Advice Wanted for Shifting or Handling Debt

ShyFishy

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some advice if anyone can provide it. I'm sure this has been asked numerous times so I apologise. I hope this is the appropriate forum for it too.

To keep it as brief as I can, I currently owe just under £1700 on a student overdraft which had a no interest period that ended on the 31st July. My bank, HSBC, froze all charges for a month until the 10th of this month while I looked at my options.

I've been unable to come up with any solution. I initially explored the idea of 0% balance transfer cards but I've gathered I can't get anything like that because I have no credit history. I had a look at other interest free overdrafts as well but that didn't seem too likely to work.

I just want to know if there are any potential solutions to my problem? My income is also very low which I realise is not ideal but I'd prefer to scrape by slowly paying the amount off than letting the account accumulate hundreds in interest. If nothing else I'd appreciate an honest answer telling me there's not much I can do. I just wanted to check I hadn't missed anything.

I'm not very clued into this part of life. Any suggestions on who I should talk to or what I can do are much appreciated.

Thank you

CLAPTON

what's your income
what are you essential expenses

any other debts?
any credit cards?

Clive_Woody

Obviously I don't know your circumstances but I don't think that you are likely to be able to borrow your way out of this. The best advice I can give is to look for ways to up your income and pay this off ASAP.

I thought normally banks reduced the interest free level a bit at a time after graduation, so maybe in £500 increments to encourage you to pay it off. It's been a while since I was a student but it might be worth checking what your bank is doing and it the whole outstanding balance is going to incur interest charges.

If you are employed your bank may consider turning this debt into a loan with defined monthly repayments possibly at a lower interest rate than the OD will have. Do not be tempted to borrow more than what is needed to pay off the OD.

StuC75

What are the ongoing charges likely to be?

Fill in a SOA and work out a budget that you can then keep to whilst chipping away at od.

ShyFishy

Sorry for the slow response. Thank you all for your input.

At the moment I'm just self employed doing internet assessment tasks for another company and only expect to earn at the most £9120 over 12 months but it will almost certainly be less given the nature of the work. Unfortunately as I'm only 23 and don't yet have any solid experience in a secure job yet finding a job hasn't been easy.

I've never had a credit card (I'm aware this is a problem) and this is the only debt I've had beside my student loan. I'm currently living at home and my parents are fortunately only asking for £50 a month until I can get things sorted. My expenses are only likely to be £200 a month on average if nothing unusual happens.

The interest rate will be 19.9% I believe. Though actually I've just realised I'm not entirely sure what I'll need to be paying with interest and charges for remaining overdrawn. I assume I'm correct in thinking the problem isn't paying it off but rather not paying the whole balance off quickly enough. If the bank could turn it into a loan with agreed repayments that might work but they haven't suggested that would be an option. I'm definitely going to speak to them, likely tomorrow, and see if I can work something out.

Thrugelmir

ShyFishy wrote: »

If the bank could turn it into a loan with agreed repayments that might work but they haven't suggested that would be an option. I'm definitely going to speak to them, likely tomorrow, and see if I can work something out.

Be open with them regarding your income and expenditure. I'm sure that they'll offer some form of loan arrangement to assist you in clearing the debt.