Should I pay off my overdrafts ?

SnifferUK

Hi

First time poster so be gentle....

Basically, I've accepted that I'm overspending and in the early stages of potentially getting myself onto a slippery slope. The good news is I've recognised this and am busily sorting out my credit card debt into manageable chunks at 0% via bank transfers etc.

I'm pretty well paid so it's more of a sorting out my spending/saving habits (at this stage anyway - I think I've caught it early before I did start to get in trouble) out rather than alarm bells going crazy.

However, between my wife and I we have £7K agreed overdrafts on our Halifax High Interest Current accounts which we are using to the full (although having high interest accounts is pointless as more than half the time we're in the red !).

The question is should I incorporate these overdrafts into the first phase of my debt recovery plan and also transfer to a 0% card or leave these until all my credit card's are sorted (if at all !).

Obviously if I paid the overdrafts off then I'd have to cancel them (is that possible with the banks?) so that the temptation was not there to just dip into them and get back on the slippery slope......

Any advice/guidance VERY gratefully received...

Thanks

GeorgeUK

You have made a good start, but i think you need to be careful here. You say you have recently transferred to 0% deals. You can usually have about 3 credit checks within 6 months before your credit score is affected. I'd check your file (free at experian if you cancel within 30 days) to see how many have been made recently. You may not want to get any new cards for a while.

What is the APR of the overdraft?

SnifferUK

Thanks for the quick response.

As far as I'm aware I believe the rates are 1.24% per month (15.9% EAR)as they're arranged overdrafts.

Sounds like I should possibly wait until my CCs are more manageable (or gone completely) before I worry about overdrafts ?

Bismarck

depends how long the CCs will take to sort out as the APR on the overdrafts isn't great....need to know the extent of the CC issue to advise any more really....