An overdraft lets you borrow money on your current account. An arranged overdraft is where we agree an overdraft limit with you. This can help in months when you have extra expenses. 

An unarranged overdraft is when you make a payment that takes your account over your arranged limit or overdrawn when you don’t have an arranged overdraft in place.

We’ll always consider an unarranged request and make the payment if we can. Unarranged overdrafts may result in declined transactions. We report account activity, including overdraft usage, to credit reference agencies. An unarranged overdraft lasting more than 30 days could have a negative impact on your credit rating.

Overdrafts are not suitable for long-term borrowing and usually result in interest.

If you take an arranged overdraft, you can later ask us to increase, reduce or remove your limit at any time online, by phone or in a branch.

If you end your overdraft you’ll have to repay any overdrawn amount and any interest owed. If you want to reduce your limit, you’ll first need to make sure you bring your borrowing down within the new limit.

To find out more, visit our overdrafts page where you can find out if you’re eligible and use our overdraft cost calculator.

If you have an HSBC Student Bank Account, your account will change to an HSBC Graduate Bank Account at the end of your third year. We’ll then ask you to start paying back your arranged overdraft, reducing it each year, giving you time to pay it back after graduation.

In the first year after graduation, you may be eligible for an interest-free overdraft facility up to £3,000, and up to £2,000 in your second year after graduation. In your third year after graduation, we’ll move you to an Advance account or standard bank account. You may be eligible for an arranged overdraft of up to £1,000 interest-free to help make life easier (subject to status and how your account has been used).

Any arranged overdraft above these amounts will be charged interest at 39.9% EAR variable.

Representative example (assumed arranged overdraft of £1,200): Year 1: 0% EAR on the first £3,000, 39.9% EAR variable on anything above that, giving a representative rate of 0% APR⁴ variable.  Year 2: 0% on the first £2,000, 39.9% EAR variable thereafter, giving a representative rate of 0% APR variable.

If you’re going to go overdrawn, we provide a couple of tools to help make sure you know about it.

If you try to make a withdrawal at any HSBC cash machine that would take you over your arranged overdraft limit, you'll get an on-screen alert to let you know how much money you have available to withdraw.

We’ll send you overdraft text alerts if you’ve used or are due to use an arranged or unarranged overdraft on your account. This is to help you monitor your usage and let you know what action you can take to avoid interest.

If you don't provide your mobile number or let us know when you've changed it, we won't be able to send you these text alerts.

You can opt out of the arranged or unarranged texts at any time by phone, or by going into a branch.

Opting out of alerts may mean you incur avoidable costs. If you choose to opt out of text alerts, this will apply to all personal current accounts you hold with HSBC UK.

If you pay for something using your HSBC Visa debit card while you’re outside the UK, you’ll need to pay a ‘non-sterling transaction fee’ of 2.75%. So, for example, if you spent £100, you'd be charged a fee of £2.75.

If you withdraw money from an ATM, you’ll also need to pay a ‘cash fee’ of 2% (minimum £1.75, maximum £5) as well as the non-sterling transaction fee. So if you took out £100, you’d be charged a total of £4.75.

Any transactions you make will be converted into pound sterling (unless you choose to pay in local currency). To make sure your exchange rate is as competitive as possible, you’ll pay the exchange rate set by Visa. 

More about using your card abroad