Jerome

Would this stuff anyone else up?

It certainly has screwed me for the next few weeks - assuming they won't back down.

I'm not exactly a paragon of virtue when it comes to financial planning, bouncing the odd standing order here and there, but this seems nothing short of spiteful.

I hate banks.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Try a new bank in the short term. They may be prepared to be more generous than your current one.

In the long term, well....you know what I am going to say.....living in debt is a risky business, you have little to fall back on when circumstances change. Easy for me to say, maybe much harder for you to sort out

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I would be gutted if they cut my ten grand credit zone !

Moonloops

Overdrafts unless for a business that needs it for cash flow reasons

turboman786

Overdrafts are pointless for individuals, a very costly way of borrowing, and only to be used once in a blue moon IMHO.........I shudder to think that many (most?) people live in the red day in, day out...

Jerome

Update:

After a phone call they have agreed to let me gradually reduce the overdraft. I planned to get rid of the virtually free overdraft anyway, I just had other things I wanted to get rid of first.

Deffo going to change the credit card to another bank and then pay off everything else before changing banks. Shame, because until now they have been pretty good. At this rate I'll run out of banks or have to decide which of my previous banks narked me off the least.

I still hate banks.

dicky ticker

when i changed to alliance and leicester and they asked me how big an overdraft i wanted. i never use one so they gave me a £1900 which equated to my outgoings

Trout

iTrader: (1)

So you rely on spending someone else's money and actually go as far as trying to spend even more than they have offered and then you hate them because they ask for it back!!

Yes, that makes sense.

logiclee

Nope, never had one, I'm 38.

I've had car loans and bits on credit cards but try not to have any balance on the cards I can't pay off that month. Probably the biggest length of time I've used a credit card to pay off a debt is 3 months.

Can't afford it dont buy. Why work hard to earn money only to pay interest?

I have and will buy things on 0% finance as long as I'm not paying for the finance in the price. If they can match the cheapest price and offer 0% then I'll have it.

Cheers
Lee

SteveScooby

iTrader: (2)

They can cancel it immediately if they want so they've been more generous than they have to be already

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Ah to be debt free Cant say i have been a financal genius in my younger days but finally paid off my credit case and 7K bank loan in feb and cant tell you how good it feels to not owe anything after six years of borrowing

B9GLY

think people should think of the younger generation more when they say you shouldnt borrow any money, credit cards, loans, overdrafts etc etc, it is very difficult, if not impossible for some people to just buy a house these days never mind buy thing for it! sometimes you need to take credit, say if the boiler packs in or your car breaks down!

SlimJ_2005

Never touched my overdraft since I've had an account, pay off credit card on time every month, try and live within my means, if I cant afford it I don't buy it... simple!

I have a student loan at the moment as I'm a mature student (27), but thats all in a high interest account earning good interest... thankyou very much for the cheap loan

Leslie

Isn't that how the banks make their enormous profits though?

Les

GrahamG

I know the feeling! i had 8k car loan for about 4 years. Not paying that anymore is lovely. Only DD is my phone and Sky!

dsmith

maybe "younger" people should stop pissing their money away on beer/cars/holidays/ipods/plasma TVs etc etc and actualy save a) for a house and b) for "a rainy day".

Constantly amazes me how much conusmer spending is done by people who swear they cant afford a house.

RB5_245

Sounds like a miserable existence to me. I'll stick with my Ipods and beer cheers

Jerome

I normally don't use an overdraft, but the bank offered me one that was a very cheap way of getting a temporary loan. I had planned to reduce it anyway, I just hadn't got round to it as I've had a few large outgoings recently that have delayed paying it off.

I know they can recall it at any time, but to start calling in an overdraft because of the bouncing of a couple of small standing orders seemed a bit excessive.

