Bank account advice - downgrading?

BlushingRose

Hiya all,

I've also posted this in the 'banking' forum but so far 35 looks and no replies. Thought I'd post it in here as well.

Our current situation is that my OH is on a DMP and so, because we live together and I currently have no income, so am I. he has a basic account with the Co-op and I have two accounts with Barclays.
Because of my usual state of affairs, both my accounts are in overdraft. Not bothered about my current account as, when I do get some work, that goes into the black - however the question I'm asking is about my graduate additions account.
I graduated in 2003 (as a mature student - I was 33) and later Barclays rang me and said that they were changing my account to a graduate additions account. However, there are a lot of fees associated with this account and also as part of the DMP we pay £30 a month into it, most of this is fees and it's not eating into the OD at all really. I was wondering if it would be possible to downgrade the account to a normal graduate account, say, to get rid of the fees so that more of the £30 actually sorts out the OD. Of course, what I don't want is to ask for this and then they pull in the £2500 OD as we obviously don't have the money.
Advice please on what I should do, if anything?

BlushingRose

No-one can help?

freshair_2

Hi BR,

I had the same account with Barclays, I called told them the situation explained that I wanted to pay back but obviously couldn't while they were charging me that much. In effect they closed the account, didn't matter as I didn't use it, i still have to pay interest charges but now the balance it actually aiming to 0.00.

I am not on DMP though just plodding along merrily (some days not so merrily) on my own.

Hope this helps

Freshair

BlushingRose

freshair wrote: »

Hi BR,

I had the same account with Barclays, I called told them the situation explained that I wanted to pay back but obviously couldn't while they were charging me that much. In effect they closed the account, didn't matter as I didn't use it, i still have to pay interest charges but now the balance it actually aiming to 0.00.

I am not on DMP though just plodding along merrily (some days not so merrily) on my own.

Hope this helps

Freshair

Thanks, yes it does help, thanks.
I suppose I'm scared to even ask them in case they just demand the OD back in a lump.

Tixy

Even if they demand the overdraft back in a lump sum they will still have to just get the £30 that they are currently doing under the DMP.

Presumably your DMP provider did write to barclays to inform them of the DMP and that the pro-rate payment for each barclays account would be x per month? It usual that overdrafts are recalled at that point anyway.

rising_from_the_ashes

I had the same account and recently downgraded it ... there was no problem & my OD limit stayed the same - however, my salary does get paid into the account each month and I was in a position to pay the OD if it was called in.

Would it not be possible to add the OD to your DMP as it seems odd that this hasn't been included - if you have debts as well, it would (to me anyway) seem to make sense to deal with them all at the same time.

That way, when you are working and get some extra income, it would help a lot with the finances in general, rather than being swallowed up by the OD.

BlushingRose

Tixy wrote: »

Even if they demand the overdraft back in a lump sum they will still have to just get the £30 that they are currently doing under the DMP.

Presumably your DMP provider did write to barclays to inform them of the DMP and that the pro-rate payment for each barclays account would be x per month? It usual that overdrafts are recalled at that point anyway.

No, because it's not my DMP, it's only in Mr BR's name (we're not married) but as I have no income, Mr BR is continuing to pay £30 a month from the DMP to my account until I can get a regular income again.

BlushingRose

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I had the same account and recently downgraded it ... there was no problem & my OD limit stayed the same - however, my salary does get paid into the account each month and I was in a position to pay the OD if it was called in.

Would it not be possible to add the OD to your DMP as it seems odd that this hasn't been included - if you have debts as well, it would (to me anyway) seem to make sense to deal with them all at the same time.

That way, when you are working and get some extra income, it would help a lot with the finances in general, rather than being swallowed up by the OD.

We had decided, as all the debts are in Mr BR's name to put the DMP in his name as well. The cccs are aware of my existence of course and the SOA states that there are 2 adults in the house but the DMP is his.
I have one current account which my wages go into on those occasions when I get work, but the graduate account is a separate account which Mr Br has been transferring money into for me for years.
I'd love to get it off my back (and his) but I don;t have a lump sum to pay it off.