When your bank must alert you about overdrafts

Yes. If you hold a personal current account, your bank has to enrol you to receive alerts when you start using an arranged overdraft, when you go into an unarranged overdraft, and when a payment would take you overdrawn without an arrangement in place. The rules sit in the Financial Conduct Authority's Banking: Conduct of Business sourcebook, known as BCOBS, and they apply to each personal current account a banking customer holds¹.

The alert is normally a text message, but the rule is about the alert reaching you, not the technology. Banks send them automatically once they have an up-to-date mobile number, and several enrol you the moment you hand over that number². The point is timing: an alert is meant to arrive while you can still do something about the charge, not weeks later on a statement.

What follows is what the rules require, what the alerts look like at the banks that publish their own terms, what an overdraft costs once you are in one, how to add your own balance and payment warnings, how to opt out if you want to, and how to complain if no alert ever came.

Your bank must alert you when you start using an overdraft

The core duty is enrolment. A firm must ensure that, for each personal current account held by a banking customer, the customer is enrolled to receive arranged overdraft alerts, unarranged overdraft alerts, and alerts for an attempt to overdraw without prior arrangement¹. The same enrolment duty was set out in the FCA instrument that introduced the regime, which requires the customer to be enrolled for unarranged overdraft alerts and attempted-overdraw alerts by the date specified².

Enrolment is not the same as delivery. Two further rules set the trigger. A firm must send an alert if it knows the account is making use of an arranged overdraft, or is reasonably able to determine that it will do so that day in the absence of customer action or an unknown transaction¹. A parallel rule requires an alert where the firm knows the account has entered unarranged overdraft, or can reasonably determine that it will do so¹.

In practice this means the alert should reach you on or around the day the overdraft starts, not at the end of the month. Banks describe it in those terms: Bank of Scotland says it will text you when you have started or are about to start using your arranged overdraft, and will also let you know when charging begins⁶. Danske Bank says that if you give it your mobile number it will automatically register you for text alerts when you go into an arranged or unarranged overdraft⁷.

The reason the timing matters is simple. If you use your overdraft, the bank is likely to start charging interest on your account⁸. An alert that arrives the same day gives you the chance to move money in before the balance sits there.

Unarranged overdrafts: the separate alert rule

An unarranged overdraft is one you have not agreed with the bank in advance. MoneyHelper describes them as also known as unplanned or unarranged overdrafts, and says they happen when you spend more than you have in your bank account without agreeing it in advance, including going over the limit of an authorised overdraft⁹.

The alert rule for this is separate from the arranged overdraft rule, and it bites in two situations. The first is when the account has already entered unarranged overdraft. The second is when the bank can reasonably determine that it will enter unarranged overdraft in the absence of customer action or an unknown transaction¹. That second limb is what allows a bank to warn you before a payment goes through rather than after.

There is also a longer-stop reporting duty. Under CONC 6.3, information on significant overrunning on a current account, meaning unauthorised overdrafts, must be in writing¹⁰. The FCA's own policy statement confirms it clarified at CONC 6.3 that information on significant overrunning on a current account must be in writing¹¹. Separately, where an account-holder overdraws without a pre-arranged overdraft, or exceeds a pre-arranged overdraft limit, for a period exceeding one month, notification requirements apply to that overdraft or excess where it is not secured on land¹².

So there are two layers: the immediate alert when the overdraft starts, and a written notification where the position runs on. The immediate alert is the one most people will see, and it is the one the rules are built around.

What overdraft alerts from banks look like in practice

Banks publish broadly similar descriptions, which is a useful check on what to expect. HSBC says that as long as it has an up-to-date mobile number it will send a text alert when you have gone overdrawn or if it knows you are about to¹³. Its fuller terms say it will send a text message when you go into your arranged or unarranged overdraft, including any interest-free overdraft amount on the account, and will also text you if you do not have enough money to make a payment¹³.

Bank of Ireland UK says that if it has your mobile number it will send text alerts when your account has gone into overdraft or might be about to¹⁴. Its alert triggers are listed by event: your current account has gone into arranged overdraft, and your account has gone into unarranged overdraft¹⁵.

Zempler Bank says it will send overdraft alerts when you are about to enter your overdraft, have entered it, or are reaching your limit¹⁶, and describes the channel as text alerts¹⁷. RBS offers a text or email if you are about to become overdrawn, or are already using an unarranged overdraft, and says the alerts help you minimise or even avoid overdraft and unpaid transaction fees¹⁸.

Overdraft costs the alerts are meant to help you avoid

The alert exists because the cost of an overdraft is real and, in the unarranged case, can escalate quickly. Official guidance sets out what an unarranged overdraft can bring: a penalty charge and a high rate of interest, charges for reminder letters and for direct debits or cheques put through the account, and the possibility that the bank freezes the account until the overdraft is paid off⁵.

