Tracking Transactions

Your available balance is the money currently in your checking or savings account for purchases, withdrawals, etc. It’s updated throughout the day with posted or pending transactions, like getting cash from an ATM and making debit card purchases.

The available balance reflects holds, but does not include checks that haven’t posted. It determines Overdraft Fees and Returned Item Fees.

Here's how your available balance is calculated:

In Online Banking, you can click the question mark next to your available balance to see exactly how your balance was calculated.

Keep in mind that your available balance differs from your current balance, which is the amount in your account after processing each night and does not change throughout the day. It does not include holds or pending transactions. For example, if you buy gas late at night with a debit card, the charge would not affect your current balance until the gas station processes your transaction and it posts to your account.

Your current balance is used to determine extended overdraft fees.

Finally, a third type of balance you might see is, your collected balance. It is the same as the current balance, except that it does not include any deposited checks for which we have yet to receive credit (the actual funds).

Generally, check deposits received by the cut-off time on business days are available the next day. But in some cases, we may place a hold on your account for a portion or full amount of a deposited check. If a hold is placed, those funds are not available to cover items during posting or for withdrawals and purchases until the hold expires.

There are a number of factors that contribute to a hold decision, including a review of account history and history of prior deposits. We encourage you to monitor your account and available balance through Online Banking and Mobile Banking. You can also sign up for email and text alerts in Online Banking to help manage your account activity.

If we place a hold on your deposit, we will notify you in one or more of these ways:

• Online and Mobile Banking
• Text Message (if you’ve enrolled in Online or Mobile Banking and have provided your mobile phone number)
• A detailed Notice of Hold (ATM receipt, email and/or letter via USPS

You will also be able to see the hold with this information in Online Banking, Mobile Banking and through our Automated Telephone Banking. You’ll be able to click on the transaction for details about when the funds will be available.

Learn more about Funds Availability and view our Funds Availability Policy for Deposit Accounts.

Check deposits display immediately after you make them so you can confirm we received them before they are posted and added to your balance. When you click on a pending deposit transaction, you’ll see that $0 is available now. That’s because the check has not yet posted, but we’ll confirm the deposit amount and explain when funds will be available (provided a hold is not placed).

Payments that come directly from your account are called electronic debits or ACH (Automated Clearing House) transactions. They are commonly used to make recurring payments like your car insurance, mortgage, gym membership or utility bills. Same for when you pay bills via Online Banking or Mobile Banking.

ACH/electronic debits will be deducted from your available balance as soon as we receive them for payment. They are not guaranteed—if you don't have a sufficient balance in your account or in an Overdraft Protection account, we may return or not pay the item and assess a Returned Item Fee. If we choose to pay the ACH/electronic debit on your behalf when your balance is not sufficient, we may assess an Overdraft Item Fee.

Note: By providing your checking account and routing numbers to a merchant, you are authorizing them to take ACH/electronic payments from your account according to your signed agreement. Once authorized, SunTrust cannot stop these transactions. You must contact the merchant. However, if your account is debited when authorization has not been given, you may dispute the transaction provided it meets certain criteria.

Visit our Additional Transaction Types page for more about Electronic/ACH transactions.

There are a few different types of transfers that you can make:

• Internal transfers between your SunTrust accounts
• External transfers between your SunTrust account and your account at another bank, or to a third party
• Payments to almost any individual with a bank account in the U.S (Zelle^®)²  
  
• Wire transfers

The type of transfer you make determines when the funds will be available.
With Internal Transfers, you will have immediate access to funds.
With External Transfers, funds are available up to three days after the transfer.
With Zelle, money can be received typically in minutes.²
With Wire Transfers, funds are available once the transfer is processed.

There are no charges for internal transfers between SunTrust accounts, for an incoming transfer from your account at another financial institution or for standard Zelle transactions. To see the fees that apply to other transfers, view our Fee Schedule.

Visit our Additional Transaction Types page to learn how to initiate these transfers.

Debit card transactions show up as pending before they post, or are considered final. This is because we won’t know the final amount until the merchant submits it to us for payment.

For transactions where a tip is included (i.e., restaurant), or an estimated authorization amount is run (i.e., hotel), the amount that posts may be more than when it was pending, because any tips or extra expenditures weren’t added to the transaction until the merchant submitted it.

In some cases, the posted amount may be less than the authorized amount from a hotel, car rental agency, etc., as they commonly include a refundable deposit in their authorization.

In any case, SunTrust does not determine the authorization amount—the merchant does. If you’d like details, ask the merchant how their authorizations work, or what the standard amount is. Generally, authorizations stay on your account for three days, and are removed if no follow up transaction posts.

Most merchants process transactions within three days, but can take five or more. If a merchant submits a final transaction for posting after the initial three-day time period, you are still responsible for the payment.

We provide as much information as we can about each debit card transaction in Online and Mobile Banking. When you click on a transaction, you’ll see the date and time of the transaction, the last four digits of the debit card number used, a merchant description and location. Pending transaction amounts that may be changed by the merchant before posting are also noted, such as an added tip or release of a hotel deposit.

Learn more on our Debit Card Transactions page.

A check is a request to pay a specific amount of money from your checking account to another person, merchant or organization. You can also write a check to withdraw cash from your own account. The timing of when a check impacts your balance is determined by when and how it is presented for payment.

• If you write a check to a person and it gets cashed at a SunTrust branch, we'll immediately lower your available balance
• When you write a check to a person or merchant and they deposit it into their account, your account balance will be reduced when the check is deposited and sent to us for processing

In any case, if your available balance is not sufficient to cover the transaction amount and you do not have an Overdraft Protection account set up with sufficient funds, we may choose to return, or not pay the check and assess a Returned Item Fee. If we choose to pay the check on your behalf, we may assess an Overdraft Item Fee.

Learn more about Overdraft Services and Overdraft Fees.