I am helping a client build credit to buy a house. He has student loans that are in collections. He needs to make a large payment to pay off his debt. While this sounds easy, it wasn’t an easy process.

How a Financial Coach can help

Together we contacted the Dept of Education and let them know he wanted to pay off student loan debt. He was ready to make the payment and had transferred the money from his savings to his checking account.

When we contacted the Dept of Education, they informed him, they would only accept a debit card transaction.

He agreed he would use his debit card.

But then….

However, the representative kindly told him the card was declined. Then she asked if he had another way to pay.

We asked if we could use the account number and routing number to make the payment, however, the representative kindly told us, that wasn’t an option.

He looked at me confused. I told him we needed to contact his bank and ask for a daily limit increase on his debit card.

He was relieved to have help with his debit card.

As he had put this off because he was unsure about how to go about paying off past debt. Seems normal to me.

It’s hard to do things when it’s outside of our comfort zone. I am here to reassure you, this is my comfort zone.

Here’s how you go about making a large purchase or payment with your debit card:

Step 1: Determine the amount of the payment or large purchase. Let’s take for example, we need to make a payment of $3,000 to the Dept of Education.

Step 2: Consider if you need to use your debit card for other purchases during the day after you make this large payment. What other necessities do you need? Do you need to get groceries or gas for the vehicle?

We need to increase the limit above and beyond $3,000, otherwise if you try to make purchases during the same day, your debit card will be declined.

Let’s say we needed to purchase gas and buy groceries. You will want to estimate you need about $500 because you do not want your debit card to get declined.

Call your bank/credit union/financial institution

You will need to increase the daily debit card limit to $3,500.

Step 3: Contact your financial institution and let them know you need the daily debit card limit increased to $3,500 so you can make the large payment and make additional purchases that same day.

The daily debit card limit will return to the normal limit the next day.