Nationwide "cannot" reduce my overdraft

creditcardhelp

Hi Guys!

I am still working hard to pay off all my debts and have now turned my main focus to my overdraft.

Apologies for the length of my post in advance - I'll try and explain this one as best I can because it is a bit strange in my opinion.

I have been a customer of Nationwide for 10 years now and currently have a Flexaccount with them and my overdraft on this is £2,000. I must confess that I regularly dip into my overdraft but now realise I have to get out of this habit so thought I would start my reducing my overdraft limit.

So, long story short - I tried online to reduce my overdraft to £1,500 (my balance is currently -£1,300). The system came back to inform me I was unable to do this and the "only" amount I can reduce it to was £1,000!

I then rang Nationwide and asked the lady in customer service to reduce it to £1,500 for me - she tried and got the same message. I asked her was this a mistake and she said no, it is the way their systems work. She said it is on the basis that if I applied today as a new customer I would only be entitled to an overdraft of £1,000.

Has anyone else encountered this same problem or know a way around it? I was considering opening a new account with an overdraft that would then allow me to manually reduce this to an amount I wanted over time, say by £500 every couple of months. Can anyone recommend an account that would let me do this?

Many thanks for any help or advice you can offer,

Yours gratefully,

creditcardhelp :beer:

jonesMUFCforever

Take care with what you want - you have been warned that if you applied today you would only get a £1k o/d - what would happen if you were desperate for funds one day?
An overdraft is just a number it is YOU who can control the balance of your account.
Make a budget and stick to it is the best advice I can give you - if you do this and your earnings exceed your outgoings your overdraft will come down by its own accord given time.

The upside if you get an unexpected bill you have means to pay it without exceeding your overdraft and the charges that you will incur.

opinions4u

Set your own limit in your head and adjust it down each month.

If you owe £1,200 on a £1,500 limit it's exactly the same as owing £1,200 on a £2,000 limit (or insert any big number you like).

Focus on paying the debt down, don't worry about the limit.

creditcardhelp

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Take care with what you want - you have been warned that if you applied today you would only get a £1k o/d - what would happen if you were desperate for funds one day?
An overdraft is just a number it is YOU who can control the balance of your account.
Make a budget and stick to it is the best advice I can give you - if you do this and your earnings exceed your outgoings your overdraft will come down by its own accord given time.

The upside if you get an unexpected bill you have means to pay it without exceeding your overdraft and the charges that you will incur.

Hi Jones,

Many thanks for your post - I really appreciate it.

I am lucky that my earnings exceeds my outgoings at the moment so I will try to be disciplined and bring it down myself.

The lady from the Nationwide advised me when I spoke to her to reduce my overdraft by say £100 in my head each month. So, looks like that is the best option for me because Nationwide have been good to me over the years I must admit.

Many thanks again,

creditcardhelp :beer:

opinions4u wrote: »

Set your own limit in your head and adjust it down each month.

If you owe £1,200 on a £1,500 limit it's exactly the same as owing £1,200 on a £2,000 limit (or insert any big number you like).

Focus on paying the debt down, don't worry about the limit.

Hi opinions,

Thank you for taking time to post. I really appreciate it.

I guess a little impatience on my behalf was creeping in and I wanted to see progress quickly in reducing my overdraft but I will try and keep focused and reduce it each month as much as I can.

Many thanks again,

creditcardhelp :beer:

Crisp_£_note

A similar thing happend to me a couple of years back now though. I wasnt able to lower or even cancel the overdraft facility at all until I had paid it off and had a ballance on my account for 2 consecutive months!
I did manage to clear what I owed on the overdraft by mentaly reducing it each month and not getting tempted to dip into any more than that figure.
Once I had cleared it for 2 consevutive months I then switched to a different bank alltogether and closed my account with Nationwide as they wernt the most helpful to help me help myself clear the debts and 'get sensible' again.

HTH

creditcardhelp

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

A similar thing happend to me a couple of years back now though. I wasnt able to lower or even cancel the overdraft facility at all until I had paid it off and had a ballance on my account for 2 consecutive months!
I did manage to clear what I owed on the overdraft by mentaly reducing it each month and not getting tempted to dip into any more than that figure.
Once I had cleared it for 2 consevutive months I then switched to a different bank alltogether and closed my account with Nationwide as they wernt the most helpful to help me help myself clear the debts and 'get sensible' again.

HTH

Hi Crisp note,

Many thanks for your post - I really appreciate it.

It is really interesting to hear that you have been through something similar to me because I thought this was a very odd thing to happen.

I am also shocked by Nationwide with this whole thing because I thought as a responsible lender like them in the current climate they would be keen to minimise their own risk by reducing credit available to me as I have been dipping into my overdraft for a very long time now I must confess.

