Personal Banking FAQs
Choose a question to see the answer.
Our CoverMe overdraft program may provide protection for members in instances of insufficient available balances. It includes three distinct services: automatic transfers, courtesy pay, and Courtesy Pay+.
Click here to see more information on our CoverMe overdraft program and services.
Courtesy pay is a service available under our CoverMe overdraft program. It is automatically available for all eligible SECU members. It covers checks and ACH transactions.
Accounts will be assigned a courtesy pay limit based on account history and the limit is subject to change at SECU’s discretion.
Click here to see more information on courtesy pay and our CoverMe overdraft program and services.
Yes, the checking account courtesy pay limit is based on account history. The limit may increase, decrease, or be reduced to no limit at any time.
You can call member services at 800-879-738 and a representative can assist you with your transfer.
SECU discontinued phone transfers to an account where you are not an owner on 8/31/2023 to help prevent the rising threat of fraud. You can still perform these transfers using online and mobile banking, which has additional security protocols in place to protect the online transaction.
There are several ways you can transfer funds to another SECU member’s account or loan.
- The first option is through online banking.
- Log in to online banking or use our mobile.
- Click Transfers/Pay a Loan from the Transfers & Payments
- Click Send money to another SECU member from the Add Account
- You will be asked to verify the recipient’s last name and account number, then confirm your identity to set up the linked account to transfer to.
- An email will be sent to you and the recipient once the transfer is complete.
- If you make regular transfers to the same account holder, you can set the transfer to be reoccurring based on your preferred frequency.
- The second option is to visit any of our financial centers across Maryland to complete a transfer with one of our member advisors.
Since limits are based on account history, members can’t request a set limit.
Members can opt out of courtesy pay by contacting SECU.
Members can opt out of Courtesy Pay+ through online banking or by contacting SECU.
The maximum amount you can withdraw at an ATM is $1000.
When you make a new deposit to an account, we will use that to offset any negative balance. If the account stays negative, we will send a letter after 10 days notifying you of the situation. After 30 days, we start collection letters.
Automatic transfers is a service available under our CoverMe overdraft program. It is automatically available for all SECU members with a checking account. It covers negative balances in checking accounts by automatically transferring funds from other linked SECU deposit accounts.
Your primary savings and, if applicable, preferred line of credit (PLOC) are automatically linked to your checking account.
To link other accounts of which you are an owner, contact SECU.
Click here to see more information on our CoverMe overdraft program and services.
Courtesy Pay+ is a service available under our CoverMe overdraft program. Eligible SECU members can opt in to the service. It covers nonrecurring point-of-sale/debit card transactions.
Click here to see more information on Courtesy Pay+ and our CoverMe overdraft program and services.
Bank-by-phone is a free telephone service that allows you to access your SECU accounts 24 hours a day from almost anywhere. All you need is a touch-tone phone, your SECU member number, and your special bank-by-phone personal identification number (PIN).
Your checking account has two kinds of balances: total balance (sometimes called current balance) and available balance. You can check both when you review your account online, through mobile banking, 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.
Your total balance is the amount of money in your account at any given time. It reflects all deposits made to your account, even if a portion of those deposits is on hold and therefore not available to you. (See our deposit hold policy.) It also reflects only payment transactions that have actually “posted” to your account, but not transactions that have been authorized and are pending. While the term “total” 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. Any purchases, holds, fees, other charges, or deposits made on your account that have not yet posted will not appear in your total balance. For example, if you have a $50 total balance, but you just wrote a check for $40, then your total is $50.00 but it does not reflect the pending check transaction. At that point, you actually have $50, but you have already spent $40.
Your available balance is the amount of money in your account that is available to you to use without incurring an overdraft fee. The available balance takes into account things such as holds placed on deposits and pending transactions (such as pending debit card purchases) that you initiated and SECU has authorized but that have not yet posted to your account. For example, assume you have a total balance of $50 and an available balance of $50. If you were to use your debit card at a restaurant to buy lunch for $20, then that merchant could ask us to pre-authorize the payment. In that case, we will put a hold on your account for $20. Your total 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 total will be reduced by $20.
Available balance is used to determine when your account is overdrawn. The following example illustrates how this works:
Again, assume both your total and available balances are $50, and you use your debit card at a restaurant for $20. A hold is placed on your account, so your available balance is only $30. Your total balance is still $50. Before the restaurant charge is sent to us for processing, 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 total balance is $50. In this case, we may pay the $40 check, but you will be charged an overdraft fee of $30. That fee will be deducted from your account, further reducing the balance.
It is 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 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.
In addition, your available balance may not reflect all of your debit card transactions. For example, if a merchant obtains our prior authorization but does not submit a one-time debit card transaction for payment within 48 business hours of authorization, 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.
The best way to understand how much money you have, and avoid overdrafts, is to keep careful track of all your deposits, any holds, and payment transactions.
410-487-7930 OR 888-64-EXPRS (643-9777).
You can call us Monday – Friday, 8 am to 7 pm or Saturday, 9 am to 1 pm to request a new PIN: 410-487-7328 or 800-879-7328.
