Overdraft Increase Declined

shell7t8

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone might be able to advise....

I currently bank with Lloyds TSB and have an overdraft of £200 which i've had for over 12 months. I had to fight to get the overdraft as i was declined at first but went in armed with my credit report asking why as there was nothing adverse on there. In the end my branch manager agreed to give me the £200 (it was more for principal for me really by that point as i'd never been overdrawn, paid at least £1000 per month in and held the account for 5 years).

On several occasions since i have asked if i could up my limit a little (asked a total of once and applied twice online). On all occasions i've been turned down yet no one can actually tell me why.

How do the bank decide whether to let you have an increase or not as i'm never over my overdraft and have regular wages going in to my account each month. I do have a default on my file now but my bank have advised they don't credit check you to increase overdraft anyway so i don't understand. All my friends have outrageous overdrafts and have got them just by asking. Whilst i don't want to have a mega overdraft, it might be nice to know i could get a £200 increase now and then if i need!

Does anyone know how this works????? The bank can only tell me that "the computer says no".

Thanks
Shell

marcellep

As far as I know, Banks do a risk assesment when it comes to increasing your overdraft. I notice that banks wont increase them if you have been in your current overdraft so many times. To be honesty why would you want a higher OD? Just live without it and struggle by, if you get a higher OD then you get in to that cicle of

-£500
add wages of £1000
New balance £500 after taken of your OD
then u spend £1000
Then your £500 overdrawn again.

I have been there and done, Not a nice situation to be in

computerwoman

try applying to citibank as they have alot of good deals on at the moment, and my experience with barclays was very similar so I'm ditching them for citibank with all the trills £500 overdraft thats up'd to £1000 for the 1st 6 months

jonesMUFCforever

They have an internal credit scoring ( as well as access to Experian etc).
You will have a score of between 1 and 9. 1 is excellent 9 is terrible.
Depending on where you are on the scale depends on how you conduct your account. eg if you get £200 per week salary but withdraw £200 almost immediately the system thinks you are fully committed and have no spare cash to repay increased o/d and so on.
This will also apply to monthly salaries - if you spend all you earn the system thinks you have no extra money left over. Is this the case for you?
Other things come into play as well such as number of times you have exceeded o/d limit or have had items returned unpaid on your account.

To beat the system (will take a min. of 3 months) make sure that you have no arrears with any kind of credit agreement (eg mobile phone, cards including store cards and catalogue accounts; whatever your salary is try to leave something in the account so that you build a credit balance over 3months. Do not go over any o/d limit and do not apply for any new credit line.

If you cannot do this then I am sorry to say that the system works and you do not deserve to get an increased overdraft as you cannot afford it.

shell7t8

Thank you for the advice, i understand what ejones999 is saying however i didnt want the extra overdraft to squander the money away - sometimes emergencies arise and it would be nice to know i could benefit from the same things as others!

jonesMUFCforever

shell7t8 wrote:

Thank you for the advice, i understand what ejones999 is saying however i didnt want the extra overdraft to squander the money away - sometimes emergencies arise and it would be nice to know i could benefit from the same things as others!

Unfortunately experience tells me that if you have an o/d of £500 MOST people budget to o/d by £500.
Consider opening a savings account to put aside some money to cove emergencies.