Halifax are giving me 2 weeks to pay off my £1,800 overdraft!

spadoosh

Right gonna jump to the op's defense here and make the most of you !!!!!!. though could be putting my foot in mouth if im wrong.

Now my assumption is that (like me) the op had a halifax current account and upon going to university had this transferred to a student current account. The student current account (like most) offers a INTEREST FREE overdraft facility. Now upon leaving university you are supposed to have tried to pay as much off within 12 months before the account is transferred back to a standard current account with the associated overdraft charges.

However halifax are not very good at informing account holders of the process of reconciliation and in many cases (like mine) seem to forget they have offered someone a £2000 INTEREST FREE overdraft. And as such they have been able to keep this really bad a naughty debt (which is costing nothing and those of you in the know would know that you take this out and take full advantage of free money for however long it may be) untill now.

Where the OP has fallen a bit is having money set aside should they come asking for it.

No judgement from my end about your finances OP, if someone was giving me an interest free overdraft, i would choose to be living in it. And like you said aslong as cash flow is positive the overdraftis but a hiccough (though tbf one you ned to sort right away)

Halifax will offer you a loan (cant be 1000000% sure but more or less anyone ive known in a similar situation have been offered loans) Its easy money for them, they know nobody is paying back a student overdraft within 12 months of graduating they then withdraw the overdraft leaving someone panicking for dear life then a few days before youll normally get a letter saying something like 'Need a loan!?!?' Though i would try my best to avoid going down that route. Essentially you don't want to be paying a loan off for 3 years if you know you can have it sorted in 3 months minus the cash flow issues.

It would be better for you to pay 3 months overdraft charges than interest on a 3 year loan though this is close so you'd need to do your own sums to make sure.

Other than that i find BoMaD the best rates around if you can get in there.

shortcrust

Wow! It really doesn't long for these threads to get rather judgemental and unpleasant, does it?! I'm amazed anyone comes here asking for advice.

Dunroamin

kaylz39 wrote: »

You must have read my post wrong, I haven't at any point asked for sympathy. I was simply enquiring if anyone was in the same or similar situation.

Yes the OD was supposed to be a short term solution, instead of getting student loans at University I got this OD and relied upon it instead of getting myself into a longer term £20,000 debt.

I wouldn't say its people like me why the country has so much debt, there's alot worse out there than the £1,800 OD I have. There's always going to be debt, in fact it keeps some people in a job! £1,800 is a drop in the ocean compared to most people in debt.

And they say students are supposed to be intelligent!:eek:

seriousDFW

Intelligent people can make mistakes and they can also be unsure of which is the right decision to make.

Finance has never been my strong point, despite the fact that I am good at maths, because I was never taught the ins and outs of banking and have learnt as I've gone. I remember when I started uni, students get a LOT of confusing messages about finance, and it is really hard to make the right decisions. Even Martin's "debt isn't bad, bad debt is bad" mantra has stuck with me as I happily used my interest-free overdraft for four years at uni, but then after my graduate account became a standard account, and my OD hadn't been paid off as I wasn't earning very much (training to be a teacher in a school I was assigned to an hour each way from my home during the petrol price rocketing phase), interest kicked in and all of a sudden that 'not bad' debt became 'bad'.

Not blaming anyone, I could have been more frugal and not wasted money, but I just want to highlight that there are confusing messages out there, and it's easy for people who have been taught to manage finances by their parents (not all have) or who found themselves in more a more fortunate financial situation than others to judge, but it isn't helpful, and it isn't fair as you don't know the details of the circumstances. As an example, I have a friend who shudders when someone mentions 'student loan' as for him it would have been horrific to have got one. He also didn't have a job at uni, because BoMaD paid for all fees, accommodation and spending money. So he has a very different view on finances to others for whom life hasn't been so easy.

The OP has admitted that she isn't perfect and is responsible for the debt, and is just looking for a way out. I hope she doesn't listen to those judging and criticising her, because while many people aren't in her position, many are, and she is now accepting something needs to be done, and it's irrelevant whether that's been forced on her by Halifax or not.

So, OP, there has already been some good practical advice on how to proceed from here. Do look at your budgeting and ask for help (the DFW board is less judgmental and will offer lots of really useful advice for you).

As an aside, I know what they're doing is legal, but it IS completely unreasonable to demand payment with two weeks' notice. Yes I know it is in the Ts and Cs, but I've often thought that what is the point of an OD if you can be asked to repay it at a moment's notice?! The minimum notice period to remove it should be at least a month, as that's what most people's financial cycles work in. Just my opinion!

spadoosh

Dunroamin wrote: »

And they say students are supposed to be intelligent!:eek:

INTEREST FREE overdraft

vs

Student loan @ inflation

c'mon do the maths!!!!!
No disrespect but she's clearly brighter then yourself!

seriousDFW

spadoosh wrote: »

INTEREST FREE overdraft

vs

Student loan @ inflation

c'mon do the maths!!!!!
No disrespect but she's clearly brighter then yourself!

Exactly. The only mistake is not having paid it off before the end of the interest-free period, but I would have thought most if not all students who start using an interest-free OD intend to pay it off before then. Of course it doesn't always happen, but by then it's too late.

JimmyTheWig

spadoosh wrote: »

Other than that i find BoMaD the best rates around if you can get in there.

I was going to suggest that, OP (if you haven't run a mile by now).
Is there anyone, such as your parents, who you could borrow the money from for now? You could pay them back over the next 6 months, say.

But I do also suggest that you check your credit reports. There could be something on there that you either weren't aware of or is wrong... both of which could damage your mortgage application.

JuicyJesus

spadoosh wrote: »

INTEREST FREE overdraft

vs

Student loan @ inflation

c'mon do the maths!!!!!
No disrespect but she's clearly brighter then yourself!

I think the issue is she seems to have had no plans to pay it off.

spadoosh

seriousDFW wrote: »

Exactly. The only mistake is not having paid it off before the end of the interest-free period, but I would have thought most if not all students who start using an interest-free OD intend to pay it off before then. Of course it doesn't always happen, but by then it's too late.

Yeh that where the problem might be!

Though again im assuming here, its my assumption that this is the first time the op is being told the interest free period and subsequently the overdraft is finished. Thus no charges yet.

This happened to my g/f she kindly got an offer to solve all her problems with a 19.9% loan over 3 years:eek:!! On which goes away soon!!:mad:

Plus when she got the loan, it took over 6 months i think for the interest free overdraft to be removed from her account. So she had it paid off from the loan and then still had access to it?!?!?! Taking the mickey i think!

Can't wait till they ask for mine ( finished uni 3 years ago), im even considering writing a letter to thank them for allowing me to store their money in my savings account earning me £240 (which kinda goes a bit towards paying some of her interest!)

spadoosh

JuicyJesus wrote: »

I think the issue is she seems to have had no plans to pay it off.

Everyone agrees thats an issue.

Everyone agrees 2 weeks notice (though legal) is not suitable/acceptable.

The op clearly states she can live within her means (as in money in at least matches money out) yet shes got people saying shes stupid etc etc cos shes got an overdraft. Most students i know (met a few) end up in the exact same boat as the op. She also says she could afford to pay it off in a couple of months or so which suggest a healthy income (i personally couldnt afford to fork out £1800 over 2/3months without very drastic action).

Yeh she might need a bit of financial education (tbf most people do) but by no means does she deserve some of the carp spouted out on here! And that wasnt the problem that everyone was picking at, thats only been raised after its been pointed out that it might be an interest free o/d