Important Frequently Asked Questions

Courtesy Pay FAQs

• What are Metro’s Courtesy Pay limits?

  Courtesy Pay limits will be determined and assigned by Credit Union management, and limits may be changed by management without notice. Generally, your overdraft limit, not including Courtesy Pay fees, will be $400.
  
  Your specific Courtesy Pay limit is available anytime by logging on to our mobile app or online banking.

• What is your fee for Courtesy Pay?

  Our Courtesy Pay fee is $33.

• What is your Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) Fee?

  Our NSF Fee is $0 per transaction charge.
  

• Are there situations where Metro will not charge its $33 overdraft/Courtesy Pay fee?

  You will only be charged an overdraft/Courtesy Pay fee on checks and ACHs if both of the following are true:

  1. The charge attempting to clear is greater than $5.
  2. The charge is paid and overdraws your account by more than $50 (your available balance falls below negative $50).

  If you are opted into Courtesy Pay on your debit card, you will only be charged a fee if the following are true:

  1. The charge is greater than $5.
  2. The charge is both authorized and posted to the account and overdraws your account by more than $50 (your available balance falls below negative $50)*.

  *Purchases at gas pumps will charge a fee if the posted amount overdraws the account by more than $50 (your available balance falls below negative $50).

  Due to system limitations, in some cases a fee may be charged on transactions that are smaller than $5 or do not overdraw that account by more than $50. Those fees are generally waived within one business day and refunded to your account.

  Note: We will not charge more than four (4) overdraft/Courtesy Pay fees per day.

• Does Metro cap the number of fees (i.e., Courtesy Pay/Overdraft) charged?

  Yes, Metro will not charge more than 4 (four) Courtesy Pay/Overdraft fees per day.

• How are the Courtesy Pay Fees assessed?

  Checks and other transactions on an account are paid based on Available Balance, not the actual balance. If a transaction presented for payment exceeds the Available Balance, we will treat it as presented against non-sufficient funds even if the Account Balance exceeds the amount of the transaction.
  
  A simple explanation as to when Courtesy Pay Fees are assessed would be:
  
  1. When you write a check or execute an electronic funds transfer (EFT), a fee is assessed if the amount of the check or EFT overdraws your Available Balance at the time the check or EFT is presented to Metro for payment, or,
  
  2. If you use your debit card, a fee will be assessed if the amount of the transaction exceeds your Available Balance at the time the transaction is performed and/or authorized and at the time your transaction posts to your account.

• Can you show an example of a Courtesy Pay Fee assessed for an insufficient Available Balance?

  If your actual balance and available balance are both $100 and you swipe your Visa Debit Card at a grocery store for $90, a hold is placed on your account and your available balance will be reduced to $10. Your actual balance is still $100 because the transaction has not yet posted to your account. If a $75 check clears your checking account before the grocery store charge is posted to your account, you will incur a Courtesy Pay Fee, because your Available Balance was $10 when the $75 check was paid. The fee will also be deducted from your account, further reducing your Available Balance.

• How are Overdrafts and NSFs different?

  An overdraft occurs when money is withdrawn or transactions (checks, debit card purchases, electronic funds transfer, etc.) are paid from an account and the available balance goes below zero.
  
  An overdraft is different than an NSF. An NSF (e.g., bounced check) occurs when a check, ACH, or another instrument is returned to the sender’s financial institution unpaid because the Available Balance is less than the amount of the transaction.
  

• What is the difference between my actual balance and my available balance?

  Your Account Balance (actual balance) is the amount of funds in your account at a point in time that have posted to your account. Your Available Balance is the amount of funds in the account that are available to pay items presented against the account without incurring a Courtesy Pay/Overdraft fee, or causing an automatic transfer into the account. Your Available Balance reflects any preauthorization/deposit/check holds, etc.
  
  The balance we use internally as transactions clear is called your Account Balance and includes all items that have cleared the account up to that point. This balance does not include outstanding (i.e., non-cleared) debit card purchases, checks, or automatic drafts (ACH).

• Do you have a definition of available balance?

  Your Available Balance is the amount of funds in the account that are available to pay transactions presented against the account without incurring an overdraft or non-sufficient funds fee or transferring funds from another account. The Available Balance is generally equal to the Account Balance, less the amount of any holds placed on the recent deposit, holds placed for other reasons, and holds for pending transactions (such as debit card purchases) that we have authorized for payment but that have not yet posted to your account.

• What types of transactions are not reflected in the available balance?

  • Written checks which have not cleared
  • Automatic bill payments that have been scheduled, but not sent.
  • Debit card transactions where the authorized hold has been released and the transaction has not been submitted by the merchant.

• What is a debit card authorized hold?

  When you use your Visa Debit Card to conduct a “Signature or Credit” transaction (i.e., non-PIN), the merchant sends us the amount, usually the total, for authorization. This amount is placed on hold and removed from your Available Balance immediately. The hold is released when the transaction clears or after 5 (five) days, whichever comes first.
  
  Note: Debit card authorization holds do not apply to PIN based transactions. Those transactions reduce your available and Account Balance equally at the moment the transaction is processed.

• Does Metro pay all overdrafts?

  No, the payment of transactions into overdraft status is discretionary. We reserve the right to refuse payment on any transaction. For example, we may not pay overdrafts if you do not regularly make deposits into your checking account.