The fact that a friend has text me saying 'Can I assume that with no blog in a week you can't afford the railcard to work?' kind of suggests I have neglected this getting out of debt mission.
To fill you in, things are definitely not that bad! I'm still here, I can afford to top up my Oyster card and eat... and yes, I have neglected my mission a bit (and you lovely readers with your tips. Thanks!).
By the way, throughout my blog, if I say I can 'afford' something, what I mean is: I have access to credit. I guess 'Diary of Young Debtor' makes that clear to you, you're not stupid, but I am still trying to get this to sink into my own brain.
I need to remind myself I don't have any money as that makes it much easier to feel good about spending as little as possible. The less I spend, the closer I am to maybe one day owning something. My debt is not a meaningless number, which is what it started to seem like when I lost control of my finances a bit. It is real.
So, enough of stating the obvious. Since my last blog I decided I would, as well as transferring my credit card debt from HSBC to Barclaycard Platinum's 0% interest offer, switch my current account from HSBC to Santander's Preferred Account interest free overdraft offering.
Since starting my mission I have found HSBC's online banking really helpful (now that I'm actually bothering to look at it, it doesn't take much time at all) and I have had no problem with HSBC, but I was enticed by an offer of 'up to £2,500' interest-free overdraft and £100 if I switched to Santander. Sounds great. Why not?
So I applied, quite excited by the prospect of not having to pay interest on my £1,500 overdraft with HSBC anymore or fees for going over that by a bit before pay day.
I knew Santander's interest-free offering would last only a year, and that the fees for going over the overdraft limit were a terrifying 50p per day, but I'm going to be out of debt in a year, right? So, that is no problem. This is just going to speed it up a bit as I won't be paying interest any more...
Well, no. Not really. Thankfully I didn't get as far as switching my salary over or all of my standing orders (although bizarrely half moved over and half didn't), because when details of my account came through in the post the overdraft Santander had given me was in fact only £500. It also said in the small print that they were increasing the 50p charge to £1 a day if you go over the overdraft limit, which, if it is only £500, not the £2,500 or so I was hoping for, will be all the time in my case.
I wanted to phone them up immediately and cancel the switch, and did try to, but I couldn't use their telephone banking service because I didn't have the pin which they sent in the post with me at the time. So, I left it for a while (see what I mean about neglecting my mission a bit?).
When I say I left it a while, I mean I still have a Santander account a week later, even though the whole process has irritated me...
....When I phoned Santander up to cancel switching the first thing I got was an automated message pointing out that if I was calling about the £100 they enticed me to join with, I won't get it for at least three months and then it is subject to their conditions. I didn't move specifically for £100. I'm not disappointed by that so much. It's just not a very encouraging welcome. 'Welcome to Santander. What we offer isn't quite as good as it seems...'
... And I have been bombarded with bumph through the post, including so many passcodes that when I tried to use online banking it took me a while to find the right bits of paper and then figure out what code was what. Regardless, the codes they have sent me don't work so I have had to request new ones in the post and can't use internet banking in the meantime. And in the meantime, I have had one of my standing orders go out of both bank accounts (this is not progress!).
... And I just hate the idea of not being able to speak to my bank on the phone without some overly-long and unrememberable telephone banking code, which I will inevitably one day lose, to hand. It gives me bad vibes!
So I phoned HSBC and asked them if they can get my standing orders back from Santander. A very polite and helpful girl on the end of the phone (good vibes! Very good vibes. New-favourite-person-in-the-world-vibes) - said that if mean old Santander won't let them take the standing orders back she can send me forms to do it that way.
Why do I still have a Santander account? After leaving it a while, I decided I might as well keep it open for the £500 interest-free overdraft as back-up. 'Decided' is a strong word. Maybe I am just kidding myself that I have made a decision here, when actually I have just carried on with two bank accounts. But it hasn't gone too badly...
As for the interest I'm paying with HSBC, someone suggested on my previous blog post that I try and get another 0% interest credit card. I'll see if I can...
