Overdraft Disclosures

Overdraft Disclosures

We may pay overdrafts in your checking account, and Money Market accounts for checking transactions, and charge you a fee. “Overdraft” means there is not enough available balance in your account. If we pay for an overdraft, we will charge a fee of $25 or the current rate described in our “Rate and Fee Addendum” which is updated periodically. Please note that for ATM and one-time debit card transactions, you must affirmatively opt-in to this coverage. Without your consent, we may not authorize and pay an ATM or one-time debit card transaction that will result in insufficient available funds in your account. The following is important information regarding your account balance, how transactions are posted to your account, and when an overdraft fee will be charged. You should read these disclosures carefully. If you have questions, please see a branch representative or call 800-342-3086.

Your Account Balance

Your account has two kinds of balances: the “actual” balance and the “available” balance. Both can be checked when you review your account online, at an ATM (except Money Market accounts), by phone, or at a branch. It is important to understand how the two balances work so that you know how much money is in your account at any given time. This section explains actual and available balances and how they work.

Your actual balance is the full amount of all unused deposits to your account, even though some portion of a deposit may be on hold and may not be available to you or may be pending receipt of funds from a third party, reduced by payment transactions that have actually been presented to us for payment, and have processed to your account, but not payment transactions that have been authorized and are pending, or all or portions of checks or other deposits that have not yet posted. Thus, while the term “actual” may sound as though the number you see is an up-to-date display of what is in your account that you can spend, that is not always the case. For example, if you have a $50 actual balance, but you just wrote a check for $40, then your actual balance is $50 but it does not reflect the pending check transaction. So at that point, you have $50 in your actual balance, but you have already spent $40.

Your available balance is the amount of money in your account that is available to you to use. The available balance takes into account things like holds placed on deposits and pending transactions (such as pending debit card purchases) that Ascend has authorized but that have not yet posted to your account. Other holds on funds, such as a levy, also impact the immediate availability of funds. For example, assume you have an actual balance of $50 and an available balance of $50. If you were to swipe your debit card at a restaurant to buy lunch for $20, then that merchant could ask us to pre-authorize the payment (referred to as a “pre-authorization commitment”). If we do so, we are obligated to pay the merchant, even if your available account balance is negative at the time the debit card transaction is presented to us by the merchant for payment. In that case, we will put a “hold” on your account for $20. Your actual balance would still be $50 because this transaction has not yet posted, but your available balance would be $30 because you have committed to pay the restaurant $20. When the restaurant submits its bill for payment (which could be a few days later), we will post the transaction to your account and your actual balance will be reduced by $20.

When your Account is Overdrawn

Your account is overdrawn if both your actual balance (at the time a transaction is posted) and your available balance (at the time a transaction is authorized) are insufficient to cover the amount of a transaction. The following example illustrates how this works:

Again, assume your actual and available balances are both $50, and you swipe your debit card at a restaurant for $20. The merchant requests a pre-authorization commitment from us to pay the $20 transaction. Because you have $50 available in your account, we will likely authorize the transaction for payment and will reduce your available balance to $30. Your actual balance is still $50. Before the restaurant charge is presented for payment, a check that you wrote for $40 clears. Because you have only $30 available (you have committed to pay the restaurant $20), your account will be overdrawn by $10, even though your actual balance is $50. In this case, we may pay the $40 check, but you will be charged an overdraft fee of $25. That fee will be deducted from your account, further reducing the balance. However, in general, no overdraft fee will be charged on the debit card transaction since your available balance was sufficient to pay it at the time of preauthorization. Please note that there are circumstances in which our system may also charge a fee on the debit card transaction, as described above.

It's very important to understand that you may still overdraw your account even though the available balance appears to show there are sufficient funds to cover a transaction that you want to make. This is because your available balance may not reflect all your outstanding checks and automatic bill payments that you have authorized, or other outstanding transactions that have not been paid from or posted to your account. In the example above, the outstanding check will not be reflected in your available balance until it is presented to us and paid from your account. Also, your available balance may not reflect recent deposits to your account that are subject to “holds” as described in the section of your Membership Agreement entitled “Availability of Funds Disclosure.”

In addition, your available balance may not reflect all of your debit card transactions. For example, if a merchant obtains our pre-authorization commitment but does not submit a one-time debit card transaction for payment within three business days of authorization (or for up to 30 business days for certain types of debit card transactions), we must release the authorization hold on the transaction. The available balance will not reflect this transaction once the hold has been released until the transaction has been received by us and paid from your account.

