increasing barclays student overdraft....

raju786

i know what your gonna say.... its hard, but im determined to do it! i have a limit of £200 at the moment and want to increase it to £1000. I was told by someone(obviously not true) that you had to put in £500 then phone them up to ask them if you can increase it, so i put in 700 (was near enough -200) to make up to 500.

called them today and asked to speak to student department, the lady i spoke to sounded like a dragon! she asked me why i want to increase it to such a high amount, i said recently had money transferred (500) to buy a car then basically put me to £0 so would need that to live on till my loan in feburary....she says to me that she cant actually discuss an overdraft till im in minus?!

so that means shes gonna want some good excuses as to why i want 800 more. Has anyone got any good excuses that they used with barclays or is it simply too hard, if it is ill just tell them i want to close and go to hsbc with their £1000 overdraft. but i would prefer to have the barclays one as its faster acess to the £1000 rather than hsbc which could take weeks to open.

any advice would be appreciated, Thanks

ftbworried

Yeah i had this at uni. My first part time job only paid a month in arrears which meant i had next to nothing to live on for 6 weeks when i started it. When Barclays sign you up they LOVE quoting their £1000 interest free overdraft but they dont tell you is that they make you confess all you sins and life history to them before they give more than £200 of it too you.

I went into the Branch (probably better in your case) and asked (nicely!) for an increase on my overdraft to £400 to made sure i could last the 6 weeks till payday. I must have spoken to the same 'lady' as you spoke to, she was a beast of a dragon. She asked whether i've "bothered" to try getting a job first!! I explained why it was that I needed it and that i DID have a job. The next thing to come out of her rancid little mouth was "its not for shoes and clothes you know". :-O I was VERY tempted to say "Actually I was thinking of spending it on crack cocaine" but my sensible side told me to just stay calm. I swear to God, I came out of the place nearly in tears. Even if I WAS gonna spend it on that (which i didnt), was it any of her personal business?! Its a service they advertise and they dont specify what you must use it for on their adverts.

I did get it in the end though- but that clever little ploy prevented me from ever asking for another increase, and I promptly paid it off! I wrote a letter of complaint to the bank manager when i got home and received a formal apology.

I say take out your money, then ask them for the increase.

raju786

thanks for the heads up, sounds like there all the same person! well iv hd a think and have taken out half of the money today via the cash machine an will take out the rest tomoro, i'll call them tellin them that my car needs MOT'ing in the next week, i have to pay £90 rent every week, buy some books for next semesters modules, petrol and generally live for 2 an half months (this is all true lol) do you reckon thats enough? along with a threat to move to hsbc and close the account and how much money im worth for them each year?! lol yea i really have thought of this thoroughly but i need to cos she really threw me off the way she spoke to me the first time, so if i get another clone of her ill jus bite back with this?

saver2006

tell them you need it for rent- i.e. you're landlord is asking for rent earlier than you thought etc etc

Touche

I just went into a branch next to the uni campus, talked to a personal adviser, said I needed the cash for a computer and she sorted it all out. Was around 3 years ago now, but I still have the £1750 0% OD I sorted out back then

I'd think branches in or around universities will be more responsive to student's needs.

Sigur_2

Tell them its none of their goddamn business, and if they won't do it. You'll close and move on.

Banks want students. Because more than likely you'll stay with them all your life. So you got the upperhand.

I always use this on anything. From phone companies to banks to anything where I am a customer. I control them, because there's plenty of choice out there. Orange don't do me a deal? Well 02 will. Halifax don't do me a deal? Natwest will.

raju786

think it was a mistake putting that 700 in, they might question why i used that for a car insted of paying my rent! But i do need both....and could say they needed advance after i bought the car hehe. seems like barclays are evil so im going to have to fight fire with fire!

raju786

went to the bank, and the £1000 overdraft was given in 5 minutes literally! I couldn't believe it, i even spoke to the manager. She looked like a dragon and just asked why i wanted it and i said car needed moting and rent, she didnt say anything but wrote it down on this overdraft form, she just asked me some questions and typed it into the computer and said its set up. I really was expecting to put up a fight on reasons why i need it. Well the main thing is that i hav the overdraft now.

jecou84

I’m sadly with this bank and in a similar situation to the OP except I’ve asked for £400-£600 as my overdraft- went through the whole exhaustive list of expenses etc. was told "and they will look!" for each thing, food, rent, toiletries, clothing etc.

What was I told? Oh you've too much money for an increase- yet I told them this was to last me for 3 months & my rent was pretty much the balance in my account at the time- i also must add, the reason i 'had too much money' was for 1/3 of the academic year i was unwell so spent almost nothing bar rent & food

absolute joke how they got to be #1 on here for students is beyond me

any tips on how to switch banks- apparently as I’ve got a student account even if I go out of the bank I switch to and close the account there and then in branch it won’t let me have 'another one' as my credit history says no despite me only missing 1 payment in 3 years for cards etc. and whose fault was that? Why yes Barclays when they cancelled my cards to issue new ones, didnt tell me & froze payments which caused me to incur a refused payment fee

Carnaby_lamb

Go into branch, be polite and then they extend it everytime i asked.
Try using a uni campus branch is usually easier.
Ive had the account all year, and the only time i wasnt allowed my OD extended was when i was still waiting for SLC to come through in November and had no money into the account. but I extended to 1k about january, np.