Unavailable funds fee

Overview

The "unavailable funds" fee, not to be confused with the "NSF", "overdraft", "exceed hold" or "overlimit" fees, is a fee that results from a transaction that posts to a negative available balance and a positive physical balance, as applied to a Demand Deposit Account; usually a checking account. The fee is typically applied at the end of the business day, as most banks process transactions at the end of each business day. To understand how an "unavailable funds fee" comes to be, it is very important to understand the following 3 parts of a checking account:
Posted Balance Available Balance Holds

The Posted Balance The "posted balance" is money that physically is in the account. This balance is the result of a transaction that has a date in the past. This is the actual or the "real balance" of the money in the account.

The Available Balance The "available balance" is the "posted balance" minus the total of the "holds" that have that date or a date in the future, for example use this sample from an imaginary account with an opening balance of $100.00 In this example only $20.00 has physically left the account, but for some reason $10.00 is on hold.

financial institutions know to have implemented unavailable funds fees

United States of America
Bank of America, N.A
Wachovia bank, N.A.
U.S. Bank, N.A.
Suntrust Bank, N.A.
Sovereign Bank N.A.

Governance

United States of America
not all overspending fees are officially defined or regulated in the United states [http://http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/index.html]
USA national banks, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency [http://www.occ.treas.gov]
Credit Unions, National Credit Union Administration [http://www.ncua.gov ]
Savings Associations, Office of Thrift Supervision [http://www.ots.treas.gov ]
Federal Reserve Consumer Help [http://www.FederalReserveConsumerHelp.gov ]

ee also

*Non-sufficient funds
*Overdraft
*Overdraft protection
*Deposit account
*Debit card

External links

* [http://www.odnsf.com Overdraft Fee Message Board]
* [http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2005-10-04-bank-fees-usat_x.htm USA Today: Rising bank fees hit consumers]