Hi r/personalfinance, I’m new to this subreddit as I figured it might help me get an answer to a question I’ve had for a while.
I have a 360 checking account with CapOne that I use for almost all of my daily purchases. Often times, I’ll see a pending transaction convert to a posted one, as you’d expect. Occasionally, however, a pending transaction will disappear for a day or two, causing the funds to show as available in my account. On a few occasions, I’ve spent those funds either by accident or through an auto-charge from another vendor. This has caused my balance to go negative.
I opted out of overdraft protection, so these are the only circumstances under which my account has even gone negative and CapOne doesn’t charge a fee. I don’t think this has much of a negative affect on my standing with the bank, but I still dislike it. My question is: why does this happen? Why doesn’t the pending authorization stay pending under the charge is finalized? It just seems strange to me, and could potentially be harmful to anyone whom it happens to frequently.
After noticing this, I’ve made more of an effort to avoid it, but I still worry that it’s bad. Any information would be appreciated, as the bank just provided generic information.
