Overdraft fees are killing me

benjimaxwell

I hope I have this in the right forum but I am currently banking with Halifax and let my overdraft get up to £3100 and the fees are killing me £2,£3 a day.
I'm 21 currently a new dad and moved into a house with me partner and baby now she is on maternity leave so income is rather stretched.

I've searched online for the best accounts for overdrafts and I've found nationwide wth the 12 month 0%, but I'm worried they will reject my overdraft.

I'm wondering if anyone has had such problems especially with Halifax fees and if there is some other accounts or ways of reducing the amount I pay because of my overdraft
Thank you.

grumbler

Depending on your credit history you may try getting a credit card offering 0% on money transfers.
MSE articles:

• Balance Transfer Credit Cards

• Money Transfers Shift cash to your bank account at 0%
  
• Balance Transfer Eligibility Calc

Failing that you can try getting a loan. Using an overdraft for a long-term borrowing £3K was very imprudent to put it mildly. Overdrafts are intended for a short-term emergency borrowing only.

Westie983

benjimaxwell wrote: »

I'm wondering if anyone has had such problems especially with Halifax fees and if there is some other accounts or ways of reducing the amount I pay because of my overdraft
Thank you.

If you can bring your OD to 2999.99 you will only pay £2 rather then £3, saving £1 a day or even better reduce to under £1999.99 to pay £1 a day, again saving £2 a day from your fees...

A money transfer credit card may work and use the money to pay of the overdraft, if this is not for the right amount of your current overdraft it may bring it down so you don't pay as much per day...

colsten

You need to address the root cause of the problem. Faffing about with the overdraft is like putting a sticking plaster on a broken leg.

Fill in a SAR http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

Then post it on the Debt Free Wannabe forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76 with a request for comments from people who have a lot of knowledge in that area

kpearsoncj

i had a similar problem when my boy was boy 5 years ago. had 2500 overdraft with halifax. was paying £60 a month just in fees.

not saying this is the best idea - but i defaulted on the overdraft and paid it back £60 a month still but that went to pay it off and was gone after, well after how ever many months i found it good for me as it was less stressful and halifax were good sold the debt on and i now bank with them again.

benjimaxwell

Cheers for the advice guys, I'm running the debate now wether to switch my account, I very much doubt I'll be able to get a card so I can shift my money and pay it off that way so I'm stuck with that,
Probably spend the next few days with a couple of banks to see who can give me the best deal

ViolaLass

It's like posts 2 to 5 never happened.

TheBanker

benjimaxwell wrote: »

Cheers for the advice guys, I'm running the debate now wether to switch my account, I very much doubt I'll be able to get a card so I can shift my money and pay it off that way so I'm stuck with that,
Probably spend the next few days with a couple of banks to see who can give me the best deal

If you are likely to be declined for a credit card (due to credit file?) then I don't fancy your chances getting a £3k overdraft approved.

I would go to the Debt Free Wannabe board and ask for help there. They will look for ways to get this paid off. To be honest with a new baby, you are going to need to be very prudent with your spending because it would be easy for this situation to get even worse unless you are careful.

Dandytf

TheBanker wrote: »

If you are likely to be declined for a credit card (due to credit file?) then I don't fancy your chances getting a £3k overdraft approved.

I would go to the Debt Free Wannabe board and ask for help there. They will look for ways to get this paid off. To be honest with a new baby, you are going to need to be very prudent with your spending because it would be easy for this situation to get even worse unless you are careful.

When I read the title, I though the same, been there not a good place until you seek help..sooner rather than later, there's no quick fix.

beckywj

Hi, I have a similar situation to you. My overdraft isn't that high but the fees are also driving me down, average about £90 a month. I'm starting maternity leave this month and I'm going to really struggle . I rang Halifax today who agreed to waive £35 of my £90 charge today as its the first charge that I've rang about. She put me through to 'money management' who discussed my finances incoming wage and outgoing expenditures. She arranged to waive all charges and freeze all overdraft charges for the next 6 months so I can work at chipping away and get it paid off. After that she has put a buffer on my account which is £10 but changes the over overdraft fees to £1 a day rather than £5 (this is was I was really struggling with)
It's going to really help me work at getting my overdraft down and she was very helpful . I don't know if this affects my credit rating (she did say I can't have any finance products from them for 12 months now not like my credit score allows this anyway) and I have to downgrade my reward account (again havnt had the benefits from this for like a year) and I also don't know if they can do this for everyone but it really helps to call them and just discuss your situation

Good luck

Ben8282

I am wondering how individuals such as yourselves who appear to be permanently using their overdrafs to the limit, their salaries never repaying or even lowering the overdraft during the course of the month, have managed to get these high overdraft limits in the first place as I have found that banks tend to take into consideration how much is regularly paid in each month when setting the limit.
That said these daily fees which Halifax appear to apply in lieu of interest !!!! very high. Perhaps you should both consider switching to a bank which applies a more normal policy of charging interest (and perhaps a fixed monthly use fee) instead ... if they will have you that is.