An arranged overdraft is regulated credit, so the FCA's Consumer Credit sourcebook (CONC) governs the letter telling someone they are overdrawn. Since 6 April 2020 the FCA's overdraft pricing rules have required a single annual interest rate, no fixed daily or monthly fees, and unarranged charges no higher than arranged ones. The CMA's Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 requires alerts before an unarranged charge lands, and a monthly cap on those charges. Where the customer is struggling, CONC 7 requires forbearance and due consideration, and the Consumer Duty in FCA PRIN 2A tests the support outcome. The notice therefore names a person, an account and a shortfall. anonym.plus marks each field on your machine, so the fee message stays readable while the borrower's details are shielded.
When this applies
A team reviews the wording of last month's overdraft letters for clarity. The fee schedule, the tone and the call to action are the point. The holder's name, account number and exact shortfall are not.
How anonym.plus handles it
- Open the letter in anonym.plus on your device.
- Local OCR reads a scanned, posted page.
- It flags the borrower, account, and amounts.
- Confirm the flags and keep the fee schedule text.
- Swap or black out the confirmed fields.
- Save the clean copy locally.
What you need to provide
- The letter (PDF, DOCX, or scan).
- An operator (Replace keeps the text readable).
- Optional batch for a mailing run.
PII & financial identifiers detected
| Category | anonym.plus entity type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Names | PERSON | holder K. Quinn → [HOLDER] |
| Financial | UK_BANK_NUMBER | 77820091 → ****0091 |
| Money | MONEY | overdrawn -£214.30 → [AMOUNT] |
| Contact | EMAIL_ADDRESS | quinn@example.co.uk → [EMAIL] |
| Location | LOCATION | posting address → [ADDRESS] |
| Dates | DATE_TIME | dated 06/2026 → [DATE] |
Compliance achieved
- Keeps the letter reviewable against the consumer-credit rules in FCA CONC that govern an arranged overdraft.
- Preserves the alert and charge-cap trail required by the CMA Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017.
- Supports the arrears duty in FCA CONC 7 — forbearance and due consideration for a customer in difficulty.
- Fits the consumer-support outcome of the Consumer Duty in FCA PRIN 2A.
- Applies the minimisation duty in UK GDPR Art. 5(1)(c); nothing is uploaded.
Anonymise overdraft notices offline — see plans & start free →
Limitations & cautions
A fee letter repeats the account and the amount in several places, so one missed line re-links the customer. Financial-difficulty markers are sensitive in practice even where they are not special-category data under UK GDPR Art. 9 — treat them that way in anything shared.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep the fee schedule text?
Yes. Allow-list the standard wording so it stays. Keeping it is what lets the copy be judged against FCA CONC and the Consumer Duty in PRIN 2A, which is usually why the letter is being reviewed.
Is an overdraft really consumer credit?
An arranged overdraft on a current account is a regulated credit facility, which is why FCA CONC applies to how it is priced, communicated and collected. The FCA's 2020 pricing rules and the CMA's 2017 Order both bite on the letter you are redacting.
Is the letter uploaded?
No. The app works offline, so the notice stays on your device.