Pending vs Available Balance

What is a Pending or Available Balance?

Your available balance is the amount of money in the account before any pending charges are deducted, and is the maximum amount you can remove. The pending balance represents the funds in the account, including pending transactions. These have important implications in personal finance. For example, When using a debit card, you can only spend the available balance. Until pending transactions have been cleared, an account holder's available balance and pending balance may differ. 

What are Pending Transactions?

There are a few ways to have pending transactions on your account. Primarily when doing a transaction with a debit card, if the receiver of the transaction does not submit the payment they received from you yet, it will be considered part of the pending balance. While the money was already taken from the available balance, the transaction was not confirmed by the receiver. Other pending transactions include tips or hold on rentals (boats, cars, hotels, etc). There are also types of pending transactions that are not shown in the pending balance or available balance. For example, written checks can be sent out, but will not be reflected in the account until someone uses them for payment. 

Ultimately, even your bank or your pending account may not accurately reflect your transactions, so it is extremely important to be aware of all future and pending transactions.