Santander wont let me pay off my o/d

JimmyTheWig

Skint_Badger! wrote: »

It would be the easier option but i am rubbish with money. As hard as i would try i would know that there is money available in that account.

Im just trying to get myself straight.

Am I right in thinking that you are getting charged to use this overdraft, rather than being charged interest based on the balance of the overdraft?
Do you have someone (e.g. a parent) you could trust to hold on to some money for you?
Could you, then, leave your limit at £700 and give your mum (or whoever) £100 a week to look after. Then when the pot contains £700 (7 weeks time?) you could pay off your overdraft in full and cancel it.

The option to lower or raise my o/d limit is on the Santander website in Multiples of £50..

You'd like to think such an option would work, then, wouldn't you! Santander aren't always known as an organisation who gets things right all the time, I'm afraid.

le_loup

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I would like to think that by _reducing_ it you won't get credit checked. But I don't know.

Don't think that's correct.
Every time you change your O/D limit, you are asking for a new assessment.

Tiglath

It sounds like an IT issue to me. Reducing a limit on a weekly basis rather than say monthly might be enough to ring their fraud/antimoneylaundering alarms. I'm in the process of paying off my authorised overdraft by budgeting and simply not using it; I don't want to run the risk of them saying I have to pay it all off if I ask for an official reduction in the limit. It's teaching me self-discipline

teeni

Skint_Badger! wrote: »

So by me reducing my o/d limit every week, they are doing a credit check?

Would this be a check confined to the bank or is it somthing that would effect my credit score/History?

Yes they do a credit cheque every time and it shows on your credit check

Skint_Badger!

teeni wrote: »

Yes they do a credit cheque every time and it shows on your credit check

Is that a bad thing?

Surely it would leave a positive effect as im trying to lower the limit?

JimmyTheWig

Skint_Badger! wrote: »

Is that a bad thing?

Surely it would leave a positive effect as im trying to lower the limit?

No, other organisations looking at this wouldn't see it was for a reduction - just that it was an application.
So it would look like you were applying for credit every week.
Which would make yuo look pretty desperate for credit!

Skint_Badger!

Oo.. thats not good..

Well i guess im going to have to come up with another way of paying off the balance in one go.

YorkshireBoy

Skint_Badger! wrote: »

Well i guess im going to have to come up with another way of paying off the balance in one go.

A 0% on purchases credit card would allow you to spend your way out of the overdraft...simply put £700 (or whatever) of spend on there and then stop!

Use the £20 a month you were paying in overdraft fees to overpay the credit card, and BT any remaining debt at the end of the intro period.

Unless you have other debts/poor credit rating acting against you, that may be workable?

Just need a bit of willpower and discipline. Can you muster some of each?

ic

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

A 0% on purchases credit card would allow you to spend your way out of the overdraft...simply put £700 (or whatever) of spend on there and then stop!

It sounds so easy - personally I've never paid interest in 15 years on many credit cards and current accounts. However a close friend tried this, and wound up bankrupt. Not everybody has the financial acumen to do it.

Agricolae

Additionally your credit rating has probably been damaged enough by your repeated small chippings at your overdraft limit that you may not get a credit card.

I don't know if it's true of all banks, but the one I work for (not Santander) will credit score overdraft reduction requests.

The reason for this is logical - a person may have had (let's say) a £2,000 overdraft limit for 10 years. They want to reduce this limit to £1,500. What's to say that the person is still in a position to warrant a £2,000 overdraft or even a £1,500 one? It's a way for the bank to check that there are no problems.

If you were never advised that an application to reduce your overdraft would cause you to be credit searched (but you have been searched) then you may have grounds to complain.