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Email this10:22 am
February 22, 2013
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I have been a PC Financial customer almost since they got in the business. I seldom use them and today was reminded why.
Yesterday I wanted to avail myself of their promotional interest rate that run till May 31 and so initiated a transfer from RBC for a sizable sum. Their system told me I could not set up a transfer for the current date but had to set it up for one day out and it would run the second day out. I cringed and did so.
Toay I wanted to check the transfer and so looked at the Upcoming transfer screen and was "rewarded" with this text:
Upcoming transfers
You have no upcoming transfers.Please note: transfers with other financial institutions will begin processing 1 business day before the scheduled transfer date. Any scheduled transfers for the next business day will not appear on this list.
So I have a transfer in the works but it isn't going to run (or even display) till tomorrow.
To remind myself of how annoying they really are I then tried to set up a transfer for today from my PC Fin Savings account to my PC Fin Chequing account and was "rewarded" with this text:
Transfers from the savings account must be dated for after today's date. Please re-enter the date.
Greg
6:28 pm
December 12, 2009
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Greg - thanks for sharing this "annoyance" with PC Financial. I've heard of this problem as well from others and, to be honest, never understood why they "force" their customers to future date all transfers from their savings accounts to other PC Financial accounts/products. It doesn't make any sense, other than to perhaps make it somewhat difficult to transfer funds out? 
Cheers,
Doug
11:00 pm
February 22, 2013
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Doug said
Greg - thanks for sharing this "annoyance" with PC Financial. I've heard of this problem as well from others and, to be honest, never understood why they "force" their customers to future date all transfers from their savings accounts to other PC Financial accounts/products. It doesn't make any sense, other than to perhaps make it somewhat difficult to transfer funds out?
Cheers,
Doug
I always fear it was some programmer who pushed back and said, "it would be much easier to program if we didn't accept requests 'today' " and some analyst said "oh, ok, I'll tell the business that's the way it has to be" and the business said, "oh, ok, likely no one will mind".
I saw stranger things than that happen when I was working.
And, for any businesses reading this, I like to set something up "today" and then check "tomorrow" to see it happened as I expected and then I can move on to my next task.
Greg
9:40 am
February 20, 2013
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On top of the annoyances Greg mentioned above I ran into another one.
I wrote a cheque some time ago and forgot to transfer the required funds from my savings account to my chequing account. At most institutions I deal with that is not a problem because I usually check my accounts daily, have overdraft protection and if a cheque showed up I forgot about, I can immediately cover it by doing a transfer from my savings. That then avoids the overdraft fees.
Well in this case the cheque showed up and was time stamped on July 13 in my online banking transactions. As noted by Greg you can't transfer funds on the same day from your savings to your chequing account so I wrote a cheque on an account at another institution and deposited it in my PC Financial chequing account at an ABM. It posted on July 13. After this run around I figured I would avoid the overdraft fees. Well that wasn't to be. It turns out that even though the cheque I forgot about posted online to my account on July 13, it really posted on July 10. So I was charged for an overdraft. Your month end statements show the real date whereas online the dates for transaction such as cheques and pre-authorized bill payments show up later.
I know CIBC is a middleman in PC Financial transactions and is probably the reason for these delays in processing things but is the delay/misinformation really unavoidable?
9:59 am
June 24, 2014
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Sounds strange to me. You have overdraft protection, yet was charged for an overdraft.
10:04 am
February 20, 2013
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james1900 said
Sounds strange to me. You have overdraft protection, yet was charged for an overdraft.
Overdraft protection at PC Financial (and I would imagine most other institutions) is such that if you need it they charge you a per monthly use fee along with interest on the money you borrowed from them to cover the overdraft. Without it you would most likely pay a higher NSF fee.
11:24 am
June 24, 2014
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Thank you for the reply. I got it now. There are many possible fees: NSF fee: Not-Sufficient-Fund; Overdraft fee;
Actually I have a line of credit tying to the chequing account that I use to pay pre-authorized-bills and to write cheques. In that way, I only need to pay interest should I go under zero.
12:26 pm
February 20, 2013
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james1900 said
Actually I have a line of credit tying to the chequing account that I use to pay pre-authorized-bills and to write cheques. In that way, I only need to pay interest should I go under zero.
