Well I have several bank accounts (in the same bank, for convenience). The one attached to the debit card I use for subscriptions has usually very little money in it. Enough so I can forget a month or two about the payments but unless I explicitly transfer money in it, they don't have what to charge.
In the end I still have too many subscriptions that I lost track of but worst case, I just nuke the account and I'm free of leeches.
A debit card linked to an account with insufficient funds in it is not a sustainable solution with many banks as many of them will honour the transaction (usually within a small limit, e.g. ⩽ $50-100 but can be more), AND will apply the overdraft fee, plus the interest on the overdraft until it is paid off. Banks love shady charges, and it is a source of substantial revenue for them.
You are simply lucky if your bank bounces a transaction instead of slapping you with the overdraft fee.
It has nothing to do with the country, and it has everything to do with: 1) the transaction type, and 2) personal wealth.
Transaction types. There are two: a) customer present, b) customer not present. Instant electronic funds transfers fall into (a) and are almost always declined, with the caveat. The caveat: you are overseas, the payment terminal has captured the card details, dispatched them the local/nearest payment processing centre, then something has fallen apart and the acquiring bank (i.e. your bank) could not be contacted. It is a rare situation nowadays, but it can happen nevertheless, and the transaction may be honoured. Most merchants don't bother with it, though, and they will simply produce a «payment declined» receipt instead. But if not, such a payment can send a card account into overdraft irrespective of whether your local bank advertises it or not.
Customer not present. This has i) online transactions (e.g. purchases over the internet) and ii) completely offline transactions. The handling of the customer-not-present-online-internet transactions is done solely at the discretion of your bank. Typically, a random purchase will be declined, but a recurring payment may be honoured. Completely offline transactions are very rare nowadays, but they still can take place, e.g. on a flight when the plane has lost the internet connection – the flight attendant will promptly return, produce a mechanical contraption and take a slip of your debit card, provided the card details are embossed on it. If they take a slip, the payment networks do mandate such a payment to be honoured, and a cheque account that is linked to such a debit card will go into overdraft. It is non-negotiable, independent of the country and is mandated by the payment netowrks.
Personal wealth. Your bank continuously monitors the in-flow of money into accounts you hold with them as well as the expenditure and the class of merchants you spend your money with. Depending on which one occurs first, e.g. you reach a certain income threshold (undisclosed and defined internally – by your bank), you may get the overdraft automagically allowed on the account your debit card is linked to. There are no specific rules as to when it is going to happen and what is the selection criteria for such a thing to happen – it is solely at the bank's discretion.
All this stuff is somewhat obscure, yet it is real and is entirely independent of country borders and the local legislation.
At least where I live, I have to specifically request enabling of overdraft (of course they would love me to do so), but I ain't doing that. So with a debit card, I'm safe.
Banks lure you with credit cards and overdraft on debit cards (which in turn turns it into credit). If you can resist that you're in a much more robust position than otherwise.
I know the term. But in the days of instant electronic transactions it's useless except as a way for the bank to get some undeserved fees. And where I am it's never on by default.
In the end I still have too many subscriptions that I lost track of but worst case, I just nuke the account and I'm free of leeches.