Consumers concerned about the excessive fees linked to making unauthorised withdrawals from an overdraft should make sure they block any payments they know will knock them into debt .
Consumer watchdog Which? surveyed over 4,000 current account holders and found that nearly half of them would prefer to have a payment blocked than go overdrawn and face hefty bank charges .
However, 64 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds were in favour of blocking unauthorised overdraft withdrawals, while only 38 per cent of over-45s would want to be stopped from making a payment not covered by their savings .
Phil Jones, personal finance campaigner for Which?, said: "Different people use their current accounts in different ways so banks shouldn't adopt a one size fits all approach to overdraft charges ."
Informed Choice recently said that the supreme court's decision to back banks accused of applying excessive charges to unauthorised overdraft withdrawals could lead to more transparent practices.






