Long cheque clearing time | Meridian Credit Union | Discussion forum

You have my sympathies, 3oak.
Thanks for the info about cheques taking 8 days. I was too fed up to call and inquire.
They seem determined to make the process take at least 7 business days, and 8 if it's a cheque. In some ways, the EFTs are worse, because you are left in limbo for four business days waiting for something, anything, to show up on your Transactions. Nothing is shown as pending for all that time. Then, when it suddenly appears, you wait 3 more days for clearing.
I can perhaps understand the 3 days for clearing, but why the four days to make the transfer? It just seems that they intend it to add up to 7 or 8, no matter how they process it or pretend to.

It seems that their process is intended to be completely inflexible.

I can maybe help you out a bit with understanding the system with statements. Statements only come out every 3 months, so you will get one in October which covers July-Sept. Annoying, I know.

This week I was clering out a box of old financial papers, some of which go back to the 1980s. It was interesting to note the very clear trend over time in regards to statements. They seem to have gradually become harder to interpret and less frequent over time. Back in the '80s, they came every month. Nowadays, I have some that come only once a year, and they seem to begrudge even that (Oaken); and one account at TD where there is no statement OR online info at all - a USD account. I go in to TD every 3 months and force them to print out the balance. When i get around to it, i'll just get rid of that account - along with all the other money of mine that they used to have. I notice they don't send my birthday cards any more!

And while I'm thinking of that, Meridian does send these really ugly birthday cards which apparently everyone in the branch has to sign, poor things. What a waste of time, effort, and postage. I truly wish they would stop. It's the exact same ugly greyish card every year, with their name plastered across the front. (Hint to Meridian: we much prefer the chocolates from Oaken at Xmas.) I must ask them some day how many members belong to that branch and see how many cards that amounts to every month that they have to write...

With luck, they will clear my cheque today, but it will still likely be more than 8 days from when I deposited as nothing ever seems to clear there until well into the evening.

Recently went through same issue with them . 5 figure cheque deposited into ATM in branch. After 8 business days called and was told 10 business days over a certain amount. Unable to provide me with the specific amount even after putting me on hold to check, so in future I will assume it's ten dollars. He was able to set up a GIC with the funds on hold so I will now phone them the day after deposit to avoid having to log in daily to see when funds clear as that seems to be the only way around it for GICs. As for your situation Loonie , I'm sure you're getting 3% if deposited to new savings account.

Loonie said
I am currently waiting for a cheque to clear at Meridian.
(There may be another thread on this topic but i couldn't find it.)

I deposited the cheque IN PERSON at Meridian branch. It is drawn on MY OWN account at CIBC on a pre-printed 21stC cheque issued by that bank, where I have had this account for over 30 years without incident. The amount was five figures. While I was at Meridian, I had a friendly side chat with the manager, so the teller knew that I was known to the manager and that I was not a suspicious character.

I've had accounts at Meridian for over 3 years, have had well over this amount in savings before, and currently have well over this amount there in non-reg'd GICs. I have an excellent credit rating. I don't think there is anything that could make me a more secure sort of member for Meridian to deal with.

The cheque was cashed and debited from the originating bank immediately - on Sept 17.
On Sept 24, I received a regular statement from the bank on which the cheque was drawn, with image of the cashed cheque returned.

It is now more than 7 business days (9 calendar days) since this cheque was cashed and debited, but it STILL has not cleared at Meridian. Even a "pull" would have been faster than this!, but I used the cheque because the 3% rate was applicable immediately, which made the trip to Meridian worthwhile. (This had better been true!)

I have no plans to withdraw this money in a hurry, but having to wait this long for this cheque to clear - and still not knowing when it will - is just ridiculous. I imagine the pony express was faster than this.  

This doesn't surprise me, Loonie. Since Meridian seems to holding back by several business days or manually posting EFT payments, it stands to reason they'd do the same with paper-based payments cleared through the same system. 🙁

Nonetheless, I appreciate your continued Meridian (and Motus) posts. I suspect if this had been a Motus cheque, the situation would be the same.

For clarity, I re-read your post, did the cheque get posted to your Meridian account? If so, I'm assuming the funds are still on hold? It's worth pointing out Meridian, as a provincially-regulated credit union, isn't subject to maximum hold times (there is clearly no issue for this cheque's hold time to be extended, if they were a bank). So, I suspect, this is Meridian's ultra-ultra-conservative credit risk policies with respect to long hold times. I wonder, if they pull this crap at Motus Bank, too? If they do, they could be challenged under Canada's Access to Funds Regulations and FCAC's Commissioner would likely investigate, review the particulars of the account and deposited cheque in question, then either issue a warning or a fine to Motus Bank for violating the Regulations when there was clearly no issue with account-level fraud, anti-money laundering concerns, a forged endorsement on the cheque itself, or a mutilated cheque. I hope this happens at Motus Bank so they can be taken to the regulatory mat on this! Fine the buggers!

Cheers,
Doug

When I originally set up my account with Meridian I already had an account with Motus. The CSR at Meridian told me to write a cheque on my Motus account payable to myself for the amount I wanted to deposit at Meridian. He said he could make that happen, and it did.
So apparently they have the ability to move faster and override their system.
I'm also sure they would not want everyone to be asking this on a regular basis, but maybe they should accommodate an occasional request.

Loonie
I thought that mine might have taken longer because I deposited through ATM on Friday before the long weekend. It was debited from source account on the 4th so it may have sat in the machine for the weekend. I say this because I deposited another cheque on the 3rd into the same ATM. First cheque was debited from source account on the 4th and second one on the 5th. Didn't keep an eye on hold time of 2nd deposit hold time .
So it doesn't seem to speed up processing by depositing in person based on your experience.
And as for pressing him on the threshold which increases the hold period , I had just had enough that day and felt it was pointless to pursue further , but I agree it was a mind blower to be told that there's a limit but we can't tell you what it is.
I had already posted about this delay under " last straw with Motus " thread post 21 as it seemed to be relevant at the time .