Even though we may increase your available balance when a merchant does not submit the pre-authorized commitment transaction timely, the commitment to pay the transaction still applies and we must honor the payment commitment. The period for the pre-authorized commitment may be different for certain types of merchants, such as gas stations, that may have a preauthorization commitment period of several hours. You acknowledge and agree we are not obligated to notify you if your account does not have a sufficient actual account balance in order to pay transactions you have initiated.

Authorizing a Transaction

Your available balance (plus any Overdraft Privilege funds applicable to your account) is used to determine whether we will authorize a transaction for payment. Check, draft, and ACH transactions are authorized for payment when they are presented for payment. Your debit card transactions are authorized when you swipe your card at a merchant location or when you provide your debit card to an online merchant. Your debit card transactions may not be received for payment for several days after they are authorized.

How Transactions are Posted to Your Account

There are basically two types of transactions in your account: credits or deposits of money into your account, and debits or payments out of your account. It is important to understand how each is applied to your account so that you know how much money you have and how much is available to you at any given time. This section explains generally how and when we post transactions to your account.

Credits. Most deposits are added to your account when we receive them. For some checks you deposit, only $225 will be made available at the time of deposit; the balance will be available two business days later. There may be extended holds on checks over $5,525 or in other circumstances. Thus, your available balance may not reflect the most recent deposits to your account. For details on the availability for withdrawal of your deposits, see the section of your Membership Agreement entitled “Availability of Funds Disclosure.”

Debits. There are several types of debit transactions. Each type of debit transaction is described generally below. Keep in mind that there are many ways transactions are presented for payment by merchants, and Ascend is not necessarily in control of when transactions are received.

  • Signature Debit Card Transactions. These are transactions where you make a purchase with your debit card and you do not enter your personal identification number (PIN) but you are instead asked to sign for the purchase. As described above, in these situations, the merchant may seek prior authorization for the transaction. When that happens, we generally reduce the available funds in your account by the amount of the authorization request. We refer to this as an “authorization hold.” Authorization holds are deducted from your available balance immediately but not your actual balance until after you sign for the transaction and it is processed by the merchant and submitted to us for payment. This can happen hours or sometimes days after you signed for it, depending on the merchant and its processing company. These payment requests are received in real time throughout the day and are posted to your account as they are received. Please note: the amount of an authorization hold may differ from the actual payment because the final transaction amount may not yet be known to the merchant when the authorization request is submitted. For example, if you use your card at a restaurant, a hold will be placed in the amount of the bill presented to you, but when the transaction posts it will include any tip that you may have added to the bill. This may also be the case where you swipe your debit card at gas stations and hotels and other retail establishments. We cannot control how much a merchant asks us to authorize, or when a merchant submits a transaction for payment.
  • Checks. When you write a check, it is processed through the Federal Reserve system. We receive data files of cashed checks from the Federal Reserve each day. The checks drawn on your account are compiled from these data files and paid each day. We process the payments from low to high dollar value.
  • ACH Payments. We receive data files every day from the Federal Reserve with Automated Clearing House or ACH transactions. These include, for example, automatic bill pays you have signed up for. Each day, ACH payment transactions are paid in the order they are presented in the data file we receive from the Federal Reserve. Available for Money Market accounts.
  • Point of Sale (POS) Debit Card Transactions. These are transactions where you use your debit card, and you enter your PIN at the time of the sale. They are similar to ATM withdrawals because money is usually deducted from your account immediately at the time of the transaction. However, some POS transactions are not presented for payment immediately; it depends on the merchant.

This is a general description of how certain types of transactions are posted. These practices may change, and we reserve the right to pay items in any order we chose as permitted by law. We may receive multiple deposit and withdrawal transactions on your account in many different forms throughout each business day. This means that you may be charged more than one fee if we pay multiple transactions when your account is overdrawn. In addition, we may receive multiple withdrawal attempts on a single transaction. This means that you may be charged a fee each time it is presented. For Money Market accounts, we will also charge an excess withdrawal fee if you exceed the six-withdrawal-per-month limit (includes transfers). Please see Rate and Fee Addendum for fee amount.

OVERDRAFT FEES AND INSUFFICIENT FUNDS FEES

Fee Assessments

If a transaction is presented for payment and you do not have a sufficient available account balance, we may assess an overdraft or insufficient funds fee depending on whether the transaction is paid or returned. This section explains these two fees.

