You vs Your Bank Account (2024)

FAQs

Why is there a difference between what the bank says you have in your account and what you have for a balance in your account? ›

Your current balance reflects the amount of money in your bank account at any given moment. Your available balance is the amount of money you have to spend, including any pending payments and deposits. The key difference is that your pending purchases do not appear in the current balance.

Fees, dividends, interest, and certain bank charges not yet recorded in the cash book can cause a discrepancy between balances recorded per the cash book and passbook. Firms can resolve these differences by drawing a bank reconciliation statement.

You should notify the bank of the error as soon as possible. If the check was altered, the bank may require you to complete an affidavit to officially document the problem. If this was an encoding error, the bank should correct the account and notify the paying bank.

Because putting your money in an FDIC-insured bank account can offer you financial safety, easy access to your funds, savings from check-cashing fees, and overall financial peace of mind.

Some of the reasons for a difference between the balance on the bank statement and the balance on the books include: Outstanding checks. Deposits in transit. Bank service charges and check printing charges.

Bank accounts held jointly between two parties may be titled with an "and" or an "or" between the account holders' names. If the account is listed as an "and" account, then both/all parties must sign to access the funds. If it is an "or" account, only one party must sign.

One of the most common causes of disagreement between these two documents is timing differences. This happens when transactions are recorded on the cashbook at a different time from when they were recorded on the bank statement.

Services charges on the bank statements not yet recorded in the accounting records. NSF on the bank statements not yet recorded in the accounting records. Notes collected by the bank not yet recorded in the accounting records. Errors in the processing of checks and/or deposits made by the company.

Bank reconciliation statement is prepared to know the causes of difference between the balance as per bank column of the cash book and the passbook. This is because, both of these accounts show same transactions but with different point of views.

If your bank makes a mistake, you should alert them as soon as you notice it. Your bank will also run regular audits of your accounts, which can help them catch errors. When they do catch a mistake, it must be resolved with the funds going back to the correct account.

What happens if someone writes you a check and it bounces? ›

The bank declines to honor the check and “bounces” it back to the account holder, who is typically charged a penalty fee for nonsufficient funds (NSF). A bounced check is sometimes called a “rubber check.” There are other factors that cause checks to bounce, but lack of funds is the most common one.

Getting my stolen money back

Provided you've done nothing to compromise the security of your account, you should get your money back. But this isn't guaranteed. Refunds can be delayed or refused if the bank has reasonable grounds to think you've been grossly negligent, such as telling someone your PIN or password.

What is predatory lending? Lending and mortgage origination practices become "predatory" when the borrower is led into a transaction that is not what they expected. Predatory lending practices may involve lenders, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers, attorneys, and home improvement contractors.

However, despite their gradual decline in use, checks haven't become completely extinct. We still keep our money in checking accounts, we still balance our checkbooks, and new banking technologies (mobile check imaging is one example) are being introduced to improve the process of paying by check.

Basics of Blacklisting: Blacklisting frequently results from poor money management, loan defaults, or a history of late payments. These bad ratings are reported to credit reference organisations, which lowers your credit score and makes it harder for you to get loans and even bank accounts.

Your available balance is the total amount of money in your account that you can use for purchases and withdrawals, as it excludes pending transactions and check holds from your account balance. However, the available balance will not show checks that haven't been cashed or deposits which haven't posted.

An incorrect bank balance happens because the data hasn't been reconciled to the bank correctly. It is up to you to check that the opening balance is correct and that the bank balance is correct after each bank statement import (or after entering any transactions manually).

The available balance for your account may differ from the current balance because of pending transactions that have been presented against the account, but have not yet been processed.

If you haven't made any payments and have made additional purchases since your billing cycle ended, your current balance will likely be more than your statement balance. These two numbers could also be the same if you made purchases during your billing cycle but didn't make any payments.