Huge Overdraft

mr.brightside87

May I just say, while I am indeed heavily in my overdraft, I do have the facility to pay it off after I have graduated.

I do have a fair bit of savings stashed away. The reason I don't use this is down to the fact that if it is not in my reach, I can't spend it so it builds the interest (much like what some people are doing with their overdrafts). That way, I have money when I come out if plan A goes to pot.

But to run £1500 already is shocking. I struggled through the first year as I have no grants available so it relied a lot on parental contributions and my overdraft. It saved me in some pretty tough times (loan didn't cover rent etc.). If the OP is at Cardiff, get your backside down to the jobshop ASAP. You may scoff at the idea but a lot of the jobs are event staffing which means if you are under a heavy workload, you can turn it down. Its slave labour but at the end of the day, it's all about the money.

PhoenixDF

Don't renew for a sim only contract. Get a Giffgaff sim card and get yourself one of their sim cards.

Don't setup the autotop feature, just log onto your online account when you need to topup. Get more that most sim only deals or the same but you can stop when ever you please and top up from as little as £5 per month.

They use o2's network coverage, which you can check by clicking here

Hopefully that will save you some money per month.

Derivative

PhoenixDF wrote: »

Don't renew for a sim only contract. Get a Giffgaff sim card and get yourself one of their sim cards.

Don't setup the autotop feature, just log onto your online account when you need to topup. Get more that most sim only deals or the same but you can stop when ever you please and top up from as little as £5 per month.

They use o2's network coverage, which you can check by clicking here

Hopefully that will save you some money per month.

If you do decide to go with GiffGaff, head over to the referrals' board and you can get £5 free credit. Not allowed to post referral links in other sections.

PhoenixDF

I am on giffgaff and didn't even know they had a referral section.........will look into that - thanks.

matj16

wow thats quite an overdraft for a first year.

mine currently stands at £1400 however i have no intention to increase it and will be reducing it by £300 this summer through work and the last remainder will be covered by leftovers at the end of the year. Failing that (which is more than possible) i have three years to pay it off which shouldn't be the worlds hardest task after the remainder of the loans are taken off.

A lot of first years make a terrible mistake of believing that the first year is all for fun. I'm doing my LLB law and the first year did not count towards my classification but will be looked at by prospective employers anyway. The other issue is that the first year concentrates on fundamental aspects of your degree which will crop up in other areas later. Having fun is fine and i would reccomend it to an extent but don't party all year...it won't do you any favours.

looking at University grants is another option (i haven't seen ALF mentioned i don't think).

The Access to Learning Fund is used by most Universities and is simply government money for those going through hardship and in desperate need. Unfortunately i had to use it in my first year due to having a poultry £20 left to last me 3 months with no more overdraft left. If you use this though then please consider whether you actually need it as the funds are not unlimited and really should only go to those that are absolutely desperate.

rozmister

Depending on your unversity's policy on The Access to Learning Fund it can be very hard to access as well. My university requires that you produce 3 months bank statements and will question you on your spending (so you have loads of income coming in but loads of income going out in the SU bar type thing) and if you are seen to have frittered all your money away on tat you can't have help. You also have to wait up to 3 weeks to find out if you get it at my uni, it only normally takes ages if it's near the end of term when everyone's skint.

The best thing you can do is just apply for every job you see going, no matter how crap it is. I work in a supermarket which surprisingly I love and actually couldn't have asked for a better p/t job. The holidays coincide with all the key retail periods (Christmas, Easter, Summer Holidays) when they want extra staff so there's always overtime and I get a discount in store. The people are lovely too and the extra income is what keeps me afloat and helps me to pay off the overdrafts I foolishly ran up in first year!

Good luck finding a solution and don't panic too much about it. If it's a student overdraft its 0% interest and then it turns into a graduate account which is 0% for at least year (sometimes longer depending on the bank) and then as long as you keep paying a bit of it off (again varies how much bank to bank) the bit you have remaining stays 0%. Just don't go over the limit or they charge you lots of fees and don't not pay money in for ages or it goes to collections and they phone you up all cross; both of them also affect your credit rating which isn't good.