Do banks forget about overdrafts
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Abandon
Posts: 49 Forumite
Hi all,
So basically I was in a lot of debt from gambling, including an overdraft of 5k. Total debts were £13k. I went into a DMB and the interest was frozen on the bank account but it remained open. I screwed up several times, at one point I has the overdraft down to £3k but I used it for gambling and it maxed out, and I didn't pay anything into it for a while. In my despair I abandoned the DMB but did keep paying minimums myself and to the credit cards and loans.
Fast forward to now, I'm 18 months gambling free, got every possible block in place to stop my gambling (gamstop, physical bans from every casino in UK, my partner controls my bank account), and a much better paying job. I have started making serious inroads into the debt, paying £400 a month and I'm now 10 months until I'm debt free. I've got the overdraft down to 4k now, and to my enormous surprise I'm still not being charged interest and the bank have never contacted me, despite my terrible behaviour in continuing to use it for gambling whilst in a DMP.
My dilemma is, I have higher interest debts that I should pay first, leaving the overdraft til last (I pay £50 a month on now so it looks like it's not forgotten) but I'm terrified the bank will contact me and add on years of interest.
Should I concentrate on the overdraft just to get rid of it, or should I leave it until last (I absolutely will pay it all back). I don't want to contact the bank to ask what's happening, as I'm scared of poking your bear. Do you think they might have forgotten me or is that nonsense?
So basically I was in a lot of debt from gambling, including an overdraft of 5k. Total debts were £13k. I went into a DMB and the interest was frozen on the bank account but it remained open. I screwed up several times, at one point I has the overdraft down to £3k but I used it for gambling and it maxed out, and I didn't pay anything into it for a while. In my despair I abandoned the DMB but did keep paying minimums myself and to the credit cards and loans.
Fast forward to now, I'm 18 months gambling free, got every possible block in place to stop my gambling (gamstop, physical bans from every casino in UK, my partner controls my bank account), and a much better paying job. I have started making serious inroads into the debt, paying £400 a month and I'm now 10 months until I'm debt free. I've got the overdraft down to 4k now, and to my enormous surprise I'm still not being charged interest and the bank have never contacted me, despite my terrible behaviour in continuing to use it for gambling whilst in a DMP.
My dilemma is, I have higher interest debts that I should pay first, leaving the overdraft til last (I pay £50 a month on now so it looks like it's not forgotten) but I'm terrified the bank will contact me and add on years of interest.
Should I concentrate on the overdraft just to get rid of it, or should I leave it until last (I absolutely will pay it all back). I don't want to contact the bank to ask what's happening, as I'm scared of poking your bear. Do you think they might have forgotten me or is that nonsense?
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Comments
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Sorry not ten months til I'm debt free, I meant I could pay the overdraft in ten months. I'm about 18 months til gamble free.0
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Hi all,
So basically I was in a lot of debt from gambling, including an overdraft of 5k. Total debts were £13k. I went into a DMB and the interest was frozen on the bank account but it remained open. I screwed up several times, at one point I has the overdraft down to £3k but I used it for gambling and it maxed out, and I didn't pay anything into it for a while. In my despair I abandoned the DMB but did keep paying minimums myself and to the credit cards and loans.
Fast forward to now, I'm 18 months gambling free, got every possible block in place to stop my gambling (gamstop, physical bans from every casino in UK, my partner controls my bank account), and a much better paying job. I have started making serious inroads into the debt, paying £400 a month and I'm now 10 months until I'm debt free. I've got the overdraft down to 4k now, and to my enormous surprise I'm still not being charged interest and the bank have never contacted me, despite my terrible behaviour in continuing to use it for gambling whilst in a DMP.
My dilemma is, I have higher interest debts that I should pay first, leaving the overdraft til last (I pay £50 a month on now so it looks like it's not forgotten) but I'm terrified the bank will contact me and add on years of interest.
Should I concentrate on the overdraft just to get rid of it, or should I leave it until last (I absolutely will pay it all back). I don't want to contact the bank to ask what's happening, as I'm scared of poking your bear. Do you think they might have forgotten me or is that nonsense?
Pay off the highest interest debts first.
You're living in lala-land if you think they'll have forgotten you.
Just pay them less in the interim.0 -
The moment you “miss” a payment will be the moment you get a letter drop on your doorstep a few days later.0
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Personally I can't see much point in contacting the bank - if you're paying the overdraft off at a slow rate of £50/month then you're not completely ignoring it and they can see some token progress, so if you continue with that then that should reduce the chances of them withdrawing the facility altogether, which they can theoretically do at any time, demanding repayment in full.My dilemma is, I have higher interest debts that I should pay first, leaving the overdraft til last (I pay £50 a month on now so it looks like it's not forgotten) but I'm terrified the bank will contact me and add on years of interest.
Should I concentrate on the overdraft just to get rid of it, or should I leave it until last (I absolutely will pay it all back). I don't want to contact the bank to ask what's happening, as I'm scared of poking your bear. Do you think they might have forgotten me or is that nonsense?
Seems to me that the balanced approach of servicing all debts with at least minimum repayments, while throwing most at the highest interest ones first, is the most sensible.0 -
You're dealing with it the right way (highest interest first), but they won't forget the debts. As long as you keep paying the minimums they're perfectly happy - in fact, they'd quite like you to keep doing that as it means more money for them in the long-run.0
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I think the OP is more worried that they will get hit with back-dated interest if the bank suddenly realise that the interest is still frozen, rather than hoping the bank will forget about the debt completely.0
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Hi Abandon and welcome to the forum
Congratulations on being gamble-free for 18 months. That represents a significant achievement. And well done too on making such good progress on your debt-busting journey.
If it were me, I would start a debt snowball rolling, probably focussing my initial attention on to the overdraft, as the facility can be withdrawn at any time without notice. I work within the voluntary sector, supporting vulnerable people to rebuild their lives.
I love my job
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SuperAllyB is spot on, I will 100% repay this overdraft, but ideally I would rather pay the high interest debts first. My fear is the bank realise it's been interest free for four or five years now and add one a pile of fees.0
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