What does it mean if both my ledger balance and available balance are negative?
It means that you are overdrawn and will have to pay overdraft fees. You spent more money than you had in your account. Your confusion appears to be setting in over the difference between “ledger balance” and “available balance”. The ledger balance is the amount that is currently in your account and only accounts for completed transactions, such as finalized debit card charges, ATM withdrawals and cleared checks. Available balance is the ledger balance minus any debit transactions that have not gone through but have placed a hold on your funds. Holds are sometimes placed above the purchase amount at the time a card is initially swiped because the full total is unknown at the time of authorization. This frequently happens at restaurants where would generally leave a tip, automated gas pumps and hotels. When the total is known, the actual transaction amount is debited from your account and the hold goes away.
