PC Financial

[Hodder]

The hold limits are based on your Beacon score, even though you were not looking for credit. They still consider it "credit" because they were giving you access to unverified funds ...depending on your "hold" amount you might not have access to any funds until 5 days after deposit or you might have access to the first $20K of bank machine deposit (or something in between). They assume that people who have excellent credit are not going to deposit empty envelopes in the bank machine and then withdraw the money.

Given that you had transfered the funds from your savings account to your chequing account electronically, it should have been available to you immediately. Now, there IS a limit on cash withdrawals per day, per bank card and that is standard in the industry. It is usually $1000. per day, per card (so you and your husband could each withdraw $1000. at a time), but that limit is independant of point of sale purchase, which is usually $3K per day/ per card (sometimes it was only $1000. as well). Those limits are in place to protect you against fraud and theft. Should someone access your card number and PIN, it would limit how much money they could access per day and give you a chance to report the card stolen.

The bank hold I don't mind. I never withdrawl much cash, but I don't see where there should have been an issue where they could have lifted that for the one day only so that I didn't have to go to the bank machine 3x over the weekend...at night to boot. I will still keep my chequing account with them but it's the cutomer service aspect with them. Basically there isn't any. At least I have a hard time with them, I don't call them often so maybe it's just the couple of times that I had a special request.

 

[Belle1997]

We had them for RRSP. Never again. Decided we wanted to change brokers. It took 3 months to get our money. They had to send a form and wanted to take the government taxes off a head off time. What a rip off. Also if you are a day late paying their credit card they will call you just one day late. They added extra fees for a day late too. We use them for car and house insurance. And that is it now. Really hate their customer service. There isn't any.

 

[Pokemom]

It is quite surprising to me to see some of the things people are complaining about with President's Choice. You knew when you signed up for your accounts that there was no "branch" where you could withdraw unlimited amounts of money. You are limited to withdrawing the daily bank machine limit each day. Can you imagine what a mess it would be if everyone was phoning and asking them to change their withdrawal limits every time they wanted more money? If they do it for one, they would have to do it for everyone. As for the RRSP experience, RRSP's are tightly regulated by the government and there is a lot of paperwork involved anytime changes are made. PC was following regulations as set out by the government in regards to withholding taxes, etc. As for being charged when you pay your credit card late - if anyone can tell me what credit card does not charge interest when you pay late, I'd like to hear about it. I don't mean to be negative towards some of the posters, but there is a reason you don't pay any bank fees to bank at PC. I had banked at BMO my entire life and the last time we went to renew our mortgage, they offered us a rate the same as the regular posted rate. When I asked about a renewal discount, they offered me 1/4 % off and that was the best they could do I was told. I checked with PC just to compare and they offered me a rate 3/4 % off the original BMO rate (and that was their regular rate charged to everyone). We switched our mortgage and all our accounts over to PC. After phoning us about 10 times, BMO finally offered to match the PC rate, but I told them it was too late - they had their chance. We have been very happy with PC - we have paid no fees for the last 5 years (saving about $200/year) and have enough PC points for over $1000 worth of groceries (or perhaps plane tickets to Disney)

 

[Hodder]

It is quite surprising to me to see some of the things people are complaining about with President's Choice. You knew when you signed up for your accounts that there was no "branch" where you could withdraw unlimited amounts of money. You are limited to withdrawing the daily bank machine limit each day. Can you imagine what a mess it would be if everyone was phoning and asking them to change their withdrawal limits every time they wanted more money? If they do it for one, they would have to do it for everyone. As for the RRSP experience, RRSP's are tightly regulated by the government and there is a lot of paperwork involved anytime changes are made. PC was following regulations as set out by the government in regards to withholding taxes, etc. As for being charged when you pay your credit card late - if anyone can tell me what credit card does not charge interest when you pay late, I'd like to hear about it. I don't mean to be negative towards some of the posters, but there is a reason you don't pay any bank fees to bank at PC. I had banked at BMO my entire life and the last time we went to renew our mortgage, they offered us a rate the same as the regular posted rate. When I asked about a renewal discount, they offered me 1/4 % off and that was the best they could do I was told. I checked with PC just to compare and they offered me a rate 3/4 % off the original BMO rate (and that was their regular rate charged to everyone). We switched our mortgage and all our accounts over to PC. After phoning us about 10 times, BMO finally offered to match the PC rate, but I told them it was too late - they had their chance. We have been very happy with PC - we have paid no fees for the last 5 years (saving about $200/year) and have enough PC points for over $1000 worth of groceries (or perhaps plane tickets to Disney)

Don't see why it surprises you, you have had a different experience. I love the chequing account. What I am complaining about is the customer service. Customers everywhere everyday sometimes require special circumstances. If that is a problem with them then it is with me. I needed access to my money , I was asking that instead of being able to withdrawl $1000/day over 3 days could they let me withdrawl it all on Monday. They were rude and the responses didn't make sense...they kept coming back with safety issue...wallking around with that many $20 at one time. Well instead I had to go to the bank machine (at night due to working all weekend) the machine is near a bar (the other bank machines are across town) so tell me where the safety issue is.... Also they don't charge fees but they sure as heck make money of the money I put in my account. If I need to pay a fee to be able to access my money when I want then I am happy to. It was actually the CSR at the pavillion that told me to call and have them up my withdrawl limit.

