Overdrafts---head frazzled!

[hettiebaby]

Hi

I have no experience with an overdraft and I'm hoping that someone will be able to help.

I'm going to university and have applied and been granted an overdraft of £1000 for my Halifax student account. I was just wondering how long it takes to activate. Although I don't think il need it as I have been saving away for ages. It's quite nice to know that my buffer would be in place if anything (god forbid) should happen??

It should be available as soon as the bank agree it. The only thing with student accounts used to be they waited until the first grant cheque had been paid in - there, that's how old I am - don't know whether the same applies to loans.

Oh he said it should be straight away that's why I'm confused. As I say I don't need it at the moment but I'm trying to get everything in order for when I move.

Would the amount of money in the account matter? I could understand waiting for the grant and loan etc to go in if I had like £0.03 in the bank but as I say I've saved quite a bit??

you could check it if you had online banking or if you got a balance from the cashpoint i.e. it will give an Account Balance and an Available Balance. The Available Balance would take into account the overdraft facility.

The overdraft facility just sits on the account whether or not you use it.