A Bank Account With No Overdraft - EVER?

anotheruser

This might be a dumb question however:

Do banks offer accounts which have no overdraft under any circumstances?
Let's say John has £50 in his bank account and goes to buy some sweets, which total £100. Will the transaction be denied or will he go overdrawn by £50, thus incurring some sort of fee.

I would prefer my bank to stop me making a transaction that would make me overdrawn.

Can / do banks offer this?

c85

anotheruser wrote: »

This might be a dumb question however:

Do banks offer accounts which have no overdraft under any circumstances?
Let's say John has £50 in his bank account and goes to buy some sweets, which total £100. Will the transaction be denied or will he go overdrawn by £50, thus incurring some sort of fee.

I would prefer my bank to stop me making a transaction that would make me overdrawn.

Can / do banks offer this?

maybe John should check whats in his account and only spend £50 on sweets then there would be no chance of going overdrawn?

some banks offer "control" facilities whereby you pay a fee per month (£10 maybe?) and it stops you from going overdrawn at all. i think lloyds offer this facility.

Meadows

Tell John to stop spending what he doesn't have (especially on sweets) and the bank account will not be overdrawn!

sunflower_2

if i only have £50 in my account and wanted to spend £100 my card would get declined.

i am pretty much an OCD balance checker, will check balance before going to shop & will check again just before going to the till
the fear of being declined works wonders for not going overdrawn.

some card transactions take a few days to come out (esp pay at the pump ones) so i have to remember about these, although there would be a chance of going overdrawn.

i think my card is an "online" one & always needs authorisation - although it does work in the pay at pumps.
you could try asking for one of these cards :A

Dirk_Gently_2

But if you buy enough things that are below each store's floor limit, so that they don't need to be on-line authorised, you can theoretically go overdrawn with virtually any type of account.

Of course, it'll come back and bit you and be extremely expensive once the bank find out - but as not every single transaction undergoes on-line authorisation you can still go overdrawn.

louby_lou

My Halifax Cashcard has no OD facility and would decline the transaction.

DragonQ

Being able to see your balance on your phone quickly would be a great way of avoiding going overdrawn. A simple app that requires a 4 digit PIN or something that only grabs the available balance of an account you nominate (to avoid the usual lengthy login process to access bank accounts online).

JuicyJesus

DragonQ wrote: »

Being able to see your balance on your phone quickly would be a great way of avoiding going overdrawn. A simple app that requires a 4 digit PIN or something that only grabs the available balance of an account you nominate (to avoid the usual lengthy login process to access bank accounts online).

HSBC have that, it's called Fast Balance.

System

NatWest and RBS offer it as free option on their select account - it's called overdraft control.

SnowTiger

Heng_Leng wrote: »

NatWest and RBS offer it as free option on their select account - it's called overdraft control.

Does it also prevent 'off-line' debit card payments? Natwest's website seems confused over the issue:

The debit card issued with Overdraft Control also prevents offline payments where retailers are unable to check with us that there is enough money in your account (e.g. contactless payments or payments on a plane). Existing customers without this card will be sent a replacement debit card.

[...]

Examples of the transactions we will continue to pay:

Payments made using your debit card where the retailer does not check with us that you have enough money in your account before accepting the payment

richard9991

JuicyJesus wrote: »

HSBC have that, it's called Fast Balance.

Barclays mobile app you just enter 5 digit pin