Can Plum help me save when I’m in my overdraft?

Plum can help you get out of your overdraft by putting small chunks of money aside that you can use towards paying it off.

Plum will only use your overdraft for savings when your balance drops below zero, and will continue save small, affordable chunks for you. If you have a planned overdraft facility but avoid using it, Plum will recognise this and will not offer you the feature.

How does Plum know when to stop saving?

When you sign up to Plum, our intelligence will look at your back account data to determine whether you have a planned overdraft facility with the bank.

Plum has the appropriate safeguards in place to never take you into an unauthorised overdraft. We’re so confident in our safeguards that we will refund any fees incurred if we do. Plum knows:

• the size of your planned overdraft facility;
• how often, and how much of the planned overdraft facility you use.
• It takes this data and adds additional buffers to work out the perfect spot to stop saving for you

Example: You use your overdraft facility 10 days a month. Your planned overdraft facility is £1000. Plum works out that most of the time, you never use more than £500 of your planned overdraft facility. Using this calculation, as well as some additional safeguards, Plum will set itself to automatically stop saving when your balance drops below -£450.  

This means Plum has safeguards in place to ensure it doesn’t touch your unplanned overdraft, and that it will steer well clear of the limit.

How do I turn this functionality on?

When you sign up to Plum, our intelligence will determine if saving in your overdraft is the right thing for you. Plum will notify you of this, and you’ll be able to set it up. This setting is not automatically switched on, so you have to opt in. If you decide later on that you'd like to set this up, type "overdraft" into the bot and follow the instructions.

How do I turn this functionality off?

You can stop Plum from saving when you are in your overdraft facility at any time, by typing “overdraft” into the bot.

Can I edit the limit at which Plum stops saving?

You can change the limit that Plum has set to stop saving for you. You can do this by typing “overdraft” into the bot and selecting “Edit Limit”. Here you can input a limit of your choice.