To ask how much do you have in your bank account on payday?

[coffeeforone]

And has this position changed since 10 years ago?

10 years ago age 25 - I had an overdraft facility the size of my monthly salary (£1200) that would be maxed out by payday and I would be happy to go back to zero each month. I'd be very excited if I had hundreds on pay day. I didn't care about being overdrawn and would max out my overdraft even to buy things like clothes etc.

Today age 35 - I have money left before payday, i'd panic more if I ever risk going overdrawn, and my bank balance on payday is at least the amount of my pay. (If I think I'm going to go overdrawn I wouldn't buy a new pair of shoes - 10 years ago I wouldn't hesitate)

Have times changed in that people are more likely to not go overdrawn, or is it just my financial position and attitude to money has got better?

9.5k in a savings account.
Currently have 1.2k in current account and get paid in a fortnight. Bills have gone out already.

Salary is 18.2k per year so approximately 1.3k per month, plus some overtime.

DH's accounts looks similar although he has slightly less in savings. He earns about 2k per month although this has only been the case since August last year.

I'm 29 and I've never had an overdraft. I didn't realise it was so common to use it every month. DH has an overdraft but has never used it. My bank account does go below £100 often though as I put spare money in the savings account.

There are lots of lucky people on this thread. An overdraft is what means my children have food on the table.

@Fairylea you can learn to be good with money! There are so many budgeting apps etc out there now.

We end up positive to the amount of half my salary. Dh salary goes into a different account which us always in the black. We are making swaps so that we have a bills account and a slush account. We will slowly repay the overdraft.

@userxx thank you, we have managed on a very low income (to the point of relying on local charities sort of low income) for a long time (disabilities in the family, sickness etc, house problems that needed fixing etc). We are at last getting on our feet so have the opportunity to sort ourselves out. We just need to be sensible..! We have got Monzo and are learning to use the pots / budgeting bits etc.

I think mumsnet tends to be quite high income - as shown by the answers here and also on the recent pension threads. For lots of people an overdraft is what lies between them and a food bank.

depends if I had to pay for dc activities/school trips.
if yes, it might be 100, if not a bit more.
I am really careful not to get into the overdraft.

For the last few years I have had an account that swipes any excess before payday off into a savings account. It also automatically swipes some back if it looks like I'm going to go overdrawn.

I have never been overdrawn in my life.

What has revolutionised my life is using an online cash card.

On payday my money goes in: £1500 and the day after almost all of it goes out to various accounts- joint, savings and spending. Any left in my account is to pay bills that still come out if it.

DH and I have shared savings vaults through our online card. It’s the only way I can save without spending it all straight away. We put about £1000 a month into savings for various things- holidays, DIY, Christmas etc.

We’ve been doing this for about eight months and it finally means we have money to go on holiday AND do things to the house.

This year is the first time I have been totally debt free (apart from mortgage) and have no overdraft or credit cards or loans.

In my 20’s I was appalling with money and had two loans, a credit card and an overdraft. You can dig yourself out. It’s been brutal but all worth it.

Always overdrawn by 1000 on payday. Never ending cycle!

@Fairylea sounds like things are turning around for you, that's good news. I've heard really good things about monzo. I agree with you, I'm a single person household so am very sensible, I don't earn a big salary but get by living quite frugally, can happily eat beans on toast 4 times a week 😊

23p - and that's normal in my friendship group. Mid 40s, professional in London.

Very little usually. I really need to change this.

I don’t keep any surplus money in my current account, an initial amount and then anything left over at the end of the month gets moved to my savings account.
I have a small (£300) overdraft and have really just used it as my money up until recently. But up until a few months ago it was interest free so that made sense. I don’t use it now the interest is 40%!
When I was a student I had two current accounts with £2000 overdrafts on each, and this was totally normal amongst my friends. I’d be so stressed to have that amount of debt now but didn’t even think about it then (until I had to pay it all back!)

@PhoneLock that account sounds good, who is it with?

I like to have the usual amount for my monthly credit card bill left before pay goes in.

I can also pay off my monthly cc bill out of my salary, I just like having that extra buffer.

For anyone sitting in their overdraft, have a look at credit cards! Some offer you a cash transfer at 0% interest for 12-24 months for a one off fee of about 2%. So that means you can transfer cash to your bank account and pay no interest for 12-24 months. Banks are now charging something like 40% interest on overdrafts, it's crazy! So some people are stuck in the overdraft due to only being able to pay the fee's each month. If you switch to a credit card, you could pay what you would in overdraft fee's to the credit card and actually pay the balance off within the interest fee window

I was the same, even though I knew I couldn't just spend on anything I still spent more on crap than I should.

The last few years I've got a grip & now have no overdraft and have a few £K in the bank on payday.

I'm always in overdraft - but it doesn't cost very much in interest/fees. I don't want to be in overdraft all the time, but once you get there it's hard to get out. I've been unemployed for 17 months, apart from a few temp jobs, but the job I start tomorrow might turn out to be permanent. If so I intend to work on getting out of, and staying out of, overdraft.

Just reading about the high overdraft fees, so thought I should mention I'm not in the UK so don't pay anything like 40% interest. That's high!!!

I usually have about 50£ left sitting in the account pre pay day - then my pay goes in - I pay my rent on pay day - then transfer a small amount to the joint account DH & I use for bills

Transfer a big chunk into my house deposit savings account

Have about 300 then left to get me through the month for all food & fun (live very frugally!)

(have an interest free credit card for any emergency purchases or anything unexpected comes up - this is a much better option than ever going into an overdraft

Never in my overdraft now but when I was young and had young children (20 odd years back) we were always in the overdraft each month - I did have a shared account though with an ex who was a spender rather than a saver!

@Dyrne

It is with Barclays. It's called their Openplan account. Unfortunately, they don't seem to offer it to new customers any more.

www.barclays.co.uk/savings/interest-rates/barclays-open-plan-saving/

So that means you can transfer cash to your bank account and pay no interest for 12-24 months.

There are only about two credit cards on the market that allow cash transfers into your bank.

Do use the overdraft on our other account most months but only the free £250 to max the 5% interest on the current account.

You need to check this, these "free" buffers are being removed under the new rules.