Paying off overdraft with credit card?

desgirl14

Hi

I hope this is the right place to post

I currently have an arranged overdraft of £1800 and usually use £1700 of it each month. It is left over from my interest free student overdraft however now I am paying approximately £30 on it each month from interest and monthly charges. I would REALLY like to get out of it and my plan should see me out of it in 18 - 24 months.

However this is still £30 a month until then.

My question is, is it possible to get a 0% balance transfer style credit card to pay it off? I think this would be cheaper? However I have NO idea how to go about this.

Is this a realistic thing to do and are credit cards the way to do this?

Thanks!

[Deleted User]

No. You would need a money transfer option.

However, it may be unlikely you will get a decent promo offer if you're heavily into your overdraft.

Dobbibill

If you check the terms of your overdraft as with student overdrafts the charges for them is normally tiered meaning to give you time to pay it off without charges you may only need to reduce it by £200 if it's interest & fee free for £1500 etc.

desgirl14

Thanks Dobbibill and zx81

I didn't realise balance and money transfer was different, so I will take a look at money transfer cards. Thanks.

It isn't interest or fee free anymore - I've not been a student now for 4 years, I've just not been able to get out of it. I've been lucky, it's only in the last year it is now charging on the full amount My work is now more stable and I'll be able to pay it off next year I think, I'm just hoping to find a way to move the debt so I stop paying fees and interest on it in the mean time.

J_B

Naive answer, sorry ....



Could you ...


a) get one of those credit cards that doesn't need repaying for 24 months?


b) put all your everyday expenses on this for a while


c) use the money that you would have used for expenses to repay the O/D


???

[Deleted User]

Yes. But the chances of getting one of those in the OP's circumstances would generally be lower than of getting a BT/MT card.

Marb6145ky

My experience is that you need to have the same account for example if you want to do money transfer for barclays o/d you would need to get a barclaycard cc with a 0% money transfer offer on it. Check the trf fee too

molerat

J_B wrote: »

Naive answer, sorry ....



Could you ...


a) get one of those credit cards that doesn't need repaying for 24 months?


b) put all your everyday expenses on this for a while


c) use the money that you would have used for expenses to repay the O/D


???

A good plan if op is 100% focussed on managing the money otherwise they could end up in the same situation in 24 months time just owing a different lender. MBNA are currently offering me MT for 12mths at 0% with 4% fee or 4 years at 4.9% with no fee. If the op could get a MT card it would be much cleaner.

Dobbibill

Marb6145ky wrote: »

My experience is that you need to have the same account for example if you want to do money transfer for barclays o/d you would need to get a barclaycard cc with a 0% money transfer offer on it. Check the trf fee too

It isn't asked why you want to transfer the money on a MT card. You can choose to do whatever you want/need to.

There is no requirement to have a CC & bank account with the same provider for a MT. If that was the case, MBNA would have no customers taking up this offer

jonesMUFCforever

OP if your student account is no longer interest free - have you investigated Graduate accounts?
Most will give you an interest free period of up to 2 years.

dresdendave

The old school approach to getting rid of your OD is to reduce your spending. If you could reduce your outgoings by £100 a month then in 18 months the OD would be cleared and not merely transferred to a different lender.

Post an SOA on the FFW board and you will be given friendly advice on how to achieve this.