Interest is the everyday cost. Independent guidance notes that if you overdraw from your account, the bank will charge you interest on a daily basis and can ask that the overdraft is cleared on demand¹⁹. MoneyHelper puts the typical rate at often up to 40% APR until paid back, charged as daily interest for using an overdraft⁴.

There is a separate charge for a payment the bank cannot cover. MoneyHelper describes a fee if you do not have enough money to cover a payment, usually called an unpaid transaction fee⁴. RBS frames its alerts as a way to minimise or even avoid overdraft and unpaid transaction fees, which is the practical link between the alert and the cost¹⁸.

Setting up extra balance and payment alerts

The rules set a floor, not a ceiling. Most banks let you add alerts beyond the required ones, and these are often the more useful ones for day-to-day budgeting.

AIB (NI) says it will send text alerts when your account goes overdrawn, and that you can also arrange balance alerts through online banking²¹. Danske Bank says its alerts let you know if you go into your overdraft, update your bank balance, and help you avoid missing payments, by text and email²². For Danske Standard account customers, it can also text when there is not enough money to make all the payments due²³.

Timing varies by alert type. AIB (NI) notes that the Account Alert advising that you have been overdrawn for a number of days is issued at around 2pm²³. That is a useful detail: a low-balance warning and a "you have been overdrawn for days" warning are different messages on different schedules.

Beyond the bank's own alerts, mobile apps commonly offer push notifications for card spending and bank transfers, which you can opt into in the app settings²⁴. Fraud guidance points the same way: turn on your bank alerts and check your accounts regularly, and if you see spending you do not recognise, contact your bank immediately²⁵.

Can I switch off overdraft alerts?

Yes, for arranged overdraft alerts. The rule is explicit: a banking customer should be able to opt out of arranged overdraft alerts regardless of the other alerts the customer chooses to receive¹. So the choice is genuinely yours, and it is separable from the unarranged overdraft alerts.

Opting out comes with a required warning. A firm must warn a banking customer who chooses not to receive some or all alerts that they will not receive alerts about their overdraft use and that, as a result, they may incur avoidable charges¹. That warning is the trade-off in plain terms: fewer messages, less warning, more chance of a charge you did not see coming.

Opting out does not change the overdraft itself. The facility, the daily interest and the bank's ability to reduce or withdraw it all stay as they were²⁰. If the reason for opting out is that the alerts are stressful, the alternative route is to reduce reliance on the overdraft rather than the warnings: independent guidance suggests asking the bank to reduce or remove the overdraft, or switching to a basic bank account with no overdraft²⁷.

A basic bank account is designed so you cannot go overdrawn either with or without authorisation²⁸, which removes the overdraft and the charges together. That is a different decision from muting the alerts, and worth weighing separately.

If you go into your overdraft without warning

Start with the balance. Check the account in your app or online, look at what has gone out, and pay money in to bring it back into credit if you can. The sooner the balance is cleared, the less daily interest accrues¹⁹.

If the overdraft is becoming a standing feature rather than a one-off, the options are the ones the debt charities set out. StepChange suggests asking the bank to reduce or remove the overdraft, or moving to a basic bank account with no overdraft²⁷. A basic bank account will not let you go overdrawn²⁹, and MoneyHelper explains how they work for people who cannot get a standard account³⁰.

Where the overdraft sits alongside other debts, free and impartial help is available. MoneyHelper covers how overdrafts work and what they cost⁹, and debt advice charities can look at the whole picture rather than the overdraft alone. If money worries are affecting your budgeting more broadly, Danske Bank's own guidance points customers to budgeting help³¹.

Complaining if you were not alerted

If an alert should have arrived and did not, the first step is the bank's own complaints process. Contact customer services, then make a formal complaint. The bank has eight weeks to investigate and give a final response; if you still do not agree, or the bank does not reply in time, you can take the complaint to the free Financial Ombudsman Service⁴.

There is a shorter deadline for one category. For a complaint related to payments, the bank has 15 days to investigate and give a final response⁴. Official guidance on bank disputes puts the general position as giving the bank at least eight weeks to try to resolve your complaint, after which it should send a final decision letter telling you how to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service⁵.

Complaints about current accounts are common enough to be counted. The Financial Ombudsman Service recorded 8,945 current account complaints in the first quarter of 2026/27³⁴. That figure is context, not a prediction: it shows the route is used, and that the ombudsman publishes what it receives.

Two practical points before you complain. First, check the contact details the bank holds for you, because an alert can only be sent to a number or address the bank has¹³. Second, keep the evidence: the date the overdraft started, whether an alert arrived, and any charges applied. If the complaint is about a charge you believe was avoidable, the alert record is the heart of it.