Available balance vs actual balance.

If you look at your accounts on internet banking, you’ll notice each account shows two amounts: ‘balance’ and ‘available’.

Here’s what they mean:

• ‘Balance’ shows how much money is actually in your account

• ‘Available’ shows how much money you’re allowed to use

Why the difference?

Whenever you use a card to pay for something on your account, the money will be instantly put aside for the transaction – but it’s not actually sent to the seller until later, when they put in a claim for it. They can take up to 10 days to do this, but normally it's only 1 or 2.

Long story short: any difference between the ‘balance’ and ‘available’ amounts represents money you’ve already spent. Hasta la vista, baby.