overdraft on student account

freebieholic

Hi everyone,

I an a long time reader of MSE forums but i rarely post. would someone be able to advise me on the following,

DrFluffy

freebieholic wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I an a long time reader of MSE forums but i rarely post. would someone be able to advise me on the following,

??? Did you submit your post by accident?

freebieholic

DrFluffy wrote: »

??? Did you submit your post by accident?

sorry submitted before i finished typing.

am abit nervous dont usually post on the forums although i am a long time reader of the MSE forum,

here is my problem, i have an overdraft in an old student bank acount £1000plus. i pay into this every week £12.00 (£48.00 per month ) but each month £15.00 is taken in interest payments. would it be possible for me to get a 0% card and use that to pay off this overdraft. i am worried about doing this as i have never had nor do i really want a credit card. i am looking at ways off trying to save myself £15.00 per month in interest payments

many thanks

julie

poorandindenial

Hi Julie

Don't be nervous, everyone on DFW forum is lovely

This could be a dangerous game to play and there are a few things to consider:

1)most 0% credit cards are 0% ONLY for balance transfers from other credit cards and almost all charge a transfer fee that they then charge interest on so to do this you would have to get a credit card, rack up expensive cash on it and then get another to do the 0% balance transfer (you might struggle to get two cards if you have little or no credit already, you may also struggle to get the £1000+ limit that you would need)

2) credit cards are temptation in themselves, you might get them and then rack them up (check out my signature for a sorry tale of cautionary woe)

3) have you considered asking your bank for a loan, you won't be able to get the lower rates of interest because the amount you are borrowing is quite low but you might get a better deal than you are on at the moment (if you google loan calculators then you can play with different interest rates and see what sort of terms would make you better off)

4)finally [TRY THIS FIRST] you may be able to get the bank to change the terms of your overdraft.

Also, is there any way you could pay a bit more each month?? That would kill it off sooner and mean that the charges made less of an impact

No solutions or advice I am afraid, just a few things to think about.

Good luck

Broken_hearted

Have you spoken to the bank about a stepped reduction in your O/D. Maybe if you could agree to reduce it by £50 a month they would stop interest.

MoneyGypsy

Hi,

perhaps if you posted a full SOA we could make suggestions to give you extra money to pay each month. But don't worry if you don't want to.

Lol.

freebieholic

thankyou for all the repies, i am extremely grateful. i dont think i would benefit posting my SOA, i budget my money fairly well and i follow MSE very closely, i always bargain hunt and look for money saving in every way i can, i live within my means its just this old student account that bothers me. i dont like the idea of taking out a loan ( if would feel ilke a "proper" debt) iyswim. i know an overdraft is still a debt but i just dont feel the same about it as i know i would about taking a loan. i know if i tried harder i could probably throw more than the £12 a week at it.

i have dismissed the credit card option after reading the replies.

i like the idea of having the staged reduction in the overdraft, i did not know this was possible.

once again many thanks for the replies, i really love MSE everyone is so friendly and helpful.

thanks

poorandindenial

I am glad you have abandoned the credit card idea, good luck talking to the bank, let us know how you get on with them. If you have problems getting them to help then come back and you will be able to get plenty more advice (what the bank can do might depend on whether the account is still active apart form the debt and how long you have been graduated/out of education for so if you have no joy the first time there are probably other options available to you.)