Can you go to jail for overdrafting?

Answer 1

Overdrafting in itself is not a crime.

It's only you failing to stick to what you agreed with the bank.

For this - not doing as agreed, they will charge you extra. Then that's the end of that.

What is a crime though is not to pay what you owe.

Thing is, you're even less likely to pay what you owe if you're in prison. Harder to make any money there.

So a bank will try a lot of things to get their money back first, before trying to send you to jail.

They'll only go for the jail option when it's obvious that you won't/can't pay.

And what you get sent down for isn't the overdraft as such, it's that you've not payed it. It would be exactly the same as any other debt where you haven't kept up with the payments.