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.

Flexible Spending

A negative Primary pocket balance usually happens when flexible spending is enabled and used to complete a card transaction. Flexible spending lets your debit card access funds in other pockets (like Taxes or custom pockets) if your Primary pocket balance isn’t enough to cover a purchase.

Here’s how it works:

Imagine you’re making a $200 purchase, but your Primary pocket has only $100. If flexible spending is enabled, Found will let the transaction go through by temporarily borrowing the remaining $100 from other pockets. After the transaction, your pockets will look like this:

• Primary: -$100

• Taxes: $150

• Savings: $100

Notice how only your Primary pocket went negative? This balance reflects the amount your Primary pocket "owes" to cover the transaction.

You’re in control of how to rebalance your funds. Some ways you can do this include:

• Moving all of the funds in Savings to Primary, protecting your Tax savings.

• Moving some of the funds in both Savings and Taxes to Primary (e.g., $50 from each).

• Adding additional funds to your account and leaving the pockets as they are.

Remember, your total account balance hasn’t changed—you’re just reorganizing funds between pockets. For more information on flexible spending, including how to turn this feature off, see our article about flexible spending.

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.