Overdrawing using a debit card

erdie

My daughter has been working for over a year and has got an Abbey current account and an electron debit card. The other week I happened to see her bank statement and noticed that she had been charged and charged a lot for going about a pound overdrawn. She along with my wife both said that they didn't know you could go overdrawn with a debit card, they assumed that you could only spend the money that was in your account and that if you had spent all your money your card would be declined. I asked a few other people about this and a lot of my friends were of the same opion as my wife and daughter. But I have been thinking about this and can't work out myself why they let you overdraw on debit cards, even the name of them suggests that your account is debited for what is in them. Surely the fact that you can overdraw really makes them a credit card but with exorbitant interest rates. Can anyone answer the question why they allow you to overdraw on them?
I suppose this has had one benefit, it has made my daughter a bit more aware of her money and what she is spending it on. She never used to get a receipt at the ATM to check her account and she used her card to pay for stupid stuff like a 99p burger at mcdonalds.

Lokolo

Happens all the time with debit cards.

Banks let cards going overdrawn only a max of about £5-£10 because some people need the extra m oney for emergnecies.

Let it be a lesson to always know the balance of your card

System

It's not the Debit card that's letting her overdraw, it's the bank!

Visa Electron cards check with the bank each time they are used, so if there are not enough funds, the bank can refuse to authorise the transaction - but they haven't.

I would ask for the charges to be refunded, personally.