Overdraft Charges

Joanne2121

I am single mother and have had an overdraft of £5k since about 2002 (from loss of job). I am only managing to pay the interest each month approx £80 avg. I have worked out that with interest alone I have paid over £12K. I do work now but struggle to pay more than the interest. When I was unemployed I talked to the bank about the charges and was basically told tough. Not sure what I can do. Just managing to keep my head above water - any help or advise welcome

Sharon87

Go back to the bank ask them nicely that you can't afford the interest each month, ask them to freeze the bank account and you will pay it off over time.

Make sure you have another bank elsewhere before you do this that your wages get paid into.

How is your credit rating? Can you apply for 0% credit transfers with money transfer facilities? Who is your overdraft with? What interest do you pay, is it a set amount per day or interest or both? The reason I'm asking is if it's interest, having even a bit less on a 0% credit card will reduce the interest. If it's per day usually they have points where you pay more, like Halifax I know used to be £2 a day over £2500 and £1 a day under £2500. If you can get to below one of those points then you will pay less interest.

If your bank won't let you freeze the account, phone up National Debtline for more advice or Stepchange.

Also if you post an SOA up here people will be able to see if you can make savings elsewhere.

sourcrates

You need to get a new bank account, preferebly a basic account, with no borrowing facility, and use that for your day to day banking.

Advise your current bank that you can't service the overdraught, and ask them to freeze it, then treat it as just another debt.

If they won't do this, and your not too bothered about your credit file, then your best bet is to default, and wait till they sell on the debt, then make an offer to pay it off over time with the new owner.