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Pending Check Card TransactionsPending transactions, also called authorizations, may appear in amounts as small as $1. Their purpose is to verify that your card is valid. They also hold funds in your account until the transaction actually posts - usually within 1-5 business days. The posted amount will be the actual purchase amount.
Overdrafts Based on Available – not Current – Balance
Check Card merchant authorizations, which now arrive in your account in real time, place a hold on funds and reduce your checking account’s available balance. You can review those authorizations in CU@home® Online to closely track your spending. Please note that your available balance will always be lower than your running or current balance whenever merchant authorizations are pending in your account. Here’s why that is important:
If your available balance is insufficient due to an authorization, an overdraft may occur even though your current balance is still positive. If this happens, funds from your pre-arranged overdraft account (savings, line of credit, credit card) may be moved to cover subsequent transactions. That overdraft transfer – and your available balance at the time of the transfer – will be listed in CU@home® Online. It will also be listed in the memo field of your monthly paper statement or PDF eStatement, but only if you have chosen the chronological order statement format, where credits and debits are listed in the order in which they occur. If you want that format, just give us a call.
You pay no transfer fee for overdraft transfers from savings or other SLFCU accounts. You will be charged a $5 transfer fee for overdrafts covered by your credit card. If an automatic transfer occurs to cover your transaction, you may check your monthly statement or CU@home® transaction history to see your available balance at that time. If you have questions about your available balance at the time of an overdraft transfer, and you cannot resolve them with the information on your statement, please call us at 505-293-0500 or 800-947-5328.
Why am I seeing Pending Transactions for $1.00?
A merchant may submit a $1.00 authorization to determine that your ATM/check card is a valid, active card. This type of pre-authorization is normally used prior to completion of a check card (credit) transaction when the final transaction amount is unknown. Some examples of transactions when this commonly occurs are pay-at-the-pump gas purchases or for online merchandise purchases. Debit (PIN-entered) gas purchase pre-authorization amounts are usually $75.00 - $100.00.
Other Authorization vs. Transaction Amount Differences
Other types of common merchant pre-authorizations are for hotel and/or rental car reservations. The amount for these types of pre-authorizations is usually more than $1.00 and is used to hold an amount that will be close to the final transaction amount. Some restaurants will authorize an additional 10 – 20% of your transaction amount to allow for a gratuity that may be added to the total transaction amount.
Please refer to your transaction receipts or online purchase confirmations to determine the transaction amount that will be deducted when the authorization is submitted. If you don’t recognize a pending transaction, you can call us or send a secure CU@home message and we can check the merchant name and authorization amount for you. The pre-authorized amounts will drop when the actual transaction is posted or after 5 calendar days, whichever comes first. The merchant may still submit the transaction for posting to your account after 5 calendar days, but the transaction will not display as a pending transaction.
What are Pending Check/ATM Card Transactions?
They are check/debit card charges that have not officially posted to your account. For example, you may shop at Wal-Mart today and use your check card to pay for your purchases. The transaction may not deduct the funds from your account for 1-5 business days. During this time, the transaction is considered “pending”. Pending Transactions will display on the Account Activity page in a separate table above the Posted Transactions (account history).
The pending transactions table will display:
Date - transaction date,
Card - the last four digits of the Check/ATM card used,
Type - ATM/Check Card for debit transactions or CheckCard Authorization for credit (signature) transactions,
Description - merchant name and/or location information
Debit/Credit – authorization amount
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