Overdraft interest when a student

bflan9

I'm fully expecting the answer to my query to be a flat 'no!', but I'm embarrassed to ask the bank my query and would prefer to receive the ridicule for asking it anonymously online!

Any replies will be very much appreciated and I hope I've posted this in the right section.

I opened a student account with Natwest in 2005 and was given incrementally an overdraft of £2000. I've never actually used the account for day to day banking other than to use the overdraft and then once the interest free period ended around 2009/10 I have (stupidly) just paid in the monthly interest to ensure I never went above the limit rather than aim to pay off the debt.

I returned to University again for further study and was a full time student between 2013-2017. In all honesty, I was afraid to contact the bank when I was a student again to ask about options in case they requested the overdraft amount back in full immediately and I ended up with a default/CCJ if I couldn't pay (I was hugely financially stressed in those years and on a very low income).

I've been working for the past 18 months or so and during my second time back at university accumulated other debts that I am managing to pay back and are mainly transferred to interest free cards/one low interest loan, but it is difficult.

I'm concerned about the imminent rise in overdraft interest charges and currently don't have a good enough credit rating to open a money transfer card to try and transfer the debt to something interest free.

Is it as completely a preposterous idea as I suspect it is to explain to Natwest that I was a full time student for four years between 2013-2017 and request that they refund some of the interest charged during this time?

Thanks in advance for any replies. Don't be gentle - if what I'm thinking is absurd please confirm it for me.

Brian

eskbanker

I think you'll find that most banks offer interest-free overdrafts as an incentive for joining, and that such offers are valid only for the first few years, so it's unlikely that the mere fact of returning to a lengthy second stint of being a full time student actually obliges them to offer any further interest-free borrowing, i.e. full time student status doesn't in itself equate to entitlement to free overdrafts.

No harm in asking for concessions of course, but only from the perspective of 'I have money difficulties, what can you do for me?' rather than 'I believe I was entitled to many more years of interest-free borrowing so please refund me' (unless of course anything they told you would suggest that)....

bflan9

Thanks eskbanker, that's a fair reply.

I was told by someone that Natwest would have made the overdraft interest free again if I'd contacted them when I was a student and made it my main account, which makes me kick myself but of course that could be misinformation.

I will contact them once I pluck up the courage to see what my options are, would happily accept them converting it into a low interest loan as long as the payments weren't too high.

I am sadly at the extreme end of those who lose out with the overdraft interest changes, all of my own doing of course.