Lloyds Bank Available Balance Query

[robinsky]

Good Evening,

 

I have a question about my 'available balance' on my Lloyds Bank account.

 

 

I paid a cheque into my account for £2,500 and

when I checked my balance later,

it showed I had £666 available to me,

this being after I had made some withdrawls from my account.

 

Furthermore, I was puzzled by this because I have an o/d of £600 and I was into it by about £510, approximately.

 

 

I got paid by my employer and found I had roughly £208.00 in my account, credit. I made a withdrawl of about £120.00 there and then.

 

All I can assume is that my available balance includes my planned overdraft limit, is this correct?

 

I have about £147.00 now of my available balance available - therefore, what happens once my cheque of £2,500 has cleared?

 

What would be my final account balance?

How would the bank work this out?

I am VERY confused.

 

 

Also, I've heard a bank can recall your o/d at any time.

 

 

Does this mean that because I have already paid in a substantial amount into my bank account, that I have in essence, cleared my o/d?

 

Sorry if this sounds confusing but I am confused.

[*RainbowTears*]

When did you pay the check in?

 

As it will not show until it has cleared, which is approx 3/4 working days. When it does clear you will then be able to see your account will be in credit by the cheque amount plus any other credit or minus any OD you have used.

 

Your Bank will/should not withdraw your OD facility, just because your in credit.

 

So this would mean for you as an example, once your cheque clears you will have £2500 + £600 OD available, meaning you would have access to £3100.

 

I hope this helps in making it less confusing for you.

[robinsky]

Hi RainbowTears,

 

my current balance was £2566 when I checked and I had an available balance of £666,

which includes the overdraft plus any available credit.

 

 

Therefore, upon recent checking, I have £147.00 available.

 

 

As I use my available balance, my account balance decreases.

 

 

Therefore, say for argument's sake my account balance was £2,500 and I used all of my available balance (which was my o/d) of £600

and my account balance was £1900.

Does that mean that my final account balance would be £1900? This is VERY confusing.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Best,

Robin.

[griffzilla]

Right, the £2500 has been assigned to your account, but the funds have not yet cleared, so aren't available to withdraw yet.

 

there's a few day 'clearing period' where the funds are requested from the cheque writers bank, and then transfers into the receivers bank.

 

 

The cheque could bounce (no funds in the writers bank) - so the bank don't let you access the funds until they are happy they will get the money.

[robinsky]

Griffzilla,

 

I have sent to you a PM. Basically, what I need to know is the following:

 

I have £2500 as my account balance and available balance of £600 (this is my overdraft, I am assuming). Each time I use it, my account balance decreases. Therefore, once my cheque has cleared, would my final balance, lets say I used all my available balance, would be £1900 and if my Overdraft hadn't been removed, then I would have access to £2500?

 

This is the part which is confusing me.

[*RainbowTears*]

Once cheque clears & as you are £600 OD.

 

Then your credit balance is £1900 (your own money) along with £600 OD (Banks money) giving you a total figure of £2500 available to you if you needed it.

[robinsky]

Thanks RainbowTears, that has sorted everything out for me now. However, the available balance doesn't show that I am OD, just what is available to me - a very clever trick by the bank that has been used there, in my opinion. Talk about lulling customers into a false sense of security. Still, I have paid off my OD now with the cheque, so that's good!

[dx100uk]

yep RT's got it in one...correct..

 

 

an OD is not credit and never shows as a +£600

the account will let you go -£600 that's the OD

 

 

dx

[*RainbowTears*]

Glad to have helped you...

 

Clearing your OD is certainly a good feeling to have indeed!

 

Good luck!

[robinsky]

In my opinion then, the Overdraft should not show as available funds as this is very misleading and can lead customers into a false sense of security - I feel like telling my bank I am not happy, but would I be silly doing this? I don't know, but I'm not happy because people who are not savvy in these subject matters could find themselves walking into a trap. Ouch!

 

Anyways, thank you for your help, totally understand this now. Its not a major issue for me at all, I just wanted to understand the principles as other websites that dealt with the subject matter were very limited in their explanations.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Thanks,

Robin

[robinsky]

Glad to have helped you...

 

Clearing your OD is certainly a good feeling to have indeed!

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks RainbowTears!

[*RainbowTears*]

You could always ask Lloyds to remove the £600 OD facility.

 

As at least this way, your available balance will be "your own money".

 

Either way it's entirely up to you.

[Klandestine]

As it will not show until it has cleared, which is approx 3/4 working days. When it does clear you will then be able to see your account will be in credit by the cheque amount plus any other credit or minus any OD you have used.

 

Right, the £2500 has been assigned to your account, but the funds have not yet cleared, so aren't available to withdraw yet.

 

there's a few day 'clearing period' where the funds are requested from the cheque writers bank, and then transfers into the receivers bank.

 

 

The cheque could bounce (no funds in the writers bank) - so the bank don't let you access the funds until they are happy they will get the money.

 

The above information isn't even true, so don't let it catch you out robinsky.

 

As you have found out, as soon as you pay the cheque in it will reflect in your account balance (not your available balance).

 

4 working days from the following working day that you pay the cheque in, the funds will become available (so reflected in your available balance too now).

 

However, the money is only considered cleared 6 working days from the following working day that you pay the cheque in. Up to this point the cheque can be returned in which case both your account balance and available balance will decrease.