Nearly 20% of people constantly live in their overdraft, a new survey has found.
Some 18% of respondents to a survey by discount website Groupla admitted they were always overdrawn, with 24% saying they would not be able to manage without the facility.
More than three-quarters (78%) of people said they had an arranged overdraft with their bank but 21% said it was only there for emergencies.
Only 6% of people said they had never used their overdraft, with 2% saying they had actively cancelled it.
Just under half of people with an overdraft said they had requested it from their bank manager, but 32% said they had felt forced into having one, while 12% said they had automatically been given one when they opened their bank account.
A fifth of people said they had first arranged an overdraft when they were a student, while 16% had taken one out to help cover an expensive purchase.
But despite 66% of people saying they considered an overdraft to be a form of debt to worry about, 38% admitted they had no idea how much interest they were charged on it.
