Accounts
Accounts track the storage and movement of money.
Every account has a balance. It’s calculated in real-time from an append-only list of Transactions under the account.
You always create accounts under a Customer, and you may create any number of them.
To move money in and out of an account, you can create a Payment under it.
To support the full range of use cases, Unit offers multiple account primitives:
- Deposit Account: these accounts are bank accounts with unique routing and account numbers. They are interest bearing, and eligible for FDIC insurance.
- Wallet Account (FBO): these accounts aren't bank accounts, but they offer much of the same functionality, including unique routing and account numbers, and eligibility for FDIC insurance. They are typically used in money movement use cases, like accounts receivable or accounts payable.
- Credit Account: these accounts help you manage and offer a credit product, like charge cards, revolving credit cards, and lines of credit. The balance in credit accounts tracks how much credit a customer has used, up to a limit that you control.
All accounts:
- Are created under a customer
- Contain a balance, calculated in real-time from an append-only list of transactions
- Support sending and receiving money by creating payments
- Support issuing cards that spend from their balance
- Have associated terms and limits based on profiles that you can create
Limits
Account limits are a mechanism Unit has built to allow you and the bank to control your risk exposure. They help protect you and the bank from disasters that could result in very meaningful financial liability – from fraud to ACH returns to hacks. Limits are a part of the agreement between the bank and the customer. The specifics of the limits are defined in agreement between the bank and you, and have to be disclosed to your customers. Limits can and should be fine tuned over time as customer & usage data is collected.
Limits are defined at the account level through the associated deposit product, wallet terms, or credit terms. For example, if a deposit product has a $500 ATM deposit limit, the combined daily deposits from all cards under an account associated with that deposit product cannot exceed $500.
Limits are set per program, based on standard industry practice, and are designed to balance customer satisfaction and fraud prevention. The right limits for your program depend on your use case and customer profile.
Limit Types
In general, there are daily limits (reset at 12:00 a.m. in the bank partner's time zone) and monthly limits (reset at the same time on the first of each month), of two types:
| Limit Type | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Hard Limit | A limit that will prevent a transaction from being executed. | A customer attempts to use their card for an amount that would cause their account to go above its card purchase limit. The transaction will be declined. |
| Soft Limit | A limit that, once exceeded, submits the transaction for manual review by the Unit team instead of declining it. The transaction is executed only if approved. | A customer’s ACH limit is set to $25,000 per day. Unit can set a soft limit at $5,000 to review larger transactions to make sure the information in the ACH file matches the account information before the file is sent. Payments above the soft limit go to manual review by the Unit team before sending, and are only approved if Plaid Balance is available for the given counterparty. |
During a Visa connectivity outage, Visa may approve or decline card transactions on Unit's behalf (issuer stand-in) using Visa-side limits. Stand-in approvals can overdraw an account. See Understanding authorization decisions.
The Unit risk team will discuss these limits with you, as well as what limits are right for your business, during the onboarding process. If you need a limit change, contact Unit support.
As limits are increased, reserve account requirements also may be increased. Please see the Reserve Account Guide for further details.