Student account free overdraft expiring - no job

rockm87

Just answered on this on another board.

I thought no one on here had answered you, but it seems they are not giving you the responses you desire.

It is a shame, these people are trying to help, I know it sounds like they're being difficult.

But at the end of the day, you have an income problem, it cant be fixed by anyone here!

Maddybee33

Hello :-)
I am in a similar position, except I am self employed (still not earning much, though), I have been fairly careful with my expenses (only ever dipping into over-draft as a student to cover the tail end of rent(, and I have a wonderful partner to help me with living costs.

Here, I think that you might have to make some tricky choices (as other people have said, in other words)- what exactly is your financial situation? What qualification have you gained from uni? I know that having a child makes this all a bit tricker, but are you still in a relationship with the father? I don't know if he's in full time employment or not, but this makes a difference to your situation.

Lastly, I know that you obviously want to stay home to take care of your child, but have you considered self employment? The government also has a program that I just found out about called NEA to help you get your business off the ground. I also think that you should pop into a CAB.
Best of luck!

lisaw87

rockm87 wrote: »

Just answered on this on another board.

I thought no one on here had answered you, but it seems they are not giving you the responses you desire.

It is a shame, these people are trying to help, I know it sounds like they're being difficult.

But at the end of the day, you have an income problem, it cant be fixed by anyone here!

I did not say I hadn't had any responses, i said I had no luck. And no the responses are not what I wanted because the responses I have are asking me about my past decisions. Not helping me move forward with my life. Please stop commenting if you have no other ideas for me.

I am not asking for income advice. I have never once said that.

I wanted to know what options I have for sorting my overdraft. Are there other graduate accounts, credit cards etc etc etc

lisaw87

Maddybee33 wrote: »

Hello :-)
I am in a similar position, except I am self employed (still not earning much, though), I have been fairly careful with my expenses (only ever dipping into over-draft as a student to cover the tail end of rent(, and I have a wonderful partner to help me with living costs.

Here, I think that you might have to make some tricky choices (as other people have said, in other words)- what exactly is your financial situation? What qualification have you gained from uni? I know that having a child makes this all a bit tricker, but are you still in a relationship with the father? I don't know if he's in full time employment or not, but this makes a difference to your situation.

Lastly, I know that you obviously want to stay home to take care of your child, but have you considered self employment? The government also has a program that I just found out about called NEA to help you get your business off the ground. I also think that you should pop into a CAB.
Best of luck!

Id rather not go into my personal circumstances with my family life on an open forum. I hope you don't mind.

I hadn't thought of self employment or heard of the NEA so thank you. That is something I can consider and look into.

Lokolo

lisaw87 wrote: »

I did not say I hadn't had any responses, i said I had no luck. And no the responses are not what I wanted because the responses I have are asking me about my past decisions. Not helping me move forward with my life. Please stop commenting if you have no other ideas for me.

I am not asking for income advice. I have never once said that.

I wanted to know what options I have for sorting my overdraft. Are there other graduate accounts, credit cards etc etc etc

No. You have no other options than to sort out your income and/or expenditure.

Why would a bank give a free overdraft, or give credit, to someone that has no income? That is irresponsible and stupid of them to do so.

The only thing you can do is post your income and expenditure each month and see where you can cut back to pay back the overdraft, or earn more money by getting a job. These are going to be your ONLY options.

The interest on your overdraft (18.9% on £2000) is going to cost you just shy of £32 a month in interest. This will build up. As I mentioned earlier, Co-op also charge a £10 a month informal overdraft fee, so the charges will mount up.

SuperHan

Your options are as follows:

- Pay off the overdraft
- Don't pay off the overdraft and incur fees
- Try to open another account with another bank that has a better interest rate on their overdraft or a portion of interest free overdraft (eg £200 at 0% will be better than having it sat with the rest of the balance at 18.9%). Note, given your lack of income and high debt usage at the minute, you will not be an appealing customer to many bank account providers.
- Try to get an interest free money transfer credit card from MBNA and paying a 3% fee to transfer the debt to there. Again, lack of income and high debt levels will make you an unappealing customer for them, so your chances of acceptance may be low.
- Get a 0% purchases card, shop on the credit card and pay down the overdraft instead. Acceptance likelihood as above.
- Natwest seem to offer a graduate account to anyone who has graduated in the past 3 years with a reducing overdraft balance over this period. You could try to open a graduate account with them and move some/all of the overdraft there.

But, almost all of the above suggestions are just moving the debt and you will just be in the same or worse position in 12 months time. You may not appreciate hearing it, but you're about to start a vicious debt cycle, and the only way to fix it is to change your income/expenditure patterns.

Have you looked at mystery shopping as a way of earning more income? You can sometimes take a baby along with you, or they will only take an hour or so if you can get family to babysit, and you can earn £20-£30 a time.

There are also surveys you can do to earn Amazon vouchers which can reduce some of the normal spend pressure on your cash spend, which can then go toward your overdraft.

There are account switches that you may be able to do to, as they don't always come with an overdraft, so you may well be accepted that can earn you up to £125 a time, and with a bit of effort there are 3 or 4 offers up for grabs at the moment which may make a dent in your OD.

Have a look on some of the boards here for more ideas, but as reluctant as you are, changing your income and outgoings is the only long term solution here.