Is £7 p/m worth it for £3k overdraft?

MissBailey

Hi all,

Hope you can help, am asking for advice for my bf.

He currently has a Barclays Graduate Account with an interest free overdraft up to £200 and an overdraft limit of £3000. He's about £800 overdrawn at the moment but we've not long got back from holiday so it's usually around £300-£500. He has credit card debts which he's paying off which are about £2700. I imagine his credit history is not great as he's had credit card debts for several years.

He pays £7 per month for his account and I think if he's in debt he should be looking for a free account. However, he thinks that he wouldn't get anything like a £3k overdraft anywhere else and likes to have it for emergencies (i.e if his car died and he needed a new one).

I've looked at the article on best accounts and he doesn't earn enough for the First Direct one and that's the only suggestion for people who are overdrawn.

Can anyone advise me if there are any good free accounts he could switch to or is he better off sticking where he is?

Thanks

Venusflytrap

Any valid reason why your bf doesn't think matters serious enough to post and seek advice himself?

Anyway...does he earn up to 1K per month? If so then Halifax are currently offering £100 to new customers who switch to their reward current account (which also pays an additional £5 reward every month the account is credited with 1K).

Of course he cannot know what OD allowance Halifax will offer but it may be a blessing in disguise having a lower OD and him learning to manage within his means. Plus he potentially has £160 to gain from switching to Halifax in the first year.

molerat

It seems that he has some spare overdraft available to pay off the card, how much interest is he paying on the card ?

jon142

Venusflytrap wrote: »

Any valid reason why your bf doesn't think matters serious enough to post and seek advice himself?

Anyway...does he earn up to 1K per month? If so then Halifax are currently offering £100 to new customers who switch to their reward current account (which also pays an additional £5 reward every month the account is credited with 1K).

Of course he cannot know what OD allowance Halifax will offer but it may be a blessing in disguise having a lower OD and him learning to manage within his means. Plus he potentially has £160 to gain from switching to Halifax in the first year.

Halifax charge £1 a day for any amount under £1000 don't they?

£2 for 2000

and £3 for 3000

Hes going to charged £30 a month at that rate.

MissBailey

Thanks for your response.

My bf only has very sporadic access to the internet so I offered to post for him.

The article on here suggests that the Halifax account is a bad one if you're overdrawn so I was really looking for alternative options.

Living within one's means is obviously always the best course of action but not something achievable overnight. It's something he's working towards but he needs advice for the interim period whilst he's still overdrawn.

MissBailey

molerat wrote: »

It seems that he has some spare overdraft available to pay off the card, how much interest is he paying on the card ?

I think he recently switched to a new 0% deal so I think he's ok with his CC for the moment.