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Email this8:03 am
February 22, 2013
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Doug said
[snip]
As for your branch-based dealings, I know you've said you've been very happy with RBC Direct Investing and with RBC's (except for the way they've integrated, or not integrated as the case may be, Ally's Canadian deposit business) service. It might simplify things a bit for you if you used RBC for in-branch banking transactions as well instead of BMO (i.e., getting USD cash) and then you wouldn't need to worry about the different name(s) of your wife on your BMO account.
[snip]
I've confused you!
RBC = I use for all retail banking, Regular Chequing account, US$ chequing account for Canadian transactions, Cdn$ HISA, two Lines of Credit, 2 x Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum Mastercards, Target Mastercard (card gets me a 5% rebate/discount at Target once they open in Spring, 2013), POA over my elderly Aunt's chequing and HISA, Visa card and Direct Investing accounts (trading and TFSA), then our Direct Investing, Cdn$ and US$ trading account, two x RSP accounts, two x TFSA accounts, and my shiny new idling RIF account
RBC Bank (Georgia) = I use for US$ cheques for US transactions, US$ debit card and US$ Visa card - all easily linked back to RBC Canada
BMO = I use for US$ (Canadian based) Mastercard with what was once a really good travel insurance policy, and a US$ chequing account (linked to an ING US$ account) to pay the Mastercard - but then I had to open a Cdn$ savings account to maintain a profile with their system - and then they offered me an effective 5.9% HISA rate last May for 9 months for what turned out to be 2 x $10000 deposits. I couldn't turn that down. That is the linkage I am working to make - although I do have a linkage between BMO and Ally till April 30th
PCFin = an idling HISA and a chequeing account ($5 balance for 15 days once a year)
Ally = Cdn$ and US$ Hisa's - now with zero balance
Canadian Tire Financial Services = Cdn$ HISA
ING - Cdn$ and US$ HISA and a Line of Credit
Implicity = shiny new and still unwrapped HISA
MBNA/TD = Cdn$ World Mastercard with 2% gas and groceries and 1% on everything else
Capital One = shiny new and still unwrapped Cdn$ World Mastercard
CIBC - Cdn$ Visa Dividend Card with a tiered cash back up to 1% and a Petro Canada Mastercard that gives 2 cents off per litre
Amex = Blue Air Miles card - used only at Costco
Paypal = Cdn$ and US$ accounts
I describe myself as a rate whore. I move money to get the best rate. I play the credit card game for all it's worth. (Who else do you know who regularly has multiple items on their statement for less than $1.00?) I despise paying fees for anything. (I am retired so have the time to play the game!)
There - that should clarify things! 
and it was a good exercise for me to review my "empire".
Greg
9:33 am
February 22, 2013
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Doug said
[snip]
Thanks for your comments and glad to hear you're pleased with Implicity Financial's service so far!
[snip]
Doug:
I mailed in a $10.00 cheque on the 25th of February. Yesterday around 5:00 pm I got an email telling me the account was opened. I logged in successfully but there was no account there. I logged in again this morning and there is now an account with a zero balance (and a three digit account number 
).
I called and spoke with Cindy and discovered:
-- my $10.00 cheque covered one $5.00 membership for myself and one $5.00 membership for my wife. OK - that explains the $0.00 balance where I had expected to see $5.00.
-- I need to fill out a paper Pre-Authorized Transfer Form and either mail it, FAX it, or scan it and email it to them, perhaps with a VOID cheque.
All the discussion I have seen here about "direct-linking" was read by me as being about micro-transfers to validate external accounts. Silly me.
This grinds me to a major halt psychologically as I have been spoiled by 12 years worth of electronic transfers, starting with ING.
I need to get my head around this before I go further.
Greg
6:17 pm
December 12, 2009
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Hi Greg,
I sent in my cheque for $105.00 ($100.00 initial deposit and $5.00 common share) on Feb. 18th, account was opened Feb. 25th and that's when I got my welcome e-mail. As I requested a physical debit card, I didn't get my debit card number to register for online banking but requested it via e-mail and Erin was able to provide it to me. I did suggest they maybe offer this to all new clients, whether they requested a physical debit card or not but it's not a big deal if they implement that change or not. I got my cheques and welcome letter the following letter, say around Mar. 6th or 7th. I got my e-Statement last weekend and my paper statement on Mar. 11th. Only thing I am waiting on now is the debit card. 