 

[FayeW]

Actually, they did increase my withdrawal limit for about 30 mins, one day, so my husband and I could withdraw $10k to take to another bank to get a bank draft. We had taken a loan with PCF and they were so slow depositing it that they had to make a special accomodation for us.

So, Hodder, they will do it, they just wouldn't do it for you. The customer service was very inconsistent. As an employee, especially in the Pavillion where we were face to face with customers, it was very frustrating to have to try to explain the unexplainable. The worst of it was, half the time the telephone reps wouldn't believe us when we gave them information.

 

[brytorlyn]

We had some customer service issues too. We use Pc and love the no fees and the PC points for free groceries but we have had other issues.

We talked to them about our mortgage but they made it very complicated asking for more documentation than our other bank and wouldn't waive certain fees that all the other banks were willing to do (this was a transfer). We also found them annoying again with documentation for our car insurance...I don't remember the specifics just that it seemed to be too much trouble.

The real problem was when we bought our new house. We had a small line of credit with PC ( no balance on it) and we thought we might need it when we moved for extra expenses. They were offering a low rate of interest on lines of credit so we went and said we would like to raise our limit and get the better interest rate. They said no problem except to do this we would have to re-apply they couldn't just raise our current limit and change the rate. Fine..so they cancelled the exsisting rate and made us fill out a hundred forms and show all our proofs of income again. Fine...then they turned us down!! they refused us because when they looked at our finances it showed that we owned 2 houses...well we showed the docs to prove that we sold our house and it closed a week after we took possession of our new house but they didn't care...and then the real kicker was that THEY WOULDN'T REINSTATE THE OLD LINE OF CREDIT!!! In the end we just went to TD were our mortgage was and they approved us with no problem. PC was rather rude about the whole thing.

 

[Hodder]

And that is what I am talking about, inconsistant customer service that has been rude. The CSRs at the Pavillion are always great trying to be helpful, but it stops with the CS Center. I guess you are just a number with them.

 

[SnowWhite]

Honestly this is the same issue when you deal with CM's at disney as well. Unfortunately, not all CS people are the same. I have had no problems with PC financial since they opened mortgage wise or other. We deal mainly online now, but when we dealt with CS agents on the phone they were always nice and accommadating. Just my experiences with them.......

Rob (Snowwhite's DH)

 

[Limmer]

I regret moving my mortgage to them. I was happy iwth the bank accounts and should have stopped there. I was tlaked into a variable rate because we would save a lot of money. OK, it was explained to me that one quick phone call could switch to fixed when the rates went up. Well, one quick phone call took 5 days and when I finally got through (after 3 hours on hold) I had to fight for another 40 mins. The man told me that because they were so busy that it would take 2-4 weeks to process, fine but my rate freezes now right? NO. After fighting and talking to a "manager" they agreed to freeze my rate at the day I called. A few of the reasons that I switched was the anniversary points and the rainy day option that the lady in the pavillion told me about. When I called just after our anniversary to find out where the points were it took 4 phone calls to find out that we had not been signed up for that and when I was on mat leave I asked about the rainy day option, was told that out CMHC mortgage did not qualify for that either. I like tot hink the woman who talked to us and filled out our paper work was poorly trained instead of deceitful but the whole thing was irritating and making those phone calls to people who don't know or don't care is not worth the $15 in fees a month.

 

[FayeW]

I regret moving my mortgage to them. I was happy iwth the bank accounts and should have stopped there. I was tlaked into a variable rate because we would save a lot of money. OK, it was explained to me that one quick phone call could switch to fixed when the rates went up. Well, one quick phone call took 5 days and when I finally got through (after 3 hours on hold) I had to fight for another 40 mins. The man told me that because they were so busy that it would take 2-4 weeks to process, fine but my rate freezes now right? NO. After fighting and talking to a "manager" they agreed to freeze my rate at the day I called. A few of the reasons that I switched was the anniversary points and the rainy day option that the lady in the pavillion told me about. When I called just after our anniversary to find out where the points were it took 4 phone calls to find out that we had not been signed up for that and when I was on mat leave I asked about the rainy day option, was told that out CMHC mortgage did not qualify for that either. I like tot hink the woman who talked to us and filled out our paper work was poorly trained instead of deceitful but the whole thing was irritating and making those phone calls to people who don't know or don't care is not worth the $15 in fees a month.

This is precisely why I don't send any mortgage business to PCF. I feel like to do so would be to throw my clients to the wolves.

As long as you are just doing regular banking they are GREAT...but the second you need anything slightly outside "everyday" banking then things fall apart. For example, sometimes people need to have a bank draft, like, when you are buying a new vehicle or paying the closing costs to your lawyer when you buy a new house. This is not an unusual request, just not something you need all the time. To get that, you have to request the funds 24-48 hours ahead of time, and have them wired to another bank. They can do an electronic transfer to CIBC, and when I worked there they would charge $25 to do it. Let me tell you, those people at telephone banking must have thought I was the most incompetent employee EVER because I always said that the customer hadn't been given correct information, that I forgot to tell them, etc so they would waive the service charge. My clients never had to pay the fee because I always said it was my fault.

They are still our primary bank in terms of everyday banking, but little by little we are starting to do business with other banks again. Car loan at Scotia, LOC at CIBC, etc.