Why is my Primary pocket balance negative?

It’s ok for a pocket to have a negative balance, as long as your total Found balance is positive. There are a few scenarios in which your Primary pocket can show a negative balance.

Updated Transactions

It’s possible that an authorized purchase amount was later adjusted by the merchant and the updated amount exceeded your Primary pocket balance. This occurs most often where the initial charge didn’t account for tips or incidentals—like at restaurants, rental car agencies, or hotels.

Significant adjustments to your authorized purchase amount can result in your total balance going negative. Keep in mind that your account is at risk of closure if your overall account balance remains negative. 

Unreturned ACH Transfers

If you attempt to make an ACH transfer out of your Found account that exceeds the balance in your Primary pocket, you'll see a negative balance unless you transfer funds into your Primary pocket to make up for the difference. Otherwise, that ACH transfer will be canceled at the end of the day.

Flexible Spending

Another scenario involves taking advantage of Found's flexible spending feature.The balances of any pockets with flexible spending on can be used for debit card purchases when your Primary pocket has insufficient funds.

For example, let's say that you have $250 in your Primary pocket and $100 in your Taxes pocket, and you'd like to make a $300 transaction with your card. With flexible spending turned on, because your total account balance exceeds $300, your transaction will go through.

When you use flexible spending, money is not moved automatically from the pocket with flexible spending on to your Primary pocket to cover purchases. In the above example, your Primary pocket will show -$50 and your Taxes pocket will still show $100. To bring your Primary pocket back up, transfer money from Taxes or another pocket or add money to your account. As long as your overall account balance is positive, you can continue to make debit card purchases.

It’s important to note that flexible spending only applies to debit card purchases. For instance, bank transfers will still process even if there are sufficient funds in your total balance.

There are no fees for using flexible spending. A negative Primary pocket balance isn’t considered an overdraft and does not carry any overdraft fees.

How do I turn off flexible spending?

Flexible spending can be turned on and off within the setting of each pocket :

1. On mobile, select the pocket you’d like to adjust and tap the settings menu in the top right corner to update the flexible spending setting.  in your Found account. Or, on desktop, navigate to the Taxes page.

2. Tap the flexible spending option.

3. Tap the slider to enable or disable flexible spending.

When flexible spending is off, the Taxes pocket balance is unavailable for debit card purchases. Your transaction will be declined if your Primary pocket has insufficient funds, even if you have money in your Taxes pocket.