What is the difference between balance and available balance?

Your account balance is the total amount of money that is currently in your account, including any pending transactions (e.g., debit card purchases that have not cleared).

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.

You should always use the available balance to determine how much money you have available for purchases and withdrawals. Otherwise you might overdraw your account if you spend based on your account balance and it is higher than your available balance.

There are options available to protect you from an overdrawn account. Learn more about our overdraft protection options.

Need access to your accounts on the go?

Handle all your personal banking in one convenient and secure place, and deposit checks with a click of your smartphone. Just download the Stanford FCU mobile app from the App Store or Google Play, then follow the prompts.