[rlpb]

> can't be overcharged, can't go below zero

In the UK, it's really hard to get a bank account where they'll do that. Instead they'll pay it, call it an "unauthorised overdraft" and then charge you for that. This is their business model - it's how they make sufficient income to operate.

There are "basic bank accounts" which don't provide a credit facility, but these only exist because people with poor credit histories can't get bank accounts otherwise, and the regulator has threatened to enforce their availability otherwise. However since this means that there currently isn't any rule, the banks make it very difficult for an ordinary person (with good credit) to open a "basic bank account".

[imwillofficial]

“it's how they make sufficient income to operate.” No. This is how the practice parasitism on the poor.

[rlpb]

To be clear, I don't agree with it, but it is how the current account market in the UK operates.

More information here: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03...

And a Supreme Court decision here: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2009-0070-judgme...

[Closi]

> In the UK, it's really hard to get a bank account where they'll do that.

I'm pretty sure all of them do, just ring up your bank and ask them to set your overdraft limit to 0

I've certainly done this with HSBC & Santander in the past, and when I got my Monzo account it was 0 by default (You had to sign up for an overdraft if you wanted one).

[rlpb]

An overdraft limit of 0 just means that you end up in an unauthorised overdraft sooner.

Monzo might be an exception here.