Advice on moving my overdraft

johnnytee

I have a Natwest current account and I'm currently running a 3k overdraft, and I pay roughly £45 a month in interest. I was wondering if I could shift the overdraft to an account or card that has a 0% interest or low interest? I have a good credit rating and I am in full-time employment. I have had a look at various links but I am finding it a bit bewildering as to what would be my best option. Can anyone help?

Vikipollard

I'd suggest before you do anything, you complete an SOA http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php.

You need to understand why you have not been reducing a £3k overdraft, and the answer may be overspending or impulse purchases.

Your credit rating counts for 100% of b*gger all. Only you see that made up number. It's your credit history that matters.

With regard to a card, presumably you mean a card that will let you transfer money into your bank account? Never done it, but the wiser folk on here will know. Not sure if MBNA and Virgin are people who offer this, but as for the interest rate, I have no idea.

sourcrates

johnnytee wrote: »

I have a Natwest current account and I'm currently running a 3k overdraft, and I pay roughly £45 a month in interest. I was wondering if I could shift the overdraft to an account or card that has a 0% interest or low interest? I have a good credit rating and I am in full-time employment. I have had a look at various links but I am finding it a bit bewildering as to what would be my best option. Can anyone help?

Not 100% sure you can transfer an overdraught debt to a credit card, it would be treated as a cash advance surely ?,
and that would attract mega interest.


You cant transfer OD debts between bank accounts, unless you have a similar account of your own, with sufficient credit elsewhere, which I would assume you don't.


The only sensible way to tackle this is to re-assess your budget, as advised above, then try and leave an amount over and above the interest charged every month, and eventually it will be gone.

January2015

sourcrates wrote: »

Not 100% sure you can transfer an overdraught debt to a credit card, it would be treated as a cash advance surely ?,
and that would attract mega interest.


You cant transfer OD debts between bank accounts, unless you have a similar account of your own, with sufficient credit elsewhere, which I would assume you don't.


The only sensible way to tackle this is to re-assess your budget, as advised above, then try and leave an amount over and above the interest charged every month, and eventually it will be gone.

Unfortunately you can do this - I did it (more than once)

It's called a super balance transfer. MBNA and Virginmoney do them - maybe others, but definitely those two CC companies.

sourcrates

January2015 wrote: »

Unfortunately you can do this - I did it (more than once)

It's called a super balance transfer. MBNA and Virginmoney do them - maybe others, but definitely those two CC companies.

Really ?


Had never heard of it myself, but I suppose they look for "holes in the market" don't they.


Cant for one minute think its a cheap option for the OP though ?

January2015

sourcrates wrote: »

Really ?


Had never heard of it myself, but I suppose they look for "holes in the market" don't they.


Cant for one minute think its a cheap option for the OP though ?

Martin Lewis has some info on this here

For me it was a disaster. I hadn't had my LBM and I transferred the money from Credit Card to clear overdraft but hadn't dealt with why I had built up an overdraft in the first place. Hence I had a 0% debt on a CC and then built up the OD again....and when the 0% CC offer had expired I not only hadn't cleared the CC but had another largish OD again.

I know....I was a fool

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Yeah they exist. I made use of this recently (Barclaycard) when I needed to transfer some immediate cash to where I am now, while waiting for the <redacted> company to get their <redacted> act together and pay my <redacted> expenses. It was paid back as soon as the expenses cleared in my account (and a further claim entered for the BT fee).

@OP. CCs offer this because they hope you won't pay them back on time, so they'll make lots of lovely interest out of you. They've got loss-leaders down to a fine art. You need to do your SOA, fix your overspending habit, and make sure you can repay the CC balance (which is the OD balance plus 3%) within the interest free period. Note that the interest free period is always 1 month less than advertised, because they count calendar months and not repayments.

Sharon87

January2015 wrote: »

Martin Lewis has some info on this here

For me it was a disaster. I hadn't had my LBM and I transferred the money from Credit Card to clear overdraft but hadn't dealt with why I had built up an overdraft in the first place. Hence I had a 0% debt on a CC and then built up the OD again....and when the 0% CC offer had expired I not only hadn't cleared the CC but had another largish OD again.

I know....I was a fool

Same thing. The only way to get rid of debt is to stop overspending!

If the OP wants to do a 'money transfer' which is what they're called to transfer the debt to a credit card, then my advice is get rid of the overdraft! Reduce it to 0 or £50 (as a buffer). I had 2 overdrafts, one that I always seem to be in and one that I dipped in and out of. I done a money transfer paid it off and have now reduced it by phoning up Natwest. The other one I'm still working on.

Fees for 0% money transfers are usually around 3-5% and you can get up to just over 3 years for money transfers on certain cards! As long as you are accepted anyway.

Good look OP

johnnytee

Thanks for the replys all. Just to let you know, I'm not overspending or making uneccessary purchases. The surplus I have at the end of the month goes to pay off my credit card ( currently sub £500) Once that is payed off I can get to work on my 3k overdraft. Just need to reduce my £45 interest payments, hence the OP.