Overdrafts are very much a thing in the UK, most accounts allow it, but you have to request it in advance. In effect they work like a pre-approved loan, which at least when I was working badly paid jobs and needed food right up before payday was a very welcome feature.
With both HSBC and RBS if I didn't have an overdraft in advance they just hit me with an even larger "unapproved overdraft fee" — both refused to disable overdrafts & just bounce the payment instead