This is pretty much the same concept as PC Financial's Overdraft Protection except that they charge a fee when your account goes into negative territory (each month until you pay the credit back) along with a 19% annualized interest rate on the credit.
4:47 pm
June 24, 2014
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The over-draft fee is an unfair practice. Customers have already been charged interest for using the over-draft money. What is this "over-draft" fee paid for? It is a totally automatic computer process. I guess in history man-work might be involved to process over-draft accounts. But today, no more man work.
6:56 pm
September 11, 2013
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I don't see this as "unfair", it's just a charge PC as a profit-seeking corporation has decided to apply and any customer can freely decide whether or not they want to remain a customer. (PC could say it's not "fair" that they have to unexpectedly come up with money to cover all the people who happen on any given day to go into negative balance. And it's not
"automatic", they do incur programming costs in order to smoothly handle the accounts that temporarily go into deficit.) Also, it's pretty easy to avoid - don't spend money that's not in your account.
8:56 pm
February 20, 2013
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I think the way PC Financial handles overdrafts, as described above, is unfair. What I find annoying and underhanded is that by the time the overdraft posts to my account online it has already been in overdraft for a few days. Then, I can't avoid the charges by quickly transferring money from my savings to my chequing. And of course there is a mandated 1 day delay in processing that type of transaction.
Tangerine's new overdraft protection at least would allow you to avoid these fees because of the way they handle their transactions.
Bill, I find it hard to believe that the banks haven't automated overdraft fees and interest charges. Are there reasons why additional programming is required? I also think 19% overdraft interest on top of the usage fee a bit excessive. I never spend more than I have in my accounts but when I make an honest mistake I at least would appreciate the opportunity to correct it on the same day without additional fees.
7:11 am
September 11, 2013
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jgclghrn, banks vary, they are not non-profit organizations and so each seeks certain types of business and customers and not others. They don't need to justify their corporate choices in that regard. If they're "annoying" or "underhanded" to you then choose another bank that's in sync with you. Again, my personal view is that the unfairness here is that some people spend money they don't have (?!) - if I ran a bank I would reject payments or cheques where there are insufficient funds in the account (now that would be inconvenient, no?) so sounds like I'd be a pretty small bank or out of business pretty quick these days! To me it's a wonderful gesture if someone else takes some of their money to cover for me when I mess up - though as you can probably guess I've never gone overdraft.
12:22 pm
October 21, 2013
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I have to agree with Bill here.
I don't like PCF as I find a lot of their practices questionable. Tangerine is more straightforward in my view.
However, if you want the 2.5% interest rate, you have to take your lumps when you underfund your debts. The fine art of brinksmanship, where you time your moves so as to get the higher rate until the very last minute requires constant vigilance.
I have never had an overdraft or NSF in over 50 years of banking, despite periods of poverty. There are 4 solutions to the problem:
1. use another financial institution whose policies you prefer.
2. don't spend money that you don't yet have.
3. plan on keeping a cushion in your chequing account to cover such eventualities.
4. if all else fails, be prepared to pay the costs levied when you go into negative.
I have done all of these except the last, which I have never had to deal with.
I don't think it's an acceptable alternative to expect the institution to deal with it on our terms. They have armies of accountants calculating costs and profits down to the last basis point. They, as well as ourselves, are in the business of making money out of money.
8:04 pm
February 20, 2013
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I agree with some of the principles you both are talking about and I'm glad neither of you have experienced an overdraft. However, I guess we agree to disagree on the topic of posting transactions correctly in real time.
I think it is a disservice to just-in-time customers or those who forgot to top up their chequing account. It has nothing to do with spending more than you have or using someone else's money to cover a shortfall. It has everything to do with being able to reasonably manage your money in real time. If a financial institution doesn't offer this then they should clearly identify this policy and how it works to their customers. PC Financial doesn't identify this until you actually experience it.
8:38 am
October 21, 2013
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I think we would agree on the need for transparency, and that some of PC's practices are questionable at best. Accordingly, I don't deal with them - so far.
10:18 am
October 27, 2013
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I've been reasonably happy with PCF for a number of years, albeit I only have a HISA account with them and the way they offer their promotions (having to register) is somewhat annoying.
Overall though, they are essentially a 'full service' bank with a range of products and services that I may want to tap into some day.
Added: The important thing is simply to be fully aware of their T's & C's - something which is important no matter which institution one is at.
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