Overdraft concern with Halifax.

cbf_2

Hi
I have an Ultimate Reward account with Halifax and two saving accounts. I have been utilising the o/d facility for some months now due to unemployment. My wife works as a care support worker so the income is not great.

I am looking at opening another account and then speaking with the Halifax to see if they will allow me to pay off the amount without the monthly interest charges. Could Halifax take the money from the other 2 savings account to pay off the outstanding amount if they could not reach a satisfactory outcome and if so what is the likelyhood of this happening. Should I transfer the savings amounts to another account.....Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

CBF

grumbler

Yes they can take money:Dont Bank With Debts
And they are extremely unlikely to waive the interest. Why would they?
It makes no sense to me to have savings yet use overdraft that isn't free. And if you want to avoid paying it by transferring savings to another bank, you'll have your credit history trashed.

Gromitt

The only way they'll allow to stop paying interest is if you enter into an "agreement to pay", but if you accept this, it will appear on your credit report and you'll struggle to get further credit if you need it.

Don't forget that overdraft are meant for short term loans - Halifax can request you pay the balance at any time.

Can't you use your savings to pay off the overdraft?

OneLife_OneShot

Pay off the O/D with the savings is my suggestion, Halifax won't let you pay off the O/D without paying the £15/10 each month for the URCA fee, if they did it would be placed as a default or "arrangement" like mentioned previously.

Anthorn

Gromitt wrote: »

Don't forget that overdraft are meant for short term loans - Halifax can request you pay the balance at any time.

This is becoming something of a pet subject of mine lately. Yes, overdrafts are short term. Any bank will expect an overdraft to be dipped into from time to time but will expect it to be paid back within a relatively short period. Accounts which are perpetually overdrawn are likely to have the overdraft withdrawn.

Problems arise because some people don't know that and they see their overdraft as money to spend. The reason they don't know is because no-one tells them: Their parents don't tell them, they're not told in education and the banks don't tell them.

Personally, I think that everyone should take a test and get a licence to get a bank account like we have for driving. It would save a lot of heartache and defaulted accounts.

Back to the topic, yes use the savings to pay off what you owe and get rid of it.