Help Nat West Are adding £6 to my 19.8% interest overdraft!

Tixy

Clueless_London wrote: »

If I open a basic account elsewhere I wont get an overdraft facility and if I pay my money into that well there wont be enough for me to live off, it wont cover my bills, I live off my overdraft.

I have some money coming in but not enough to live off. So I guess I will just have to pay the £6 but I dont know why they should charge me £6 when Im already paying 19.8% on my arranged overdraft.

I just dont know how to dodge the bullet?

Do you mean you are falling further in to your overdraft each month? that your outgoings exceed your incomings?
If so then that is probably a bigger problem than a £6 fee, what will you do once you have maxed out the overdraft entirely?

I think people were assuming you live in your overdraft (don't pay it off, but don't have it growing each month).

Clueless_London wrote: »

Sorry to seem stupid but what is an SOA.

You answer seems totally logical but I live off my overdraft, I dont have enough money coming in to make a living, even when I drew unemployment benefit the money allocated for me to live on went to my rent. So I have attempt to start my own business but Im new and not doing so well, so I have to live off my overdraft.

Sorry if Im not being clear I just dont know how else to explain?

A SOA is a statement of affairs - its a list of income & outgoings and debts etc and helps see how much of a shortfall you have each month and whether the shortfall relates to priority items or debt repayments.
People often post up a statement of affairs for others to be able to advise on their possible options to dealing with debts, and also for suggestions as to places they could possibly change/reduce outgoings.

DCFC79

If it were me Id look at other avenues for money eg a part/full time job and do your freelancing on the side, I understand thats easier said than done.

Clueless_London

Hi

Im freelance because I cant get a job full or part time, as with most people as I build my business i dont have much money coming in but thanks for your reply.

X

Clueless_London

Hi

Thank you so much for taking the time. I use about £1,200 /£1,500 of my overdraft a month to keep my head above water, pay my bills. I dont spend excessively. If I go to another bank wont get £3,400 not nearly as I was given that overdraft when I was working for a company. I dont go over my overdraft limit but Im often close to the end of the limit just because it has built up to over £2,000 for sometime now. With a poor income i cant see me being able to get a loan and this is somewhat of a viscious circle. Things will improve but the £6 for no extra service doesnt help.

Thanks for explaining about the SOA, I think the only thing I can maybe cut back on is my landline (which is my broadband) and maybe if I cooked more often from scratch my food bill may reduce. But I rarely go out, dont drink or smoke, rarely take the car out, my next biggest expense is in public transport which is huge I can end up spending £60 / £80 a week and money spent in coffee shops.

stclair

Bare in mind overdrafts are repayable on demand.

So you should always think of a plan B should the inevitable happen.

Alternatively open another bank account then transfer X amount of money every month to reduce your overdraft to nil.

katejo

Clueless_London wrote: »

Hi

Thank you so much for taking the time. I use about £1,200 /£1,500 of my overdraft a month to keep my head above water, pay my bills. I dont spend excessively. If I go to another bank wont get £3,400 not nearly as I was given that overdraft when I was working for a company. I dont go over my overdraft limit but Im often close to the end of the limit just because it has built up to over £2,000 for sometime now. With a poor income i cant see me being able to get a loan and this is somewhat of a viscious circle. Things will improve but the £6 for no extra service doesnt help.

Thanks for explaining about the SOA, I think the only thing I can maybe cut back on is my landline (which is my broadband) and maybe if I cooked more often from scratch my food bill may reduce. But I rarely go out, dont drink or smoke, rarely take the car out, my next biggest expense is in public transport which is huge I can end up spending £60 / £80 a week and money spent in coffee shops.

you mention that you should perhaps cook from scratch . What have you been doing up to now ? There are plenty of cheap meals using pasta and veg or similar . Your current spending is not much lower than my monthly take home pay . I suspect that you might need to reduce the coffee shop visits though difficult. I go too often myself .

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi

For anyone unsure about the Natwest charge there's more info in our NatWest & RBS to hike overdraft charges news story.

Clueless London, fill in our Budget Planner and you'll get a link to create your Statement of Affairs for the forum.

stclair

Or you can view the official Natwest literature:

http://www.natwest.com/downloads/global_options/docs/nw_overdrafts_explained.pdf