Once the PC Financial "bonus interest" promotion is up, I'd still recommend moving money to them and, by then, they should offer paperless bank account linkages like Hubert Financial and Ally. You might even want to open a Hubert Financial account and keep them as your "hub" (for now; or a "backup hub" later) with only a token amount of money in there.
ING Direct is kind of "old-fashioned" too, though, as they require VOID cheques or "direct deposit forms" still. Too bad they only allow three linked bank accounts, too. That said, they do offer free e-mail money transfers, which are basically EFTs but not limited to self-to-self. 
Hope that helps,
Doug
P.S. FYI - I asked Erin if you can purchase additional Entegra Credit Union common shares and, unfortunately, each member is limited to 1 $5.00 common share and they don't pay a dividend.
8:33 pm
January 18, 2013
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You bring up a very important point in that some institutions (apparently PC Financial is very sticky on this) require an actual cheque from the institution you want to link. This means you can't link a savings account unless you can get your branch to print up a void cheque for you and most if not all, will not. Most, if not all, don't even have the capability in the branch to produce cheques now. A security thing I guess. RBC gave me some cheques about a year or so so may you can link an RBC savings account. Chequing accounts usually have monthly charges so for us cheapo's its imortant, especially if you have several accounts in several institutions.
Just talked to ING and they allow Direct Deposit Forms or Preauthorized Debit Forms for linking external account if you're an active client which means if you don't have any issues with your account. But they only allow 3 accounts to be linked!!! PC allows as many as you want and ING allows 3. Maybe one day they'll wake up and realize they need to merge those 2. Many affluent people have accounts in almost every major bank simply so they can move money faster to different people who have accounts in those specific institutions. And ING is the only institution that moves US$ electronically (besides XE but you need to convert money for them to do it) in Canada that I know of. So its even more important for clients to have more than 3 as 1 or 2 will probably be US! Stubborn institutions! ING was bought out recently by Scotiabank but so far there have been no significant changes. Scotiabank has ATM's in most of all 7-11's so if they allow ING cards to be used there that will be a fantastic boost.
Question: Does Herbert allow Preauthorized or Direct Deposit forms to link accounts? Do they have a limit like ING? I realize one can pull or push money from either institutions but we all know its a lot easier to manage if all the money is moving in and out of 1 hub only. And does Herbert have US $ accounts? If so how is their exchange rate? ING has a very strange thing going on with their US rate. It doesn't change much. I've tracked it for several days and it hasn't budged 1 pip. Its like they can't be bothered. Meanwhile all other institutions are going up and down several times a day. Also I believe Scotia has one of the worst US rates available and then they buy ING with one of the best. Makes little sense.
9:11 pm
February 22, 2013
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traveling_ING said
You bring up a very important point in that some institutions (apparently PC Financial is very sticky on this) require an actual cheque from the institution you want to link. This means you can't link a savings account unless you can get your branch to print up a void cheque for you and most if not all, will not. Most, if not all, don't even have the capability in the branch to produce cheques now. A security thing I guess. RBC gave me some cheques about a year or so so may you can link an RBC savings account. Chequing accounts usually have monthly charges so for us cheapo's its imortant, especially if you have several accounts in several institutions.
[snip]
About a year ago I needed a VOID cheque on one of my RBC accounts for which I don't have cheques. In talking to the branch I discovered they can print a simulated VOID cheque that contains all the info needed and is in the form of a letter that reads, in part, "Please accept this copy of a VOID cheque as confirmation of the above mentioned client's banking account information for purposes of pre-authorized debit or credit." It can then be signed by an RBC "Account Manager" and rubber stamped if needed.
The RBC form is labelled "E-FORM 1701 (10/2009)". Recently I got a very similar thing from BMO so suspect all banks have them. It is just finding someone who knows they can be prepared.
And, for those who would like to see a sample, I found this with a Google search.
