WaMu free checking account? "available money" help please?!?

I had $200 in my bank, and last friday deposited $200 more, so why does it say that only $200 of my $400 is "available"?

I havent spent any of it, so it should all be there. Why wont it let me use the other $200? Im afraid to buy anything since I dont want to overspend..even though I have enough money in the bank. Help please.

The deposit that you made on Friday has not finished the clearing process and therefore that $200 is not available for you to spend.

If you made the deposit before the cutoff time, then the deposit is considered a Friday deposit, but still takes 3 - 5 BUSINESS DAYS to clear. On top of that, Friday deposits do not start the clearing process until Monday. So, your deposit, as long as it was considered a Friday deposit, would be available at the earliest Wednesday.

If you made the deposit after the cutoff time, then the deposit is considered a Monday deposit. It wll not start the clearing process until Tuesday and will be available at the earliest on Thursday.

call the bank.

Did you use the ATM to deposit the money or a live teller. My account always shows that the money is available if I deposit with the teller, but it takes a while for the funds to become available if deposited through the ATM.

For the amount you are talking about, there is no reason for them to hold the funds if you deposited with a teller.

When you deposit a check, those funds aren't immediately available. How long it takes before the funds are available depends on the check itself. Most of the time it will be the next business day, but for large amounts it can be a week or so.

If it is a new account there may be a period of months when checks may not clear until they clear. Out of state personal checks may take longer. But if it was deposited in an ATM Friday, they may not even get to the machine to see what it is until today (Monday).

Once you have had the account for awhile, they should clear $100 of a deposit right away. But maybe not if you have had overdrafts and/or no overdraft protection.

There is a lag time between when you deposit money and when you can spend it. The lag time should not be for more than 3 days. This is so the bank can get the funds from the other banks that was included in your last deposit.