Many people in Slovakia are withdrawing money out of their bank account without realizing that they are overdrawn because the ATMs show the credit inclusive of the overdraft limit.
Considering the fact that an overdraft facility is charged at the highest interest rate of all credit products, it makes sense for banks not to change the system. The interest can work out as much as 18%.
The rising volume of money taken out in this way is quite astonishing. Taking the bank CSOB as an example, it registered a twofold growth in the volume of money withdrawn in this way over the first nine months of 2009, and for the same period of 2010 this figure increased by a quarter.