Greg
9:46 pm
February 5, 2013
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My account was opened on Feb 25th but still no debit card. I called in to ask about it and they requested a new one for me and gave me the debit card number for online access. Hope it arrives this time.
7:16 am
December 12, 2009
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I'm still waiting for mine, but I don't think you gave it enough time. I suspect it can typically take up to two weeks after receiving the initial welcome e-mail before the debit card arrives. I'll give it until the end of this week for mine before I follow up. I've received the welcome letter and "starter" cheques so I'm happy for now.
Cheers,
Doug
7:26 am
December 12, 2009
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travelling_ING, does that mean you confirmed that ING Direct does allow you to transfer USD EFTs between USD accounts in Canada then? If so, that's great news. Hubert Financial does have USD savings accounts, paying about 0.75% right now, and their exchange rates are more favourable than ING Direct, I believe. The problem is, they don't allow USD EFTs so if you want to withdraw funds, it's either convert it to Canadian dollars or perhaps have them do a "wire transfer" and I think they charge $10 for that.
As for Hubert allowing pre-authorized payment/direct deposit forms for linking accounts, I'm sure they would but it's not necessary. They use the same external account linking process as Ally (or PayPal, for that matter) where you enter your banking information and they send a small "test" deposit in 1-2 days for you to verify and then everything is linked. Hold periods on funds "pulled" to Hubert Financial (from Hubert Financial) only last about 2-3 business days. There is no limit (as far as I am aware) to the number of linked accounts one may have. They only do a "soft" credit bureau check. They also allow you to transfer funds in Canada, via EFT, to a third-party or to a non-linked account as long as you have their full banking information and the name on that account, effectively allowing free e-mail money transfers in a way that ING Direct does.
The only downside I see to Hubert is their online banking interface and e-Statement formats are quite simplistic, not as nice as, let's say, MemberDirect and the no USD EFT transfers.
Cheers,
Doug
7:41 am
August 4, 2010
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The Hubert wire transfer fee is actually $22.50. It may be that it is the underlying central credit union systems that are lacking, rather than Hubert just not bothering to implement USD transfers, but in either case for most people the fee or conversion spread is going to wipe out any interest earned.
8:37 am
February 22, 2013
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Doug said
travelling_ING, does that mean you confirmed that ING Direct does allow you to transfer USD EFTs between USD accounts in Canada then?
[snip]
Doug:
I CAN confirm I have linkages set up at ING between my ING US$ account and both my RBC and BMO US$ accounts and move US funds regularly. The only hassle is when I want to move US$ between RBC and BMO I need the intermediate step of moving them through ING and waiting for their hold to come off.
Greg
11:17 am
February 22, 2013
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Doug said
I'm still waiting for mine, but I don't think you gave it enough time.
[snip]
Today I received three pieces of mail from Implicity. One was addressed to me and one to my wife. These were the Debit Card PIN number mailers. The third was addressed to us both and was the welcome letter and a book of 8 cheques.
I have almost all my "free" cash on deposit at PC Fin but I am going to free up a little bit from somewhere and will mail them a cheque to get the account funded. The eight cheques will be enough to get me started if I need to pull money from them.
Greg
1:17 pm
February 22, 2013
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Doug (and others):
In today's mail were two envelopes from Implicity, one containing a Debit card for me and one containing a Debit card for my wife.
I did free up some cash and filled out the PDF form, printed it and scanned it and emailed it. The form doesn't have a drop down for ONE TIME only and so I selected MONTHLY and was to change it before I scanned it. I didn't and only realized my error after it was sent. I emailed info@ and Erin said she would change it.
I'm done getting set up and will now wait for my first 1.95% x (probably) 12/365 x $1000 interest payment which will be around $0.64 - but it IS a start.
3:27 pm
December 12, 2009
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hi Greg:
Sorry for the long delay in responding, but I've replied to your above posts here in this thread, with a summary and timeline of events involved in the Implicity Financial account opening process. I wanted to highlight some key points that aren't "buried" within this thread, but have linked to this thread within that post referencing the "frequently asked questions" ("FAQs") contained here.
I encourage you to continue the discussion in the new thread.
Cheers,
Doug
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