 for another year, despite me only being "eligible" for £4600 at the moment?

Svenena

Sorry I can't help, but I was just wondering how you find out what your guaranteed overdraft limit is?

woozywendy

When you go to the o/d page in your account you can put in what you require and it should tell you then.

When I increased my o/d by £50 just before my renewal date it did change the renewal date by a year. Do not know if it works the same by decreasing it. Not sure if you would get the amount you require if your guarantee is lower than what you have at the moment. When I want to decrease mine I have to phone to do it.

Svenena

I just tried it (entered 9999), and it told me my guaranteed limit was £100, lol - not so generous. I've only just opened the account though, and have only put money in there once. I didn't request an overdraft on the account originally as I don't need one - I was just curious as to what they'd give me. Does the guaranteed limit change often? I assume I could expect it to increase after a few months, when they've seen responsible account behaviour.

QuantumSuccess

My guaranteed limit stayed at £100 for the first two years and then leapt up to around £4000 suddenly

backinbusiness

Except you can't reduce it online.

Branch or telephone only.

bib

QuantumSuccess

So BackinBusiness are you saying that I *can* reduce it by £50 etc as I asked in my original question, but that I can only do so in branch or on the telephone. So if I reduce it by £50, even though that revised amount will still be higher than my current "Guaranteed Limit" it should still work?

backinbusiness

In theory a reduction would trigger another "year" before review - however, as with any overdraft - they could pull the plug tomorrow for no apparent reason - they wouldn't really even have to justify it - it's in the t&cs

2 further points - if you ask for a reduction now they probably would go for the new guaranteed limit you found online.

Do you have another account with an overdraft? This can sometimes reduce the total available o/d to you.

StephenM_2

These overdraft limits aren't because they are "generous". They give you them because they hope to make money out of you.

My Halifax overdraft, by the way, is £10,000. Just had it renewed for another year. I've never used it.

backinbusiness

Yes Stephen - we know this

And if memory serves me right neither Quantum nor myself use our overdrafts either.

But you win - yours is bigger than ours!!!

good grief!!

opinions4u

<whispers>

£10,600 in total !