Nationwide leaving me in a terrible situation :(

DebtClearer

Hi guys,

I currently have a £1000 overdraft with Nationwide. They have today sent a letter saying it will change to £100 on 10th Feb and otherwise they will process unarranged overdraft fee charges.

Now despite some challenging circumstances before Christmas this year I have really tried to get on top of things but now I'm left competely lost at what I can do....I don't even get paid until after 10th Feb and even then £900 would be pretty much my whole salary and I have other debtors to pay.

I do have £360 in an ISA I hold with them that I was building as a reserve. Should I get this in to another bank ASAP?

It does give a number to contact which I guess I'll try but I really don't know what I'm going to do .

Neil_948

DebtClearer wrote: »

Hi guys,

I currently have a £1000 overdraft with Nationwide. They have today sent a letter saying it will change to £100 on 10th Feb and otherwise they will process unarranged overdraft fee charges.

Now despite some challenging circumstances before Christmas this year I have really tried to get on top of things but now I'm left competely lost at what I can do....I don't even get paid until after 10th Feb and even then £900 would be pretty much my whole salary and I have other debtors to pay.

I do have £360 in an ISA I hold with them that I was building as a reserve. Should I get this in to another bank ASAP?

It does give a number to contact which I guess I'll try but I really don't know what I'm going to do .

Firstly yes I would get the £360 moved to different account however if you opened the isa since last April you can't open one before the 1st of April this year.

Secondly speak to someone at the bank explain you have had problems and that you would like to have the overdraft re-instated and that you would be willing to have it reduced as you make an agreed repayment to it every month.

and Thirdly if you have any other accounts with funds available with them move it

Banks have been updating there T&C over the last few years and all the new ones i have seen state that they have the right to take any monies in any account to clear the debt account.

DebtClearer

Thanks for this, do you think they will likely accept this and would it have an affect on my credit rating? IE a default or anything?

Weird_Nev

DebtClearer wrote: »

Thanks for this, do you think they will likely accept this and would it have an affect on my credit rating? IE a default or anything?

If you negotiate a reduction in overdraft by stages and stick to it, then no it would not result in any impact on your credit rating.

I did this in 2012 with Co-op when they demanded that they reduce my overdraft from £1000 to zero in a month. I got them to reduce it from £1000 to £500 by £100 a month instead, then paid the full £500 after those 6 months. Just gave me the buffer I needed to sort it out.

dancingfairy

you can transfer ISAs. Explain to the new bank that you already have an ISA and you just want to transfer it, although with low interest rates and a fairly low balance it's not going to be the end of the world if you withdraw it and put it in a bog standard account for now and then put it into a new ISA from April.
df

DebtClearer

Fortunately I managed to borrow the money off family. I paid the OD off and then cancelled it....feeling much better now

KT2802

Well done for getting it paid off Debt Clearer. Exactly the same thing happened to me with Nationwide where they said they were going to reduce my overdraft from £2000 to £1000 in 30 days. I rang them and came to an arrangement with them to reduce it by £80 a month. Not helpful for you now but may help someone else. I was really worried when I got the letter.

Scritti

KT2802 wrote: »

Exactly the same thing happened to me with Nationwide where they said they were going to reduce my overdraft from £2000 to £1000 in 30 days.

Jeez, what a terrible way to treat your customers! If you were using the entire 2k, how on earth do they think you will be able to give back half of that in just one month? They don't know and they don't care.

No wonder everyone seems to detest the banks these days. They pay out hardly any interest on savings as they now don't need "our" money after they were bailed out with, er, our money. And then they do things like this.

An extra incentive to all to try to pay off your overdraft as soon as possible though. Until that time, you'd be better off paying it off with one of the 0% interest credit cards that will pay off OD's as part of a balance transfer.

matttye

Scritti wrote: »

Jeez, what a terrible way to treat your customers! If you were using the entire 2k, how on earth do they think you will be able to give back half of that in just one month? They don't know and they don't care.

No wonder everyone seems to detest the banks these days. They pay out hardly any interest on savings as they now don't need "our" money after they were bailed out with, er, our money. And then they do things like this.

An extra incentive to all to try to pay off your overdraft as soon as possible though. Until that time, you'd be better off paying it off with one of the 0% interest credit cards that will pay off OD's as part of a balance transfer.

Overdrafts are supposed to be for short term borrowing needs and are repayable any time the bank wishes. If you want a longer term loan with fixed repayments then you should apply for, you guessed it, a loan.

So while it might seem harsh, you should bear in mind that an overdraft that has to be repaid over a number of months is being misused anyway.

dreamdreamer

matttye wrote: »

Overdrafts are supposed to be for short term borrowing needs and are repayable any time the bank wishes. If you want a longer term loan with fixed repayments then you should apply for, you guessed it, a loan.

So while it might seem harsh, you should bear in mind that an overdraft that has to be repaid over a number of months is being misused anyway.

Which begs the question of why they give anyone an overdraft that's more than their monthly income. How do they think the customer will pay that back in one month?

Lloyds did this to me in about 2006, reduced my overdraft from £2500 to £0. I was working abroad at the time so it was a nightmare to sort out a repayment plan. Mind you it gave me the kick I needed to leave them and their terrible customer service and join First Direct, so with hindsight they did me a favour! :rotfl:

matttye

dreamdreamer wrote: »

Which begs the question of why they give anyone an overdraft that's more than their monthly income. How do they think the customer will pay that back in one month?

Lloyds did this to me in about 2006, reduced my overdraft from £2500 to £0. I was working abroad at the time so it was a nightmare to sort out a repayment plan. Mind you it gave me the kick I needed to leave them and their terrible customer service and join First Direct, so with hindsight they did me a favour! :rotfl:

I agree - lenders seem to lend money willy nilly. Not so much these days as previously, but still to some extent.

Lloyds didn't hesitate to give me a £1,500 overdraft when I was coming out with about £900 per month.