  • a. If a check or ACH payment transaction is not authorized, then it will be returned unpaid and we will assess an insufficient funds fee. Note: except for recurring debit card transactions, this does not apply to debit card transactions; a debit card transaction that is not authorized will be declined with no corresponding fee when account funds are insufficient.
  • b. If a transaction is authorized and both your available account balance at the time of authorization and your ledger account balance at the time of payment are insufficient, we may, but are not obligated to, pay the transaction and will assess an overdraft fee.
  • c. You may be assessed more than one of these fees if multiple transactions are submitted for payment when the ledger account balance is insufficient (overdrawn).
  • d. You may be assessed more than one insufficient funds fee or an overdraft fee if a merchant submits the same payment multiple times after it has been initially rejected for payment.

THE BEST WAY TO KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE AND AVOID PAYING OVERDRAFT FEES IS TO RECORD AND TRACK ALL OF YOUR TRANSACTIONS CLOSELY.

IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND ACCOUNT BALANCES, HOW WE PROCESS TRANSACTIONS, OR WHEN YOUR ACCOUNT MAY BE SUBJECT TO OVERDRAFT OR INSUFFICIENT FUNDS FEES, PLEASE CONTACT US.

Checking Account Overdraft Protection
Not applicable to HSA checking accounts.

Upon opening your checking account or any time after, you may sign up for one of our overdraft protection plans. The first option transfers the exact amount of the overdraft from your regular savings account if available. Six transfers per month can be made at no charge (See “Rate and Fee Addendum” for additional fee info). Joint Owners designated on your checking account must also be joint on the savings account.

The second option is overdraft coverage through a personal line of credit loan at the current rate of interest. This option requires that you and any Joint Owner, if applicable, complete a loan application and be approved.

The third option allows you to combine the first two options by requesting that the overdraft amount be transferred from your regular savings account if the money is available. If not, then the overdraft amount would be covered through an approved personal line of credit loan. This can also work in reverse. You can request that, if you overdraft, first the loan will be extended to cover it up to your approval limit. If the loan does not completely cover the overdraft, the remainder will be taken from your savings account if it is available.

A fourth option is to have the amount of the overdraft transferred from a Money Market account. The Money Market account is allowed six free withdrawals each month and includes transfers. Any subsequent withdrawals, even if the funds are transferred to cover an overdraft on the checking account, will be charged a service fee. The per-transfer overdraft transfer fee will not be charged additionally for transfers from the Money Market account if you transfer more than six times in a given month. Joint Owners on the checking account must be joint on the Money Market account. See “Rate and Fee Addendum” for the most current fee amounts.

If the funds are not available in the overdraft option or options you have selected above, and if you do not have Overdraft Advantage, we will charge a fee for each returned check. (See “Rate and Fee Addendum” for the amount of the fee). Any personal line of credit loan delinquent by 14 days or more voids loan overdraft protection, and will result in a hold for the amount of the delinquency being placed on your savings account. In this case, funds may not be available for transfer from your savings account to clear the check resulting in a returned check and the corresponding fee.

Important Information Regarding the Overdraft Advantage Program
Not available for Money Market and Health Savings Account transactions.

Overdraft Advantage is a discretionary service offered to qualifying members with checking accounts. Ascend may pay an overdrawn amount and prevent a check from being returned to the merchant. If you qualify and opt-in to Overdraft Advantage for your debit card, we may also pay ATM and point-of-sale transactions with your card. Standard overdraft fees apply, but you may be spared the expense of paying fees charged by merchants. Ascend is under no obligation to pay items when your account has non-sufficient funds (NSF) even if previous NSF transactions were paid. Whether your overdrafts will be paid is discretionary, and we reserve the right not to pay, especially if your account is not in good standing. The Service does not constitute an actual or implied agreement between you and Ascend, nor does it constitute an actual or implied obligation of the Credit Union. The Service is a privilege that Ascend provides from time to time and which may be withdrawn, limited, or withheld by Ascend at any time, without prior notice, reason or cause.

Accounts in “good standing” are those in which Overdraft Advantage overdrafts are paid in a timely manner, all Ascend loans are current, and there is no evidence of account abuse or fraud. In any event, Ascend will not approve an overdraft in excess of the predetermined amount assigned to your account by Ascend. Please note that the amount of the overdraft plus the Overdraft Advantage fee per paid item will be deducted from the overdraft limit.

The amount of any overdraft including our fee for each item (paid or returned) that you owe us shall be due and payable upon demand no later than 45 calendar days after the creation of the overdraft.