Nationwide Flex account Overdraft question

Late_To_Bed

Hi,

I've had an overdraft facility of £2k on my Nationwide Flexaccount for at least a decade.
I reckon I use some/all of the this facility about 10 of 12 months of the year
I recently inherited some money, so decided to try and take away the temptation of having the facility by cutting it to £1500, with the intention of cutting the facility by £500 every 3 months, so I wouldn't have any facility ( i might leve myself £200 or £250in case of emergencies) after a year.

I did the first cut in my online banking in Octioiber. I tried to cut it again to £1000 a few days ago, and it wouldn'yt let me chnge it online.

So I spent 30 minutes hanging on the phone only to be told I couldn't change my facility at all!

This seems really strange to me,is it standard? Why won't they let me change the amount of credit I have available?

Thanks in advance

LTB

colsten

You should raise a complaint.

etienneg

Quite often banks/building societies will not allow a review to increase an overdraft limit within 6 months of a previous one. It may be, for convenience, that they have just implemented a computer system that has a 6 month limit for any change (increase or decrease).

Of course, having a £1,500 limit doesn't mean you have to use it. There's a lot to be said for developing a mental approach that doesn't depend on external factors for control.

eskbanker

Late_To_Bed said:

I recently inherited some money, so decided to try and take away the temptation of having the facility by cutting it to £1500, with the intention of cutting the facility by £500 every 3 months, so I wouldn't have any facility ( i might leve myself £200 or £250in case of emergencies) after a year.

I did the first cut in my online banking in Octioiber. I tried to cut it again to £1000 a few days ago, and it wouldn'yt let me chnge it online.

So I spent 30 minutes hanging on the phone only to be told I couldn't change my facility at all!

As above, it's plausible that they have standardised rules preventing limit changes at the frequency you had in mind, but if they do only allow changes no more than six-monthly then they should be able and willing to share this info with you - https://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/support-articles/how-to/view-or-change-my-overdraft certainly suggests a six month review cycle but doesn't actually spell out that more frequent changes aren't allowed.

If you've paid off the overdraft with the inheritance and intend to get by with an emergency limit of £200-250 then why do the staggered reductions thing anyway (even if they did allow it), i.e. why not just go straight to the lower limit in one go?

[Deleted User]

eskbanker said:

Late_To_Bed said:

I recently inherited some money, so decided to try and take away the temptation of having the facility by cutting it to £1500, with the intention of cutting the facility by £500 every 3 months, so I wouldn't have any facility ( i might leve myself £200 or £250in case of emergencies) after a year.

I did the first cut in my online banking in Octioiber. I tried to cut it again to £1000 a few days ago, and it wouldn'yt let me chnge it online.

So I spent 30 minutes hanging on the phone only to be told I couldn't change my facility at all!

As above, it's plausible that they have standardised rules preventing limit changes at the frequency you had in mind, but if they do only allow changes no more than six-monthly then they should be able and willing to share this info with you - https://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/support-articles/how-to/view-or-change-my-overdraft certainly suggests a six month review cycle but doesn't actually spell out that more frequent changes aren't allowed.

If you've paid off the overdraft with the inheritance and intend to get by with an emergency limit of £200-250 then why do the staggered reductions thing anyway (even if they did allow it), i.e. why not just go straight to the lower limit in one go?

The only time they'll do the option the OP wants in the debt management situation, the standard system won't be setup for regular reductions and at one point might also just remove the facility completely.

As a side note, at 39.9% it won't be a massive loss if the OP has funds that can readily transferred in.