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Step 1
Open a free checking account at a Fifth Third Bank. When you open the checking account, request online banking access. You will receive verification and a pin number you must use to access the online system.
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Step 2
Enter the secured online banking site and enter your pin number. After you have access to the online banking, you can access all your accounts, including mortgages, home equity loans, credit cards, savings and checking accounts.
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Step 3
Select the checking account number that you want to balance. You will be taken to your checking account statement. The statement will have the balance and the available balance. The balance is the amount of money in the checking account at this moment, before any pending items have been subtracted. The available balance is the amount of money available to you with the pending items already subtracted, though not finalized yet.
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Step 4
Scroll through the bills you've paid and the checks that have been cashed. Fifth Third Bank keeps copies of check online, so you can see if your check has been cashed. You can also look at the back of the check to see who endorsed it. If you've written a check or paid a bill online and it hasn't cleared the bank yet, mentally add that amount to the balance you have in your checkbook. Don't subtract it, because it will be paid out of your checking account. The online information is current and should match your check book register to balance the checking account. If there is a discrepancy, go online later to see if the item in question has been resolved. If not, call or visit a local Fifth Third Bank.
Comments
EddieZilker said
on 10/10/2008 ...regurgitating their spoon-fed, second-rate, business-school-hack stain they regard as a "policy". When the obduracy of their argument is pointed out to them, along with the lacking ethics and efficacy this "policy" effects, they meltdown, sputtering, well, "You should close your account if you don't like it."
6) Close your account with 5/3. There are PLENTY of other on-line banks that won't **** the customer over an insignificant "mistake". They're certainly not out to help anyone "balance" their account.
EddieZilker said
on 10/10/2008 5) When you deposit a check for money you're about to spend, make sure that you don't go over $100.00 on your debit card +/- the money you already have in the account. 5/3 will maul you for a $33.00 per day overdraft fee, until the check clears. When pressed why your debit card wasn't declined at the Point of Purchase, they will explain, "The thinking is that we want our customers to have the marginal convenience of being able to pay with money that's not technically been put into the account, yet, regardless of the financial quagmire it exposes them to."
Trying to clear up the mess through calling 5/3 or going and trying to reason with them, in person, and explaining that the check is good, is next to fruitless in the face of obdurate employee loyalty. A reasoned and logical approach falls on deaf ears as the branch manager will invariably fall back to regurgitating their spoon-fe