How do you use your overdraft?

[TTCabundle]

I dont have one. I definitely wouldn't trust myself lol. I get into such a mess with things like that! x

 

[Pearls18]

Could you look into a new credit card to do an interest free balance transfer for x amount of months? Tesco have 29 months at the moment, can't remember the fee. It isn't a good idea to just keep the overdraft, you should look into the cheapest way of paying it off

 

[blueskai]

That's a really good idea MW, I've never had a credit card or anything so have no idea how it works but I'll suggest it to OH as a way to reduce it.

xo

 

[Mummy Bean]

Ive always had a large overdraft (like £2k) which I lived in, so decided to pay it back by every month when I got paid I was reduce the O/D amount by £100. now it just £250 which is used when OH gets paid late or for extra circumstances (but I also have a couple of credit cards to).

 

[blueskai]

That's exactly what I hoped to do, reduce it by £50-£100 each month. Are banks usually pretty flexible with you doing that?

Defo gonna look into the credit card idea

xo

 

[BellaBoo0512]

Me and OH have an overdraft of £1,800 on the joint account. It was intended to be there for emergencies... Then OH was made redundant in 2011 and we ended up living off the overdraft. That was 2 and a half years ago and we aren't in a position to pay it off. We get charged £1 a day for using it. Hopefully when I find a job we will be able to slowly pay it off!

 

[freckleonear]

Hubby and I didn't have overdrafts for years, but we decided to get one after mistakenly being charged twice for an expensive purchase and incurring unarranged overdraft fees. Mine is usually set at £100 and never more than £300 to ensure that I can always be out of the overdraft the next month. I can change my limit online very easily.

 

[Noodlebear]

I don't have one, OH does and will sometimes dip into it but never enough so that it wouldn't be paid off after being better behaved for a month or two and it's never been a problem for us.

 

[bumpy_j]

I'm in it pretty often, but not by more than about £60.

 

[Rhio92]

I've got a £350 one, but hardly ever use it, and if I do, it's not by a lot, and is only for a few days x

 

[dgirllamius]

I'm currently paying off my student overdraft. Its set to 1600 and I've paid off like 250 so far. I pay off about 50 a month (about 20 of that is interest and charges). I also do surveys that payout cash and use that to pay some off too (I usually get 40 payout every 2 months or so every little helps).

I don't have one on my account here. They're nothing but trouble (and even so, I have gone over before but they charge you like 1 euro for it rather than the £40 I got charged for going 1p over....yeah 1p!!!!)

 

[catty]

Its a bit depressing when you get paid and you still have minus money!
Its funny I applied my overdraft online and got £950, then when I wanted to pay it off in full I jad to go through a fraud team. They want you to stay in debt.

 

[maryp0ppins]

Ive got a 2200 one that I occasionally use.
I got the letter too, it claims its a simpler way to work out your charges hah, what the fail to mention is that they will make more money.

 

[mummylove]

We live in ohs but want to get it off soon as but its like 2 grand. So going to put money in a tin and safe it up and get it paid back

 

[RaspberryK]

We have an overdraft facility of £500 which we dip into once or twice a month. It's handy as sometimes we don't get paid from dh jobs on time and the mortgage etc come out in the first week of the month.
It would be dangerous for us to have a larger overdraft because we would definitely live in it.
Xx

 

[Mummy May]

I have one of £150 which I usually fall into at the end of the month - I get paid weekly and all my bills come out at once lol! OH lives in his, but that will be paid off in a couple of weeks when he gets his tax return - he will then be reducing it down probably to the same as mine - I also got the letter! xx

 

[Vicyi]

I used to be in it alot when DD1 was little. When i was expecting DS i got a letter saying they were going to charge me £1 a day for being in it so i went right back to basics, cut out any luxuries ect for a few months and paid it off completely. Its now been coming up to 4.5years and ive only ever dipped into it once (by a few £s) and made sure it was paid off by the end of the day so i wouldnt have to pay the fee. I know its only £1 but i resent paying it for the sake of a fiver!
OH on the other hand is still in his. He pays a monthly 'fee' to get the first £300 interest free (sounds odd to pay to get something free but it works out cheaper that way.) We will be finished paying off his loan next month so will crack on with getting him out of his overdraft too.

 

[blueskai]

See I'd rather just have a smallish one that we only need in emergencies, not just living in it full stop it really feels like the money isn't ours, because if we were to close the account we'd need to pay it all back and we'd have nothing! OH can't seem to see that though.

Defo gonna have to do something before June anyway before these charges change.

xo

 

[Rachel_C]

I had one from when I was a student. I didn't need it as a student but I used to take out the max amount as it was free and put it into savings - only a few pounds in interest but better than nothing. I did use the overdraft for our wedding though, which was when I stopped being a student. After that, I just stayed in it but wasn't increasing it. When they started charging interest I decided to pay it off so I opened a new current account and had my income paid into that, then each month I paid off some of the overdraft each month. It was only by keeping the money separate and not using the card from my account with the overdraft that I was able to start paying it off.

 

[Becky61]

I qouted rather than edited... See below...

Sorry!! X