Available Balance Query

johnsmithy

Hi,

I have a question about available balance. I am assuming that your available balance does incorporate your overdraft. However, I had paid off my overdraft recently and was about £47 in credit.

Then I checked my account and my available balance was £647.00. I have a £600 overdraft so, sorry for sounding like an idiot, that this includes my overdraft? I noticed when you withdraw against your available balance that this reduces your account balance, so if I took out £10 from my available balance and my account balance was £2547.00, this would show £2537.00 as my final balance. Therefore, once my cheque had cleared, would my final account balance still be £2537.00? I am very confused as I don't think an available balance should incorporate your planned overdraft as this could put a customer into a false sense of security.

Thanks for any help/advice.

Robin.

grumbler

robinmckay wrote: »

I had paid off my overdraft recently and was about £47 in credit.

Then I checked my account and my available balance was £647.00. I have a £600 overdraft so, sorry for sounding like an idiot, that this includes my overdraft?

Yes, you can spend your £47 and borrow £600.

£47+£600=£647.

(Available balance)=(Real balance)+(Overdraft limit)
The real balance can be positive (in credit) or negative (in debit ).

I noticed when you withdraw against your available balance that this reduces your account balance,so if I took out £10 from my available balance and my account balance was £2547.00, this would show £2537.00 as my final balance. Therefore, once my cheque had cleared, would my final account balance still be £2537.00?

It isn't clear what cheque came into equation and how. I think until it's cleared your available balance is smaller than the real balance. How come the available balance is £2547 then?

NotRichAtAll

robinmckay wrote: »

Hi,

I have a question about available balance. I am assuming that your available balance does incorporate your overdraft. However, I had paid off my overdraft recently and was about £47 in credit.

Then I checked my account and my available balance was £647.00. I have a £600 overdraft so, sorry for sounding like an idiot, that this includes my overdraft? I noticed when you withdraw against your available balance that this reduces your account balance, so if I took out £10 from my available balance and my account balance was £2547.00, this would show £2537.00 as my final balance. Therefore, once my cheque had cleared, would my final account balance still be £2537.00? I am very confused as I don't think an available balance should incorporate your planned overdraft as this could put a customer into a false sense of security.

Thanks for any help/advice.

Robin.

You say it's a planned overdraft, so you are aware that you have a £600 buffer. You have £47 of your money so basic math tells me hey "there's £647 here but only £47 of that is actually mine, the other £600 is my buffer that i have arranged/planned with my bank"

Now i bank with santander and i have a £500 overdraft if i log into my account i can see at the top that i have 2 information boxes clearly explaining to me Current balance £xxxx.xx and Available balance £xxxx.xx and you have hopefully cottoned on that Available balance is £500 higher than Current balance.

And yes the bank telling you that hey you got an Available balance of £xxxx also includes our £600 ie YOUR planned overdraft is in my opinion correct.

easy ain't it !!

Dobbibill

You account balance will be anything IN your account -cleared or not
(if you pay a cheque in it will show here & as a statement entry)

available balance will be made up of anything that is available to spend

it will deduct debit card payments (if they requested authorisation from the bank)
it will deduct a cheque if the funds have not cleared yet

but will add on an overdraft


If you withdraw cash at a cashpoint it will come off both account balance and available balance at the same time as these are normally shown immediately

It can be confusing if there is alot of activity on account over the same few days

hope this helps

DB