I need an account with guaranteed overdraft and my bank wont help!

ANNALR22

Hello All,

I have a BIG problem. I am self-employed and as a result never know exactly when I will be paid. My problem is I never have enough money in my account to cover my bills at the start of the month as I usually get paid 2 weeks after my bills are paid! My bank has recently cut my overdraft from £1000 to £500 because we recently took out a loan with them to consolidate an existing loan and 2 credit cards (all with the same provider - HSBC). Now they are saying we have reached our lending limit with them and even though I explained my situation they are unwilling to lift our o/d limit. Hence I pay at least £60 each month in charges + interest. Can anyone offer some advice??

Also does anyone know of a good business bank account with a guaranteed overdraft at all? As I really would like to have the overdraft on my business account as that is where the problem is and I would like to be able to transfer my 'salary' into my personal account each month so my bills are all paid and my personal account remains in credit!

The problem is myself and my partner both have poor credit and cannot open accounts easily - we have already tried but are only ever offered basic accounts which are no good for us!

Please help.

jonesMUFCforever

Can you not re-schedule your bills to the end of the month?
It loks like HSBC have done as much as they are willing in consolidating debt for you. Now I think it is time for you to take a close look at your outgoings do a spreadsheet detailing ALL income and expenditure. Try to cut all uneccessary spending to stabilise your budget and bank accounts.
Eric

virgin_moneysaver

I agree with the last post - try & rearrange the dates on your regular payments - the standing orders you can choose the date & your bank will change them - direct debits are controlled by the companies you are paying & you would have to ask them to amend the dates - many companies (especially the utilities) will give you a paying in/bank giro credit book so you can pay when your money is there - another bank is unlikely to take on your account as they would need to see sight of previous bank statements & these would show evidence of 'hard core' borrowing - good luck

Paul_Varjak

Given your comprehensive posting it does appear that your current bank has justification for limiting the credit they are prepared to give you. And, as you cannot get a bank account elsewhere (other than a Basic Bank Account) I would have thought this was further evidence that you have reached your credit limit.

I would endorse what the other posters say. It appears time to tighten your budget and you have come to the right site to hekp you do that. Read Martin's articles on moneysaving and I'm sure they will help you.

Walletwatch

Agree with what all the other posters have to say. I'd like to add though, that the solution to your problem, IMHO, is not an increased overdraft limit. Frankly, even if they do increase your OD limit, it'd just take one unscheduled expenditure in the range of £300-400 to get you back into the same situation.

Budgeting and keeping track of your expenses, and optimising any automated debits (DDs / SOs, etc) is what you should start with, in my opinion.

nh

Could you pay some of these bills on a credit card, therefore getting up to 56 days' interest free? You would need to be sure that you pay it off in full every month though.

I am currently doing this to help our cash flow... at the mo, gas, elec, phone etc go out via direct debit after we get paid. But once they are moved to the credit card, they will be paid on the credit card after we get paid, but the credit card won't need to be paid until a month later, in theory giving us a "free" month.

With a cashback credit card too - it makes sense.