I also find some peoples "holier than thou" attitude to financial planning repugnant. I know I'm crap with money, and I know banks make more out of me than these financial paragons of virtue. This doesn't bother me that much because I know I could change it if I wanted to. We can't all be perfect in every aspect of our lives. I've got more important things to be doing than sums.

logiclee

I agree to some degree but when I got married and moved into our home we had an old banger, a second hand sofa, a portable TV and the old carpets and curtains from the previous owners.

My nephew has just moved into his new place with his girlfriend and they have bought all new furniture, top spec leather sofa's, plasma, home cinema setup etc. etc. all on finance and buy now pay later.
It's just a different culture for the twenty somethings, my nephew just laughs if you mention pensions, investment or saving.
His idea of financial planning is who's got the best credit card deal.

Cheers
Lee

NotoriousREV

I went through this a few years back. It was a nightmare, got the same agreement as you: they would "manage" the debt down monthly. This was a joint account which we stopped paying money into and the bank set up a standing order from another account which they also held of ours. On several occasions, they cancelled the SO, or simply didn't take the money, added a £50 charge and threatened to demand the payment in full each month. That was a stressful year, especially as the whole thin had been kicked off by me being made redundant!

Sorted it after a while, but don't expect your bank to be honest or do you any favours, keep on top of it the whole time.

Diesel

Because by the time you have saved enough money to buy it, it will have gone up in price!

I joke, but there is some truth in that unless buying computers/blu ray players mind!

D

AllanB

The only money I've ever borrowed was my mortgage and a few things bought on creidt card. Never had an overdraft and even paid for my brand new Impreza by saving up for it. OK I have to wait longer to get things but I appreciate them and have none of the guilty feelings about can I afford / repay it.

If I do use credit cards as I used to I only buy what I can afford and always use one with a zero interest rate. After a big reoganisation at work my wages dropped a lot leaving me with a shortfall on my credit cards which was cleared by making sure I was not paying any interest by moving the balance. Its amazingl how quickly this clears that cards as lng as the money you save on interest is used to pay the balance.

Glad you got it sorted.


AllanB

StickyMicky

Over drafts have came in quite handy for me after setting up the business and i was regularly into the business one for the first 2 years.

when i was young and foolish i got into quite stupid amounts of debt for no real reason at all, although i seam to be a lot more responsible nowadays and i even have a small savings account accumulating goodness

Trout

iTrader: (1)

There is only truth in that if you ignore the 'total cost of credit' calculations

Inflation would have to run pretty high to make it cheaper to buy now rather than later.

When you are saving, compounding of interest works for you, when you get a loan it works against you.

With a car loan over four years you will not actually start paying off the loan itself until the end of the first year!

Nimbus

Sounds like the same situation when we bought our first house. We had an old portable balanced on some cardboard boxes for ages. No curtains (though the previous owners had left the blinds) and pretty much nothing else in the house. The only thing we bought new when we moved in was a double bed . It was a couple of years before we actually bought a new sofa, dinning table etc.

hades

Another snet sweeping generalisation which is not necessarily true. As my overdraft facility is charged at 0%, and I can put money into e.g. the mortgage offset account where it saves me 5.85%, mine is far from pointless or costly. I try to keep my current account balance around £0, knowing the overdraft will sometimes get used, as it makes financial sense for me to do so.

munna

been there,,,been in debt(Bigstyle)sold the house,to pay my debts off,moved in with my mum,now back at the begining of the property ladder!!

told my bank that if they increase my credit card limit(£500) i will burn down the branch!,also my overdraft(£250)i will burn down the branch!

i even warned them of letters tempting me!,to the point where i said that i will take out a massive loan with them and declare my self bankrupt(so they lose every penny that i borrowed!!)

did the trick...no more temptation from Barclays Bank Plc!!

as before,i live within my means now,even if i max out my credit card,it can be payed off the month after,its such a nice feeling,ok still crap knowing that i cannot just go out and but a new tv,but hey aleast i no longer have the sleepless nights and the long hours at work trying to pay off my stupidity!!