When you see money in your checking account, especially after making a deposit, you might think you can spend that money right away.  However, financial institutions often place “holds” on your deposits consisting of checks, preventing you from using the money for a period.  As a result, you could end up with bounced checks or having problems with automatic deductions that occur from your account.

A check hold is a temporary delay in making funds available.  Your account history shows all deposits and the money is added to your actual account balance, but the money is not part of your available balance.  The key word to remember is “available.”

Rockland Federal Credit Union will use your Available Account Balance when determining whether a transaction will overdraw your account.  Your checking account has two types of balances:  The Actual Account Balance and the Available account balance.  It is important to understand how the two balances work so that you can avoid unnecessary overdraft fees.

Actual Account Balance:

The full amount of money that can be in your account at any given time.  It reflects the full amount of any deposits made to your account without regard to any portion of a deposit that may be on hold.  It also reflects payment transactions that have “posted” to your account, but not payment transactions that have been authorized and are pending.  While the term “actual” may sound as though the number you see is an up-to-date display of what is in your account that you can spend, that is not always the case.  Any holds on deposits, holds on funds authorized for purchases, payments, fees and other charges made on your account that have not yet posted will not appear in your Actual Account Balance.

Available Account Balance:

The Available Account Balance takes into account items like holds placed on deposits and pending transactions (such as debit card purchases) that the credit union has authorized, but have not yet posted to your account.  It is important to keep track of debit card purchases that you have authorized the credit union to pay but have not yet posted to your Actual Account Balance.

RFCU’s Funds Availability Policy:

·       The first $500 from a deposit of checks will be available on the first business day after the day of your deposit.  If your deposit is less than $5,525, the remaining funds will be available on the second business day after the day of your deposit.

·       If your deposit is more than $5,525 or we have reason to believe that the check will be returned unpaid, there may be a delay of up to 7 business days for the remaining funds to be available.

We will notify you if we delay your ability to withdraw funds and we will tell you when the funds will be available.