Overdraft-should I refinance with loan?

Hi

Just wondering if anyone can give me some advice.

My bank account is with AIB and my account is always overdrawn. A few years back I got an overdraft limit of €1000 agreed. But I used it up in a few months, with the result now that my account is always in overdraft for the full €1K. It clears every time i get paid, but it is always ran back up to the 1k in no length of time, due to all the bills hitting

I was just wondering if I would be better off getting a loan and paying the overdraft off. It just seems that I am always getting letters about bank account charges and interest been debited to my account.

Would my best option be to get a loan to clear the overdraft and move my banking to permanent tsb who offer free banking? any advice??

Sorry for such the long winded post.

Regards,
Casperjack

Re: Overdraft

What period whould you be thinking about paying off the loan?

If you can borrow €1000 and pay it off over a year, it's probably a good idea, but ONLY if you are confident that you are in a position to meet the loan repayments and your day-to-day living expenses out of your income. You should only see this as a one-off, and if necessary, review your situation to ensure that you do not find yourself in this position again.

I would advise to borrow over the shortest possible period as it does not make good financial sense to finance day-to-day or routine expenses with medium term debt.

For a list of the more competitive loan rates in the market at the moment, check out the link in my signature. I also discussed a product from AIB in this thread at the weekend-a Masterplan-it might be worth investigating.

Wrt to moving from AIB to ptsb, sure, if you feel that ptsb will offer more for less or you are not happy with the level of service provided by ptsb.

I was in the exact same position as you a few months ago - now my account is 1000 in credit all the time -

I just really cut back on the spending - I did out a budget for myself with an allowance of 200 every week. ( I was really strick - but had to do it to sort myself out...) I had to buy the weekly shopping, put petrol in the car etc with the 200 - which I took out every sunday evening and left the card at home to avoid any temptations!

It worked for me - It was hard going for the 1st week or so but I got into the routine of making my lunch for work - shopping around for deals for the groceries.

It took me only 2 months to get on track.... worth a try.