understanding your account balance

A payment clearing an account depends on the amount of funds available at the time it is presented for payment. And the available balance is affected by not only the items that have cleared the account, but also the holds placed on the account for items that have not yet been processed. Understanding your account balance can go a long way towards making sure that you avoid using ODP unnecessarily.

Your Checking or Savings Plus account has two kinds of balances: The actual balance and the available balance.

Actual balance

Your actual balance reflects the full amount of all deposits to your account as well as payment transactions (i.e. purchases or payments) that have been posted to your account. It does NOT reflect checks you have written and still outstanding or transactions that have been authorized but are still pending. 

Available balance

Your available balance is your actual balance less:

• Holds placed on deposits - i.e., a check hold

• Holds on debit card or other transactions that have been authorized but are not yet posted

• Any other holds, such as holds related to pledges of account funds and minimum balance requirements or to comply with court orders

We use your available balance to determine whether there are sufficient funds in your account to pay items, including checks and drafts, as well as other ACH, debit card and other electronic transactions. Pending transactions and holds placed on your account may reduce your available balance and may cause your account to become overdrawn. Here's an example of actual balance versus available balance:

John Q Member has account has a balance of $500. He makes an ATM withdrawal of $100 and the actual balance on the account is now $400.

Beginning Account Balance:     $500.00
ATM Withdrawal:                       -$100.00
Actual Balance:                            $400.00

John has also used his debit card at the grocery store and the gas station - those transactions are pending - they have not cleared his account yet. Now let's take a look at John's account balance when the pending transactions are included:

Beginning Account Balance:     $500.00
ATM Withdrawal:                       -$100.00
Pending - Grocery Store              -$  50.00
Pending - Gas Station                 -$  25.00
Available Balance:                      $325.00 

Based on John's available balance at this time, any payment that attempts to clear his account that is more than $325 would be returned for non-sufficient funds. 

Please remember that you can always keep track of your balance through online banking and mobile banking. And if you have any questions about your account, please feel free to contact us at 901-380-7400 or visit any one of our banking centers.