[lxgr]

This differs a lot by country and customer. For example, in Germany, without a fixed income, you’ll usually not get access to an overdraft loan.

In the US, overdraft is generally considered a very bad thing (almost worse than the idea of credit to Germans!) and a failure of the accountholder to “balance their (figurative, today) checkbook”, and the idea of an overdraft limit as a line of credit with a defined interest rate does not exist at all.

[gpvos]

Yes, I was highlighting the difference with the US system.

Another difference is that if you know someone's account number, you can send them money but not take any out of their account. I understand it's more or less the other way round in the US.