I used to have a £1000 overdraft on my halifax ultimate reward current account thingy.

Now that ive officially "enrolled" online for my course and have had the letter, at the beginning of last week i went to bank and swapped for a student account as Im starting my degree soon. I specifically asked to keep my overdraft in place as i have parts i need to buy .

Guess what fucking happens today??? go to withdraw money and find i have £35 available to withdraw when i should have more like £850!!

I ring the bank and ask whats going on and they tell me that when i transfered to a student account my overdraft was "reviewed" and was reduced to the standard £100 "buffer"!! WTF They said i was sent a letter on 26th august about my overdraft and the changes to take place on 1st sep 09!!!!!

Not only have i not recieved this letter yet (probably cunts at royal mail striking round here and bank holiday) but 5 fucking days notice that your loosing £900 is bit short notice!!!!!

To say im VERY pissed off is an understatement!!

I asked over the phone if i could reapply for an overdraft and they said that as my overdraft has just been reviewed, i cant reapply for 3 months!!! I also asked if i can retransfer back to a current account and get overdraft back that way and I cant do that as my circumstances have changed so i wouldnt get an overdraft anyway



Had i known they were going to cancel overdraft i wouldnt have changed account!!! and would still have had an overdraft!!!

Anyone else had these bank cunts do similar to them???

 

no. not me.

 

bad luck m8.

 

Why not just take an overdraft out on the Student account?

I had an overdraft of £1250 on my Natwest Student account in my first year of uni

 

erm thats what i thought id done when i transfered accounts fiend!!! I was under the impression the overdraft would have been transferred to the student account!!!

 

Threaten to move to another bank and then you'll have your overdraft back in no time

 

My other half was with Halifax until they did the same to her. She wasn't using the overdraft but had a plan to use it in the near future, lo and behold, Halifax said they'd be changing the overdraft to 1/3 of what it used to be.

Mrs told them to shove it, and promptly changed banks, leaving Halifax begging not to lose her business.

 

So if i go in branch and threaten to leave they will give me my overdraft back????

And if not will another bank "just" give a new customer a £1000 overdraft????? Especially as im becoming a student etc.

 

Halifax are easy to 'Threaten' as such. I've had a bank charge removed because I refused to leave the store.

Benni.

 

I had never had an account with Natwest before I became a student and opened a student account with them.

They gave me a £1250 overdraft straight away, which increased to £1400 in my second year.

 

I don't really understand it. You're not loosing it as its not your money in the first place, surely its up to the bank weather they decide to lend you £900 of their money isn't it?

 

go and find a bank that will give you the overdraft
then go into the branch and ask to speak to their manager and explain that bank x has agree'd to give you a much larger over draft facility and that you would like a cheque for the full amount of your bank account to be written so that you can put the money into the new account

don't close the account as they'll still be spending omney sending you letters etc telling you you've got a balance of £0.00p

 

sell me your puma that will sort you out

 

Halifax are great for it..... purely my own fault one year but went overdrawn on too many occasions for their liking and had a few charges here and there...... I sold my house in the October and paid in £13k........ in the November they "reviewed" my account and knocked my account down from a switch to a solo account.... no cheque book, no nothing....... even when I paid nearly double in to the account the following month due to an inheritence..... I still had to wait 6 months for them to "review" and reinstate my account.....

Banks are banks, and they're wank....

 

like said above m8,threaten to take your business elsewhere.my missus has said to natwest over 6 times about their bank charges we never knew we were getting till they were gone etc etc and they upped her overdraft from 50-250,then up upto 950 progressivaly

 

They done that to me a few years ago!!! Back in 1999 I was earning under the £1000 a month take home limit to keep a current account so they cancelled my account for a solo card account!!! Took 2 years to get it back!!

Yes i am loosing money because i was living in the overdraft What dont you understand???

Youd be pretty pissed off if they cancelled your mortgage and demanded £80k or threw you on the street wouldnt you?? Im sure most people with credit cards would be pretty upset if the card got cancelled suddenly and the bank cleared thier account out to pay it off without permission.

I dont see the difference here. I had an agreement which they terminated with NO notice. you cant reasonably expect someone to suddenly be able to absorb a £900 bill suddenly one month with no notice.... even seriously well off people can rarely afford that.

Had they given notice like 3 months your overdraft will expire, then fair enough.

yes technically all credit agreements state how they can terminate it with no notice etc but nobody can reasonably expect that to happen or you would never take out a loan/credit agreement as you could never afford to just in case they took the money back off you.

 

I have 4 student overdrafts,

 

Why did you change over to a student account? what's the benefit over the previous account you had?.

I suspect that as you changed accounts then you had NO agreement with them for a 1k overdraft as that was on the previous account,
Just go to another bank and leave the Halifax because i would be very surprised if they give you that overdraft back

 

They did this to me before 2 days before i was due to go on holiday. I went into the bank and spoke with the manager who was a stuck up fucker, he simply said we dont have to tell you and the truth is they dont!! I went mental and took every penny out of my bank there and then and told them to stick it up there arse whilst telling everyone else in the bank what was happening.

I would go to Natwest and speak to them, best of a bad bunch.

 

FFS

I love the way people keep knocking banks all the time.

IF when you applied for the account and someone said unequivably that you will keep your normal overdraft then fine, go kick up a stink shout and moan and you might get somewhere.

But lets put the senario into another light shall we which may explain their actions...

You have informed the bank that you are now a student.

Student = Out of full time work and is now on an irregular income.

So if you had a mate who you knew earned x amount for sure and was good for money and one day turned round and said "Shit, my car has just blown up and I'm short by 100, can you spot me a ton until I get paid next week?

More than likely or not you would go sure, here is 100. Because you know you will get the money back.

