When you have an authorised overdraft, the bank is lending you money at a very handsome rate (for the Banks). When you have an unauthorised overdraft, it is effectively the same, except the bank is lending you money at a more handsome rate! The suggestion that you are stealing from the banks is offensive and outrageous. On the other hand, the banks are actually stealing from us. The banks know that their contract contains so much legal jargon that it puts you off even reading it and you just accept it. If you don't accept it, then the bank simply doesn't open your account. What we didn't know before, and the banks did know, is that their contract contains illegal penalty charges. In effect, theft. Scarlett Girl, I would suggest that the bank employee is ignorant and naive, just as we have been until recently.