Santander wont let me pay off my o/d

Skint_Badger!

I normaly get an email to tell me if my credit file hs been looked at, i've had nothing so far but i will check myself.

Thanks for that.

YorkshireBoy

Skint_Badger! wrote: »

I normaly get an email to tell me if my credit file hs been looked at

Sounds like you have a CRA subscription? Unless it's free (eg Capital One's Equifax product), this is money you could be paying off your overdraft with. How much are you paying?

Do you *really* need the product?

Tiglath

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Sounds like you have a CRA subscription? Unless it's free (eg Capital One's Equifax product), this is money you could be paying off your overdraft with. How much are you paying?

Do you *really* need the product?

Agree with this - I was paying £7.50/month for Equifax's email/text notification after we had ID fraud committed against us, but 2 years on I've cancelled it as nothing happened during that time.

johnny_storm

ic wrote: »

Not everybody has the financial acumen to do it.

I call it common sense, and no not everyone has it.

PBA

Agricolae wrote: »

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.

Santander don't credit check overdraft requests for existing customers. This won't affect you.
They are approved by looking at general account use. The system shows staff the max amount that can be approved. This isn't always as high as the overdraft amount you've already got.
As they're saying they can't reduce the od by £50 a time, the best idea is to put the £50 away securely and let the money build up until the od can be paid off in full, then clear it and shut the facility down completely.

JimmyTheWig

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!

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?

YorkshireBoy is right...
... if the OP had sufficient willpower and discipline.

However, the OP has already told us that if their balance was £600 OD and their overdraft limit was £700 then they would feel like they had £100 there to spend. I don't think that someone with this mentality should be spending on a credit card.

Regmeister

I understand what you're saying. I too have an overdraft of £800 and wanted to leave £300 in there and reduce the o/d to £500. I have tried leaving £100 in there each month to bring it down but I end up spending it.
When I called them with my £300 I'm the account, and asked them to reduce my o/d to £500, they said I couldn't and had to pay it all off at once or leave it as it is.
At the moment I am charged for my overdraft and I believe that the only reason for this is to make more money from me because my account history shows I haven't managed to reduce it in a significant time and they know that by not letting me reduce it they are quids in!

I'm just gonna have to gather more will power and leave a bit in each month and let them fleece me in the meantime.

JimmyTheWig

Regmeister wrote: »

I understand what you're saying. I too have an overdraft of £800 and wanted to leave £300 in there and reduce the o/d to £500. I have tried leaving £100 in there each month to bring it down but I end up spending it.
When I called them with my £300 I'm the account, and asked them to reduce my o/d to £500, they said I couldn't and had to pay it all off at once or leave it as it is.
At the moment I am charged for my overdraft and I believe that the only reason for this is to make more money from me because my account history shows I haven't managed to reduce it in a significant time and they know that by not letting me reduce it they are quids in!

I'm just gonna have to gather more will power and leave a bit in each month and let them fleece me in the meantime.

Presumably you have one of the accounts where you are charged for being in your overdraft, as opposed to charged interest depending on how far into your overdraft you are?
In which case, I'd suggest giving the £100 a month to someone you trust to look after and leave your overdraft limit as it is.
When you can pay off the overdraft with the money they are looking after for you, do this and then cancel the overdraft.

innovate

It seems quite outrageous that you shouldn't be allowed to reduce your overdraft limit when you want to reduce it. If this happened to me, I would raise a formal, written, complaint, and take it to the FOS if necessary.

However, you do run the risk that they will cancel your overdraft, and demand immediate repayment. They are entitled to do so under the T&Cs.

In my complaint, I would mention that Clause 7.4b of their T&Cs gives the bank "the right to change your Arranged Overdraft limit at any time". It seems grossly unfair (under fair contract law) that the customer is not given the same right if all they want is a reduction of the limit.

I recall that Credit Card providers had similar clauses, but they must now, by law, allow you to reduce your credit limit any time you ask.

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223428158772&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600

innovate

To the OP: it would be worth changing the title of this thread because it isn't true that Santander won't allow you to pay off your overdraft. You can pay it off anytime you like.

What they don't appear to allow you to do is to reduce your overdraft limit. That's very different to what the thread title suggests.