Paying off a £1500 overdraft

Shelski_2

Why don't you think carefully about the money you 'play with'. Where does it go? Perhaps it might be an idea to keep a spending diary. This could be a little notepad or an app on your phone but EVERYTHING gets written down - any extra coffees, magazines etc. I think you might find you don't have to scrimp as much as you think.

Scritti

Good luck with this and please do stick at it!

Yes, you'll have less money to "play with" each month but remember that it's not your money anyway, it's the banks.

I too had a £1500 OD with HSBC and ploughed all I could at it until it was clear.

Now I have my own money to play with...I don't play with it at all. I value every penny, budget and do whatever I can to avoid spending on any non-essentials because I'm building my emergency fund (eventually hopefully leading onto a house deposit at some point). It's sometimes a bit harder to get that enthusiasm when you're still paying off debt and constantly looking at minus numbers but stick at it and aim to get those minus numbers smaller and smaller each month, I can promise you it's worth it in the end.

I agree with you leaving the account "active". I doubt they will cut your OD so long as you have wages going in and are using less and less of the OD each month. Even if you can only pay off £50 or £100 or so each month, every little really does help and you WILL get there but you'll get there even faster if you're prepared to treat this as a priority and forego some treats and watch the pennies for a while. Trust me, it's so so worth it!

Best of luck!!

Danni-R

The thing I found with HSBC (or the lady on the phone anyways) was that she was more accepting of me repaying it back at £50 a month for forever instead of the £500 a month for 3 months that I wanted to do.

I completely agree with Scritti, its not your money to play with. its the banks and I have less than £400 a month to 'play with' with a full time job and a mortgage. Reduce your play money to £100 a month or what ever and crack away at the OD. No point having savings whilst you have debt that is charging you interest.