Direct linking coming soon | Implicity Financial | Discussion forum

Thanks for sharing this, frugal lady!

I wanted to cross/double-post my responses from Implicity Financial's contact centre representatives about the "direct linking" mentioned as I feel this is definitely the thread in which more discussion on this should take place. As Implicity was also being discussed in another thread, these responses are also posted there too but future responses I'll just and post only here or here.

Here's a follow-up e-mail between me (Feb. 17th; in bold) and Implicity Financial (Feb. 19th; in italics):

I'm curious, as no application for a credit facility or access to funds (i.e., overdraft/line of credit or immediate access to deposited funds such as no holds), why is it necessary for you to perform two (2) credit inquiries (one "soft" one with TransUnion and one "hard" one with Equifax)? You should have full access to one's TransUnion consumer credit report and be able to view any sort of personal identification, active/closed credit facilities and any recent inquiries on one's credit file from that. Both Hubert Financial, a division of Selkirk, MB-based Sunova Credit Union, and ING Direct Canada, a subsidiary of The Bank of Nova Scotia, only pull a "soft" inquiry for all online account openings in order to satisfy their own internal as well as regulatory/anti-money laundering requirements. In order to limit the number of recent inquiries on my consumer credit reports, my ask of you is that since I am not applying for credit nor am I asking for any special reduced hold times on deposits is that you only use my TransUnion consumer credit report to fulfill your administrative requirements involved in the account opening process. Also, could you pass on this as a suggestion to your head office/operations department in charge of developing your account opening policies & procedures manual that the TransUnion inquiry be used for both the identity verification questions in the online account opening questionnaire but also in any & all administrative procedures to actually open the account(s), provided the application is not seeking a credit facility or reduced hold times on deposits?
The “soft” inquiry through TransUnion doesn’t affect your bureau (beacon score) any way. That inquiry is run for security purposes for when members complete the application process. Once we receive the physical cheque for your initial deposit we run the “hard” bureau using Equifax which does affect your beacon score. We don’t see any of the security questions asked by TransUnion therefore we need to run the credit bureau on our end once we receive the deposit. So unfortunately all members need to have their credit bureau run when opening an account. This is required through our anti-money laundering legislation.

In terms of the ATM and EFT deposit hold times, can you pass on a second suggestion to reduce these times, in line with the major Canadian chartered banks and most credit unions (i.e., for ATM deposits, 4-5 business days after the day of the deposit and, for EFT deposits/transfers in, 2-3 business days from the date the transfer in request is made)? This would be in line with ING Direct Canada, Hubert Financial and Ally Canada, a product/division of ResMor Trust Company.
Our policy for holds is 10 business days. If a member brings in multiple deposits which clear with no issue we may be able to reduce the hold days, but for all new members we place 10 day holds.

Finally, I had only one more question I forgot to ask: does your online banking platform allow Implicity Financial customers to add other Canadian bank accounts in their own name using the one or two small "test" deposit verification method? For instance, let's say I add my ING Direct Canada THRiVE Chequing Account to my Implicity Financial online banking profile, in order to verify my ING Direct Canada Account, Implicity Financial would send a small "test" deposit (or two) less than $1.00 to that account and then I go into Implicity Financial online banking to key in the amount of the small "test" deposit once it shows up in that account in order to validate the account. This is the way Hubert Financial and Ally Canada allow you to add external Canadian bank accounts and is a much simpler, more streamlined (and paperless!) verification method than sending in a paper-based form with a VOID cheque or VOID cheque/account verification form/original bank statement from that external Canadian financial institution.
As of right now our two ways to transfer electronically are through Interac E-transfer which cost $1.50 per transaction and Electronic Funds Transfers which are set up using our Pre-Authorized Transfer form and attaching a void cheque which can then be emailed or faxed to us. I have attached the link for the form https://www.implicity.ca/SharedContent/documents/PreAuthorizedTransferform.pdf
In the upcoming months we will be providing members the access to transfer funds from one institution to Implicity and vice versa through their online banking. We also offer cheques and ATM cards to our members.