I am thankfully a bit wiser today and realise I have to sort out my debt so alongside reducing my overdraft mentally in my head each month I am still considering switching my current account to one that can offer me the facility to reduce my overdraft manually but I am still not sure which bank to go with.

In the meantime though many thanks again for your post - it has given me some food for thought.

creditcardhelp :beer:

CLAPTON

creditcardhelp wrote: »

Hi Crisp note,

Many thanks for your post - I really appreciate it.

It is really interesting to hear that you have been through something similar to me because I thought this was a very odd thing to happen.

I am also shocked by Nationwide with this whole thing because I thought as a responsible lender like them in the current climate they would be keen to minimise their own risk by reducing credit available to me as I have been dipping into my overdraft for a very long time now I must confess.

I am thankfully a bit wiser today and realise I have to sort out my debt so alongside reducing my overdraft mentally in my head each month I am still considering switching my current account to one that can offer me the facility to reduce my overdraft manually but I am still not sure which bank to go with.

In the meantime though many thanks again for your post - it has given me some food for thought.

creditcardhelp :beer:

seems to me a pretty high risk strategy

if you can't trust yourself to manage your actual spending and overdraft then reducing it in the way you want risks 'accidentally' going over your (reduced ) limit and being hit my charges/ fees etc as well as damaging your credit rating.

the answer I'm afraid is proper budgeting and managing your spending better.

apesxx

what about opening a basic account and then transferring your spare money onto this card? this is what i plan to do as im currently trying to sort out all my money problems.
once my wage has gone in i plan to leave the money for DD's etc in my flexaccount plus a little extra to bring down my overdraught (thankfully mine is only £400 so plan to try leave extra £20 in a month) and then transfer my shopping/ spending money into a basic account with a basic debit card.

AndyinLondon_2

Another bank I used to work for did something similar (10+ years ago). We could only reduce an overdraft if the customer qualified for the new limit.

There was a very easy workaround though which was to submit an 'appeal' to the underwriters saying 'Customer wishes to reduce limit to xxx'. Job done. Maybe Nationwide can do something similar, if you ask.

creditcardhelp

CLAPTON wrote: »

seems to me a pretty high risk strategy

if you can't trust yourself to manage your actual spending and overdraft then reducing it in the way you want risks 'accidentally' going over your (reduced ) limit and being hit my charges/ fees etc as well as damaging your credit rating.

the answer I'm afraid is proper budgeting and managing your spending better.

Hi Clapton,

Thank you for posting.

I agree with you 100% - it does look at the moment that proper budgeting and managing my spending better is the answer.

At the moment any spare money I have goes towards paying off my debts (which isn't a bad thing) but at the end of the month I tend to look at what is in my current account and pay off debts with whatever is left in it right up to my overdraft limit which I realise now is not good practice because I am always forgetting about the overdraft as a debt which should also be paid off.

I am drawing up a shortlist of options at the moment but it does look like proper budgeting and reducing the overdraft each month seems to be the answer.

Many thanks again for posting - I appreciate it,

creditcardhelp :beer:

apesxx wrote: »

what about opening a basic account and then transferring your spare money onto this card? this is what i plan to do as im currently trying to sort out all my money problems.
once my wage has gone in i plan to leave the money for DD's etc in my flexaccount plus a little extra to bring down my overdraught (thankfully mine is only £400 so plan to try leave extra £20 in a month) and then transfer my shopping/ spending money into a basic account with a basic debit card.

Hello apesxx,

Thank you for your post.

A second basic account was something I was looking into a while back funny enough but got sidetracked as I was concentrating on my credit card debt but I like your idea - definitely something I will take into consideration.

Many thanks,

creditcardhelp :beer:

AndyinLondon wrote: »

Another bank I used to work for did something similar (10+ years ago). We could only reduce an overdraft if the customer qualified for the new limit.

There was a very easy workaround though which was to submit an 'appeal' to the underwriters saying 'Customer wishes to reduce limit to xxx'. Job done. Maybe Nationwide can do something similar, if you ask.

Hi Andy,

Thank you for your post.

I would "never" have thought of appealing. Excellent idea! I must enquire if that is something they would consider.

Many thanks - I really appreciate it,

creditcardhelp :beer:

Andystriker

I really cannot understand why you cannot cope with reducing your balance on your own without worrying about what your bank will allow you to spend.

Just reduce your overdraft balance each month, by not spending money, and it wont make any difference what your allowed overdraft is.

I have had an overdraft facility at Nat West for £1,600 for over 10 years and I have never once gone overdrawn. They can't make me.

It's simple really, you do not need and cannot rely on the bank to hold your hand for you. They are there to make profits and the onus is on you, and you alone, to manage your money properly.