Now same situation, but you know the guy isn't in regular work and the risk that they will give you the money back is a lot higher.

Would you give them the money?

No you wouldn't.

Its the same deal with the bank, your going from a normal account with a regular income which you have proved your ability to repay a 1000 overdraft to the bank to a student account, which will probably impact your ability to repay. So can you really honestly expect them to still give you the same amount of cash on an account that charges 17% per annum??

Seriously think about it.

Oh and if your a part time student, then technically you don't qualify for a student account, which is something the account opener should have checked.

 

Why did you change to a student account?

Id be very suprised if they HAD actually given you a 1k overdraft on a student account, but ive never had a student account so wouldnt really know anyway!

Halifax are wank though, just go to Natwest.

And yes, Natwest seem to just automatically up your overdraft for you.
When i was on an irregular income they wouldnt give me an overdraft at all.
I needed to buy a car a few years ago and a £1.5k cheque wasnt going to clear intime so they agreed to an overdraft to cover it. Since then its risen to over £2k. Think its about £2250 now.

 

not good, but doesnt it say in the small print they can cancell an overdraft and demand all money owed back without notice? im pretty sure it does.

 

Yeah thats pretty standard procedure across the board really. Hence you should never rely on it regularly, just once in a blue moon if you are in the shit. Although if you are paying the interest charges then I don't see why they would!

 

From the first post i don think Warren owes it back yet, but he was planning on using it.

 

But from his 4th post, he says he lives in his overdraft

 

oh, never mind then!!

 

Madmac I do have a regular income and will do throughout my studies and its a £640 a month pension The student accounts are advertised with an overdraft of £1k in first year mostly. They are fully aware that in essence im only down £300 a month on now assuming i dont get a part time job. Plus in your example, if youve loaned a mate £1000 and you heard hes just lost his job, you wouldnt go and rob it out of his assets straight away would you??

Just them being cunts IMO.

Im not a part time student - i quit full time work and start uni the following day

 

I cant understand why people get an overdraft to live in, I always thought an overdraft as an emergency loan/benefit
Surely a few months of pennt pinching to get in the black, then another couple of creating a buffer in your account.
I only have an overdraft of £300 which I have never used, and been careful enough with my money to have a grand buffer, ie when my account goes down to £1000 I say to myself I am skint,
That way if I get hit with a big bill or summat equally shit, there is no major stress or panic in funding the fucker.

 

Some people have no option!! When you're sensible with your money yet your outgoings exceed your incomings then sometimes an overdraft is the only option, and getting out of it is difficult. After Uni I spent a good few years living in my overdraft. After a while you think of it as 'your' money.

The only way I got out was to ask the bank to reduce the limit by £50 per month, thus 'forcing' me out.

 

Yeah, that's a great idea. They'll ask him to replay his overdraft in full.

 

My overdraft was 3K as a student 2.5K interest free

 

Its a hang over from being unemployed for 8 months where i needed the overdraft to survive!!! I was mostly out of the overdraft anyway (and was in the black every pay day as well), but i needed the overdraft for parts to get car on road - ie unexpected costs. Not everyone has loads of money to save to have a big savings account for "rainy days".

Its already repaid in full as i got paid on 28th and overdraft expired at midnight 31st and they just took the money. Just means the cunts took almost all of my £980 wages

Had i recieved the letter i would have emptied the account and gone else where then offered them £50 a month

 

You NEEDED parts to get car on the road? IMO if your unemployed, in your overdraft, then spending money on cossie bits probably isn't the best idea......

 

yeah ditto that.

I didnt work for 7 months after i lost my job in 2005 but rather than claim JSA/dole/benefits or whatever it is i just ran up a huge overdraft.

 

It is their money though!

Agree it's a bit harsh not to notify you.

 

im not unemployed for 2 weeks rich

When i become a student i will have a basic income of £1150 a month so why shouldnt i spend money on getting my car back on the road?? especially considering its cheaper to commute to uni in my car than public transport!!

 

The best thing to do is to go into a local branch and speak to someone in authority, senior customer advisor or even manager

tell them your situation and explain that you need the overdraft facility restored for a SHORT period of time

you've got to offer them an insentive to give you the overdraft back; so my advise would be to ask for a reducing overdraft. say you can afford to pay back £100.00 off the overdraft each month, so next month it will be £900 overdraft, £800 the following month and so on.

the thing to remember with overdrafts is that they are only meant as a temporary measure and are not to be lived in

Matt

 

You thought you needed the overdraft to survive, because you spent your way into it, I very much doubt it would have been needed had you tightened up on your spending from the day you went unemployed, Its a shit thing to do but you gotta make some sacrifices.
Its not about having loads of money either, its about not spunking your money away and cutting costs to get yourself back on track financially.

Years ago when I was young and daft I went through periods where I had a 10er to last me a week, 7p packets of supernoodles and corporation pop was my menu for the week, wank way of life but i sacrificed so I dont go there again.

 

You having a laugh??? when i was unemployed i had a £700 a month mortgage and earnings from pension of £640 a month (wasnt entitled to benefits)..... do the math, im already £60 a month in red without spending a penny on bills, food etc And your saying i shouldnt have used the overdraft??? and what?? not pay mortgage and be homeless by now??

Id already gone from using ALL the overdraft each month to using only half of it on living costs but unexpected costs for my car meant it made good "short term" sense to use the overdraft to fix car and pay off overdraft a bit each month (like i already had been doing).

I dont consider that particularly poor financial planning expecially considering ive paid off a £3500 credit card in 6 months of work which is pretty good going shame i cancelled the card otherwise it would have been useful now

 

i dont know your person circumstances but needing to borrow just to live is only posponing the enevitable and running up a credit card is only going to make it worse when the shit does hit the fan. best without the card since youve cancelled it.