I also asked, "One more quick question (I promise!) - can I change my Implicity Financial debit card PIN at an Acculink Network ATM?", which went unanswered, and forgot to ask when Implicity Financial actually launched publicly but will re-ask/ask those questions in my fourth message to them.

This prompted another follow-up between me and Kerrie Dobson, Contact Centre Representative, on Feb. 22nd as Erin was out of the office:

As for the second, "hard" credit bureau check you perform through Equifax, that shouldn't be a problem. Although I had an inquiry at the end of December 2012, other than that I've had no "hard" inquiries in over a year so shouldn't affect it too much. I'm hoping you'll retain a copy of my credit bureau report for as long as I have an account/membership with Implicity Financial, in case I ask to see it in the future, it won't be necessary to pull it again. My suggestion, however, is that you run a second, "soft" credit bureau inquiry with TransUnion (instead of Equifax) to fulfill your account opening/anti-money money laundering regulatory requirements. This would be in line with what Canadian Direct Financial (part of Canadian Western Bank), Hubert Financial (part of Sunova Credit Union) and ING Bank of Canada are already doing. Could you kindly pass this along to the appropriate department?
Erin is away today, so I’ll respond on her behalf. We will retain a copy of your bureau with your file for as long as your account remains open, so there should be no need to run an additional inquiry in the future.

Second, in terms of the ATM/EFT holds, the hold periods on new members is understandable. However, I would like for you to pass on a second suggestion to the appropriate department charged with implementing changes to your policies & procedures that your standard EFT hold period be 2-3 business days, which would be consistent with what the "virtual bank" competition is doing. For ATM deposits, I'd like to see the maximum ATM deposit for all clients be a maximum of 7 business days for all CAD deposits (cash or cheques, since, let's face it, most FIs use an outsourced provider with no way of notifying you of cash deposits). Or, are you saying that if that provider notifies you of a cash deposit by an Implicity Financial member, you'll reduce the hold period? At any rate, if you wouldn't mind passing on this second suggestion, it would be greatly appreciated.
The 10 day hold period was put into place to safeguard both our members and Implicity against any type of fraudulent activity on accounts. We are not notified as to what an ATM deposit consists of, so we are unable to amend hold periods based on cash vs. cheque deposits.

In terms of the EFT transfers, and forgive me if this sounds a bit rushed as I am just heading off to work but wanted to get this e-mail in, does that mean you can currently do sporadic EFT transfers online once you link your external bank account using the pre-authorized transfer form or do you only allow a regular savings plan of a specified amount? In terms of the future plans for a online verification/account linking method, does that mean we'll be able to use the small "test" deposit method? If so, that's great.
Our EFT Transfers are to be used for regular deposits to your Implicity account of a specified amount, which we can set up on our end. We are working towards having the linked account functionality available by the summer, and at that time will have more information for you regarding the small test withdrawal.

As you can see, they are very responsive and very helpful. I will have to follow-up, though, as they seem reluctant to pass on my suggestion(s) for procedural/efficiency improvements regarding credit bureau checks and hold periods to their appropriate operations team. As well, I'd like to see the regular/standard hold period for all deposits (even if no "access to deposited funds"/"cashback" limit(s)) reduced to 7 business days and 2-3 business days for EFT transfers where the funds are "pulled" in once they offer that service, which they currently don't offer as the pre-authorized payment form is only for regular, fixed amount automatic transfers between an external account and Implicity Financial. Does everyone else have the same take/read on that?

It is also interesting they will be launching the account verification method similar to Hubert Financial and Ally but will be using "a small, test withdrawal," not a deposit, which makes sense as the same information is included in the EFT transfer as a deposit but without the extra cost to them. I just hope they deposit that small withdrawal into one's Implicity Financial account so we're not out any money. I will follow-up with them once it actually launches. We may even see more FIs use this method as well.

Cheers,
Doug