Available Balance Myths!

Reckoner99

Hello To Everyone!

I've been searching the web for a few days about this subject and there doesn't seem to be a great deal about it.

What i'm talking about are those situations when you use your debit card (Visa generally) but your available balance doesn't update. We are not going to even talk about the overall acct balance as this takes anything up to a week to read correctly.

Now i don't know about the rest of you but i have always been told that "Available Balance" was the one you needed to keep in your head when using your card. Every time you use your debit card at the till the available usually (And i was told always) updates instantly, leaving the acct balance to update a few days later.

This isn't a problem as you can always log onto internet banking, ignore the act balance but make note of available balance and know where you.

However i'm noticing more instances where the available balance isn't also updating when you have used your visa debit card.

I feel especially at this time of year it maybe useful to cobble together a list of places and situations where when we have used a visa debit our available balance has taken 1-2 days to update.

Now take Christmas shopping for example you may go late night shopping afterwork, without checking your acct balance first but knowing you have roughly say £500 in there. Make a number of purchases all on your Visa Debit card and check your internet banking when you get in.

When you do check and it says available balance of say £278 can that figure be trusted? I used to think it could be as some transactions have come out but there maybe another 1 or so which update the available balance later....

Why is this?

For instance we know all self service tills in supermarkets and pay at the pump update available balance later. But i bought a bike in halfords last week at the till using my visa debit and it took 3 days for my available balance to read true when i thought it should do it straightaway.

I have also noticed Aldi do this.

So what is it? I'm with Lloyds Bank. Is it a Visa thing? A Lloyds thing? or does it depend on which system the shop use?

What have everyone else noticed?

Is there a bank acct with a card out there which always has an accurate available balance?

Thanks for reading....

Reckoner

innovate

A bank can only update their data when the retailer! or the card provider! tells them about a transaction. This does not always happen instantly.

You need to keep your own records because only you know what you spent, and what sort of DDs etc will come out.

grumbler

Reckoner99 wrote: »

...i have always been told that "Available Balance" was the one you needed to keep in your head when using your card.

Yes, it's more accurate than just balance.

Every time you use your debit card at the till the available usually (And i was told always) updates instantly, leaving the acct balance to update a few days later.

What you were told was untrue.

When you do check and it says available balance of say £278 can that figure be trusted?

No

Why is this?

Not all retailers process transactions online/instantly, especially for 'offline' cards that don't require connection with the bank to process a transaction. In fact they have up to 6 months to take the money after you authorised a transaction.

bengal-stripe

Reckoner99 wrote: »

However i'm noticing more instances where the available balance isn't also updating when you have used your visa debit card.

Why is this?

There are two types of Debit Cards: on-line and off-line. The off-line ones are issued to the bank's better customers and do not need authorization for every transaction. Presuming the transaction is under the "floor limit", it will just go through; checking only for stopped cards but not your balance for the actual amount. Until the transaction actually appears at your bank to be booked, the bank would not know that the actual transaction has taken place. On-line cards (issued to customers banks consider more dubious) will need an electronic sanction even for the smallest amount.

So, your best bet (if you have an off-line card) is to keep the receipts and to reconcile them with your bank balance after your day of shopping.

System

Clydesdale/Yorkshire Bank is the first bank I have been with where you use your debit card and the debit shows immediately online. However, as pointed out earlier this does not work for all retailers - Sainsburys, ASDA, Waitrose, even small retailers show up immediately but there others that take a couple of days (Aldi, for example).


The key is to keep an accurate record yourself of everything coming in and going out of your account. Use an app like Pocket Money from Catamount Software and you will know exactly where you are without recourse to the bank.


Occasionally go through your bank statement and check off cleared items so the balance tallies with the bank. This means that you can spot the odd transaction you didn't record. I'm a bit OCD about this and spend quite some time tracking down the odd penny difference, lol.


Best of all you always know where you are.

meer53

Pen and a piece of paper. Never wrong, always shows up to date balances.

System

Indeed, but reconciliation is more difficult this way and software allows you to sync with a phone so you carry around up-to-date data and can download from the cloud should you need to.


Also, software can automatically take care of your direct debits and standing orders so they are debited from your available balance at the start of the month. It is easy to see what you actually have to play with.

jonesMUFCforever

You could use a credit card to pay for transactions especially for the S75 cover.
No brainer in my mind.

grumbler

With a small credit limit you'll face the same problem.

meer53

scgf wrote: »

Indeed, but reconciliation is more difficult this way and software allows you to sync with a phone so you carry around up-to-date data and can download from the cloud should you need to.


Also, software can automatically take care of your direct debits and standing orders so they are debited from your available balance at the start of the month. It is easy to see what you actually have to play with.

I disagree. Reconciliation is much easier this way. No risk of software or download issues. No power needed. Just a functioning brain. You don't even need a calculator.

System

Difficult on paper to have the two balances at your disposal the cleared balance you can compare with what the bank says you have and your actual balance.