Emergency Cash When Your Bank Account is in the Negative

Sometimes when life gets stressful it can be easy for finances to get out of hand. Unfortunately, if you are not careful about your budget, you may find your bank account has gone into the negatives.

If there’s ever a time that you realize “my bank account is negative and I have no money”, don’t despair! While overdrawing from your bank account isn’t something you want to get into the habit of doing, having a negative account balance is something you can fix and prevent from happening again by reducing your spending, becoming aware of your spending habits, balancing your account, and increasing your income.

To bring your bank account balance to a positive number, you could try:

• Not making any additional purchases with your negative account
• Balance your account so you know how much money you have
• Put money back into your negative account as soon as possible
• Speak with your bank about any possible mistakes or issues
• Create a new way to spend and save your money
• Take advantage of quick ways to increase the cash you have available

Refrain from making any more purchases using your overdrawn account

Until your bank account is back in the positive numbers, you should try your best to not use that specific account for making purchases for a while. Depending on which bank you have your account with, you may be charged an additional fee every time you make a purchase while your bank account is below zero. Other banks may even charge you a fee per day while your bank account is negative, regardless of you making any purchase using your account or not.

Balance your bank account so you don’t go into the negatives again

If your bank account has been overdrawn, it might be because you didn’t have a very good idea of how much money you had in your account in the first place. Sure, you can go to an ATM and see what your present balance is, but that isn’t always an accurate representation of how much money you have. Automatic payments from bills could be scheduled to get taken from your account, or other purchases you made may not have gone through at the time when you were looking at your balance - all of these can lead you to believe you have more money in your bank account than you really do. When you think you have more money than you actually do, it can be extremely easy to over-purchase and cause your bank account to sink into the negatives.

Before you spend any more money with your bank account, take a look at what your automatic payments are, and keep track of the purchases you have made in the past. This can give you a better look at how much money is actually in your bank account. From then on, keep track of your monetary transactions by hand - that way you can automatically deduct payments you know will be taken out in the future. Knowing exactly how much money is in your bank account can be a big help when it comes to not overdrawing from it.

Put money in your overdrawn bank account as soon as possible

If you have any money to spare in your savings account, it would be a wise idea to put some of that money in your overdrawn bank account. Not only may your bank charge fees for having an overdrawn bank account, but your current bank and other financial institutions may also be less willing to open another account or give you a loan in the future. While a negative balance in your bank account is not reflected on you traditional credit reports such as your Experian or TransUnion report, other companies such as ChexSystems track and report data on bank accounts. Having a higher credit score and clean checking account history can help you in life when you are looking for loans, credit cards, or another bank account, so you want to do what you can to keep your scores as high as possible and your account history as pristine as possible. Having a positive bank account balance, compared to a negative balance, is a definite way to help your overall account history improve over time.

Speak to your bank

If you have a negative bank account balance and don’t know why - there may be an issue with your bank. Sometimes, banks charge their users a fee if their bank account is not above a certain amount, even if that amount is higher than zero! For example, sometimes banks charge a fee if a user has a bank account with less than $30 in it, because they’ve established a minimum account balance. The bank will keep deducting the minimum balance fee, potentially even after the bank account balance has reached zero. To avoid this confusion, speak to your bank and figure out what kind of bank account you have and what minimums apply.

Come up with a new money saving/spending system

If you find that your bank account has gone into the negatives, it might be time to rethink how you are spending and saving your money. Do you have a savings account? If not, you may want to start one so that if your account ever falls into the negatives again you have some money to fall back on. Do you always spend your entire paycheck when you get paid? If so, moving forward, try to limit the amount of money you spend to be just the essentials like housing or groceries. But also consider Louisville title loans from LoanMart.

Take advantage of quick ways to increase the cash you have available

In today’s economy and digitized world, you may be able to quickly increase your cash flow with a bit of effort and time. A few options to consider would be to offer your skills on freelance platforms such as Fiverr, sell valuable items you don’t need any longer on Ebay, or signing up on some gig-economy platforms such as Uber or Lyft.

If the above tips still don’t cover your current shortfall, emergency cash from title loans can be a fast and easy financial assistance. You can find out more on title loan applications here, but also check out our blog for some more tips on how to save money and live your best financial life, especially when getting emergency cash with title loans!