Current vs Available balance

Current balance is the total amount of funds that you currently have on your account. This does not necessarily mean that all of it is available for you to spend. Some of the funds on your account may be from value loads that has yet to be completed/processed and/or pre-authorization charges that has yet to go through. 

The available balance is the amount of funds that are free for you to use. This amount does not include any holds or pending transactions that has yet to be posted to your account. 

Say you have CAD 100 on both your available and current balance, then you used your card at a restaurant for CAD 30. A hold is then placed on your account, so your available balance is only CAD 70. However, your current balance will continue to remain at CAD 100 until the restaurant charge is sent to the appropriate payment system for processing. 

Typically transactions remain pending on your account for up to 8 days, but can occasionally take up to 31 days (i.e. hotel & car rental deposits) to be credited back. Transactions are automatically reversed if the merchant does not collect the funds within this time. 

If your current and available balance is identical, that means that there are no pending transactions on your account.

Before attempting a transaction, it is best that you double check your available balance to confirm if your account has enough funds to cover the transaction. 

Feel like our article is lacking? Please let us know. We'd love to hear your feedback. 

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