paidAffiliate disclosure. The partner link in the masthead and in the band beside the copy on this page is a sponsored link to a partner operator, and this site may be paid if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you. It carries rel="sponsored noopener" and opens in a new tab. A desk about reading your own account statement should not leave its own funding unsaid: one link funds the site, and no operator, product or statement is named, rated or recommended anywhere on it.
My Statement / The discrepancy
Three hundred accounts, four causes
Why the balance and the statement disagree
Most statements agree with their balance, and the ones that do not usually disagree for one of four reasons. None of the four is an error, which is why the useful move is to identify the cause rather than to check the arithmetic again.
Desk spec
- accounts
- 300
- agree exactly
- 187
- disagree
- 113
- causes
- 4
the lineOne transaction, with a date, a type, an amount and a running balance. The sample month holds 240 of them, and every one belongs to a category.
the running balanceThe balance after each line, in the statement's own order. It is not the balance you can withdraw, because a bonus credit sits inside it: 312.00 shown against 292.00 settled.
the pending lineA line that has been recorded but not settled. Of 500 lines in the sample, 43 were pending and 21 were reversed, against 436 settled.
Direct answerA balance and a statement disagree for one of four reasons: a pending line, a bonus line, a line belonging to another product, or a reversal. Across 300 sample accounts 187 (62.3%) agreed exactly and 113 (37.7%) did not, and the 200 disagreements read were a pending line 74, a bonus line 58, another product 41 and a reversal 27.
How often they differ
The first number to hold on to is that most statements agree with their balance. The desk is about the minority, and the minority is large enough to be worth understanding rather than dismissing as a malfunction.
Sample B - three hundred accounts, statement against balance
| Outcome | Accounts | Share | What it means |
|---|
| they agree exactly | 187 | 62.3% | every line is settled and every line is cash |
| one cause | 73 | 24.3% | a single line explains the whole gap |
| two causes | 28 | 9.3% | two lines, adding up to the gap |
| three or more | 12 | 4.0% | a month with several unfinished lines |
| 300 accounts | 300 | 100.0% | 113 differed, 187 did not |
sample B - how often a statement and a balance differ
accounts read = 300
agree exactly = 187 -> 187 / 300 = 62.3%
one cause = 73 -> 73 / 300 = 24.3%
two causes = 28 -> 28 / 300 = 9.3%
three or more = 12 -> 12 / 300 = 4.0%
at least one cause = 113 -> 113 / 300 = 37.7%
and the accounts with one cause or more are 73 + 28 + 12 = 113,
so about one account in three had something to explain,
and two in three had nothing at all.
The four causes, ranked
A pending line is the commonest cause and the easiest to miss, because it is not a mistake and it is already inside the balance. A bonus line is the second, because it is inside the balance and outside the cash. The other two are rarer and louder.
sample C - the four causes across 200 disagreements
disagreements read = 200
a pending line = 74 -> 74 / 200 = 37.0%
a bonus line = 58 -> 58 / 200 = 29.0%
a line from another product = 41 -> 41 / 200 = 20.5%
a reversed line = 27 -> 27 / 200 = 13.5%
the first two together = 74 + 58 = 132 -> 132 / 200 = 66.0%
so two thirds of every disagreement is either a line that has not settled
or a line that is not cash, and neither is an error in the arithmetic.
Find the cause before re-adding the column
- Look at the last few lines first, where a pending line sits.
- Subtract any bonus credit from the shown balance and compare again.
- Check whether a second product shares the account and the balance.
- Search both directions for an amount before calling a line missing.
- Only re-add the column once the four causes have been excluded.
Read next