Halifax Overdraft Fees £3 per day from November ... at my wits end :o(

Velvet_03

Hi

I got myself into some financial difficulty when I split from my partner a couple of years ago as I had to move out on my own with no money.

I have a £10,000 overdraft with the Halifax which I have been struggling to clear with their £2 per day charge. I've now found out that this charge will be increasing to £3 per day as of November.

That means I will be paying almost £100 per month for my overdraft, I feel like I'm never going to be able to clear it.

I've tried to get a loan to reduce the charge but have not been successful. I don't want to go bankrupt, this is starting to make me ill and I don't know what to do.

I would be really grateful for any advice anyone can give.

Thanks

happy_bunny_2

Hi,

Hows your credit rating?

You could open a new account and get your salary/benefits paid in and then deal with the Halifax debt knowing that you have money in the different bank.

Likely to call in the overdraft and then you will have to arrange to pay which will likely end up with a default on your credit file.

You could try to come to an arrangement with Halifax, which may also trash your credit rating or they may just cancel the overdraft the day after you are paid and leave you with nothing.

Is this your only debt?

HB

badger_

You need out how much money you have left to put towards paying off the OD each month. Have you done a SOA ?

I don't have any experience with this but as happy_bunny says it might be worth opening a basic bank account elsewhere, you would need to go into branch to do this as they don't seem to mention them on their websites. Once opened get your salary paid into this & change any DDs.
Then go into Halifax and say you wish to close the account and ask if they can set up a repayment plan for the OD. Take along your SOA to show how much you can realistically afford to repay to them.
You might find this article useful Can I switch bank account if I'm in my overdraft?
It might be worth asking on the Budget & Banking section on here if anyone can offer any advice?

rtho782

I have a lesser version of the same problem - my Halifax od is at £2500 most months, right now this is £1 a day but will be £2 a day soon.

The way I'd look at it right now is that £730 a year in overdraft charges is actually only about 7.3% interest per year - not a hideous deal, and if you have a less than absolutely perfect credit profile you'd struggle to beat that by a significant amount.

This effectively goes up to 10.95% in November, but still isn't by any means the worst rate you could have.

My £1 a day works out at 14.6% a year right now, a rate I know I wouldn't get on a personal loan.

andyp774

Surely looking at a zero percent credit card on these things is the answer.

10K overdraft WOW. You must have been living well and truly beyond your means.

Consumerist

rtho782 wrote: »

I have a lesser version of the same problem - my Halifax od is at £2500 most months, right now this is £1 a day but will be £2 a day soon. . . My £1 a day works out at 14.6% a year right now, a rate I know I wouldn't get on a personal loan.

If there is any chance of you getting that od down below £2,000 by November then you could save yourself up to £365 over the following year. Might be worth considering your options for that.

[Deleted User]

Well I called Halifax last month. I was getting really tired of my OD and the £42 monthly charge (ultimate reward as well)

So they offered to downgrade my account - Yipee I save £12 or £15. I know it's gone up some what.

Then I called again and spoke to some department that took my details, they have suspended my OD charges for the next 6 months with no bias or credit report impacting results.

My idea is to clear the full OD in this time, I don't really want it again once it's gone, but they assured me that I could keep the OD even after this.

I took the advice from here and my post should still be around somewhere if you use the search function, you could well find the name of the department as I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called.

HTH :T