Nationwide Overdraft Advice

Paul_VW

Hi there

I have quite a big problem

nationwide have sent me a letter saying that they can no longer offer me an overdraft because "my credit score did not reach the right level" so they are going to expire it on April 2nd!!

the overdraft is £450, I have £650ish a month going in, and £600ish going out - all direct debits.

I cant magic £450 up in 2 weeks, what do I do? I think this is really nasty of them they could at least give me more notice, or a smaller overdraft!

MarkyMarkD

Nationwide have actually given you 3 weeks' notice as 2 April is a Wednesday and so is today.

Overdrafts can be withdrawn at any time. All the Banking Code requires is that banks are reasonable about how they do this. Giving 3 weeks' notice would be considered reasonable.

I appreciate that you don't have £450 in cash to clear this.

In the short-term, can you:

- borrow the money from relatives or friends; or
- borrow the money on a credit card?

And then, can you apply to another bank for a current account on the basis that they'll match (or beat!) your existing overdraft limit? This part may be a bit difficult if you have a credit score.

Why, by the way, do you have a bad credit score?

zx2011

You might want to quote this from Section 2(Our key commitments to you) of the Banking Code:

"We will deal quickly and sympathetically with things that go wrong and consider all cases of financial difficulty sympathetically and positively."

http://www.bankingcode.org.uk/libraryhome.htm
http://www.bankingcode.org.uk/pdfdocs/BANKING%20CODE.pdf (PDF)

Paul_VW

I missed 3 direct debit payments since December must be the reason why, it seems pretty harsh to me.

somthing like this could really break someone, but i never have heard of a bank been charged of manslaughter.

MarkyMarkD

Missing 3 DD payments isn't a reason for any bank to withdraw an overdraft facility, IMHO. It's how they make money out of you! Do you have no other debts?

squashy

When i worked for NBS they used to offer a reducing overdraft to make it more manageable. Ring and ask about this I would say.

cifpower

squashy wrote: »

When i worked for NBS they used to offer a reducing overdraft to make it more manageable. Ring and ask about this I would say.

I think this is the route to go down. Ask if you can have the overdraft reduced every month by around £50 so you are not left in financial hardship.