so you’ve spent your £500 overdraft , do you get to keep the £500 in your goal ( on a sliding amount not earning interest ) until your overdraft becomes due ?
or is your goal amount reduced as you spend your “overdraft” ?
I presume it doesnt reduce ? - if it does get reduced from your goal as you spend your “overdraft”, its not really an overdraft you’re spending but your own money isn’t it ?
not trying to be belligerent, never having used the Starling overdraft facility, just trying to understand it
The fact Ian has managed to ask so many questions about 1 topic just highlights the fact it is more confusing, and people are going to get confused.
Like I’ve said in a previous post, this will only be compounded when Starling introduce third party integrations that do not offer this facility, and people are upset that their holding with Nutmeg doesn’t help with their overdraft fees.
hopefully Im just being stupid and people are far more financially aware than myself , but I just cannot understand the workings of having an overdraft thats “free” when you have money in your account (goal ) that you have saved for some future expense that you could use instead and forgo the treat / bill etc - to me as Ive hopefully said above it just seems to be leading the less financially aware (myself ??? ) into a potential debt spiral of “free” money which will bite when unexpected bills arrive
Where has starling said about integrating into goals? Thus far they’ve done it via market place.
I think the conclusion is, if you find % and offsets confusing, then a daily fee is right for you and therefore you have chosen bank correctly. If u understand % and offsets and lowers fees…then you have also chosen the right bank. So we all win.
If we are after simplicity, why not charge everyone 50p per day, regardless of balance? That’s the easiest! (and it actually makes more sense than charging for overdraft if your account balance is positive…)
so you don’t get charged for not having an overdraft in effect ? and by that, your money is blocked in your goal if you spend your “overdraft” which isn’t really an overdraft until you run out of your money at which point Starling charge you for an overdraft ?
that is very true , and they don’t get charged any fees because they haven’t used it, its a very useful security backstop if there is too much month left at the end of the money
Hi That’s a good question, Ian.
If I look at my home screen at this minute, I see a +ve balance. In addition, though, I have twice that amount sat in a goal. The only place the total account balance is shown is in the statement.
To your question though : I’m reading it as what happens to the £500 in the goal if I start to spend the overdraft?
Intuitively, as there is no trigger in the system to release goal money back into use once £0 has been reached in the main account, I’m thinking the overdraft would kick in. The conundrum appears to be whether any costs would accrue whilst there are funds sat in the goal.
So…I’ve just revisited the Starling threads relating to overdrafts and goals.
Goals funds are secure, ie ring fenced and only accessible if manually moved back into the main account. Effectively they could be regarded as similar to the legacy savings accounts which sit alongside your current account but are only available if transferred across to the current account.
There is no relationship between the overdraft and the goal funds.
And I take from this, that if I spend my £500 overdraft and don’t touch the goal, I’m not overdrawn. I effectively have a £0 balance. If I now touch any of the goal - I’m overdrawn.
That any use?
And as @danbeddows points out, anything that needs tortuous threads where users are crying out for clarity, has to be in serious need of review.
