Are banks sympathetic?

What_to_do?_4-2

My husband and I are self-employed working together.
We have been rubbing along quite nicely this last year and managing to pay all our bills - just.

August being August has been very quiet for us as a result we know we can't manage the bills next week.
Last time we asked the bank to extend our overdraft was over a year ago and it was refused because we don't pay enough in.

We have been paying in more this year than last year and could do with an extension to the overdraft now to see us over this month and fully intend to pay it back as soon as our sales pick up - which they do in September.

Is it worth asking the bank again. If they don't extend the overdraft is there any other way they could help out in the very short term?
Any help gratefully appreciated - also apologies if this is in the wrong place.

climbgirl

Banks will be an awful lot more sympathetic if you contact them before any problems hit rather than waiting until they start. Ring them up and find out!

On a more long-term topic...if you're self-employed and you're finding that you don't have enough money to cover the leaner months, are you budgeting properly so that your good months cover these times? If you sort out your budget you can try and avoid it happening again and not be reliant on sympathetic banks to tide you over.

Maybe post your budget in more detail here and people can offer ideas.