PC Financial

[Hodder]

Anybody use them? Tell me your experiences with them. Good and Bad.

 

[trivial]

I use them for banking, car insurance, home insurance, and bought their insurance for my trip. The only insurance I've had to actually "use" is their car insurance; it was a quick and painless process.

 

[pooksma]

I have a Mastercard through them and no probs at all. (Hope that doesn't jinx me)

 

[SnowWhite]

We have been with them since they started. We have all our accounts with them as well as auto insurance and had our mortgage with them for awhile. They are great, we have had no problems and would reccommend them to anyone!

 

[eleanor]

We have our MC ,insurance policy for the car,and 3 accounts.( They pay the highest interest on a savings acct.4 percent) . Never a problem. On our new car (bought 2 weeks ago) they quoted $250 less then our carrier in the old car.So go for it.

 

[dsneygirl]

We have 2 MCs, our checking, savings and credit line with them since about 2001. We've been very pleased with the service and no one can beat their fees. (of which there are hardly any)

 

[FayeW]

We've been banking with them since '99, and I worked for them (in the in-store pavillion) for nearly 2 yrs. I left in 2002. Mostly, they are great but strictly from an insider's point of view, they have made alot of changes in the last couple of years as to how they do business. For example, when I worked for them the interest rate for borrowing was the same for everyone; if you qualified for the loan there was only one interest rate. Now it is a tiered interest rate structure based on your beacon score. They are becoming more mainstream and veering off from what set them apart.

They still don't charge fees for debit transactions, cheques, etc, so that's good.

My husband is actually at the pavillion right now because his bank card wouldn't work this morning. He tried to use the bank machine and it read the card and asked for his PIN, and then said he had to go to PCF to set up his banking! I am guessing that his card was compromised somehow and they cancelled it. That happened to me a couple of years ago, I had used the card somewhere that was suspected of copying bank numbers so they just cancelled everybody's card who shopped there. Luckily, I was at home doing online banking when I discovered it...imagine if I had just put gas in the car and my bank card didn't work! I was really P.O'd that they ddin't call me to let me know. They also wouldn't tell me which business it was so for all I knew I could have gone right back to the same place and had it cancelled again!

Anyway, for just no fee banking and decent interest rates, PCF is fine. Not as good as it used to be, but fine. I am now a mortgage broker and while PCF is one of the lenders we can send business to, I never do. Their mortgage products just aren't as good as some of the others out there that are strictly broker based (ie. MCAP, Firstline, etc). The only business I would send to them now would be the secured credit line because although it takes 4-6 weeks to set it up (could be done int 2-3 everywhere else) they do have the lowest fee. I think it is $199. and that INCLUDES legal fees and appaisal!

 

[jtdl]

I have been with PC since they started as well. I have had a loan, mortgage, chequing and savings acc'ts with them. Never a problem. Big plus - I love the free groceries. The no fees saves me at least $15 per month as compared to my previous bank. I save my points up for our 2-week camping trip in the summer and then the groceries are paid for. I think this year I will save them for Christmas groceries. You can use CIBC ATMs for no charge as well as the PC machines. The inconvenience of having to wait a few extra days to set up loans, etc. is well worth it to me in exchange for no fees.

 

[nosnobunny2006]

My DH and I have just recently switched all our insurances to PC from our previous agent of over 30 years. With all policies being the same as we had, we saved over $700/year just on our two cars alone and our condo insurance premium is so low that we were concerned about our coverage. We rechecked it and it's the same as before. So far we've had no cause for concern but we haven't had a claim either. My one phone call to clear up an administrative error was an experience though. PC's call centre is in India and we didn't always understand each other.

Beth

 

[bunnyfoo]

I haven't had any problems with PCF and I've been with them since the beginning. Mind you, I only use them for their banking services so I can't comment on the mortgages or credit cards. I plan on keeping my accounts with them for a while ... even though I work for a different bank They've given me a better deposit credit and hold on cheques.

I really like their high interest saving account, it makes it really easy to transfer money back and forth. I think some of the other banks like RBC and CIBC are coming out with similar account though.

 

[sammi]

We've also been with PCF since the beginning (about 11 years now) and although there have been a few hitches along the way (with arranging a mortgage) most has been very smooth and has saved us a ton of money!

We have chequing,savings and had a car loan with them....also have a PC Mastercard and actually had to use the cards "extras" to fix a digital camera that I dropped accidentally 3 weeks after I bought it.PC has a clause that will cover things like that and I had my camera fixed without charge ...so yes I am a big fan of PCF!

 

[Camilo]

PC all the way.
Free account, free cheques, over 350 dollars in free food for the last 4 years....
Not to mention the great rate for savings account (4%).
I just love PC Financial...

 

[dancin Disney style]

I also give it the "thumbs-up". We have both our cars and our home insurance with PC for the last 3 years. When I got as quote on the cars it was $700 less per year than we were paying. Our home policy was about the same.

Two weeks ago we bought a new car and when I called to have that car added on the rep took the time to check that we were receiving all the discounts that we were entitled to. She saved us another $240 per year and once I sell my old car and remove that from the insurance I will get another $344 reduction.

When it is time to renew our mortgage we plan on looking at PC for that also.

 

[Hodder]

The reason why i am asking is because big issue with their customer service. Have an interest first account with them and have been saving for our Disney trip. Transferred $xx into my chequing knowing it would take 24 hours. While at the pavillion I was asking how much I can withdraw on my bank card per day. They told me $xx/3 (which means 3 trips to bank machine over the weekend to get money for Monday. I wanted the money Monday a the USD rate is awesome and because I booked through Disney was paying in USD. The CSR at the pavillion told me to call Customer service ph# and ask them to raise my withdrawl limit for Monday only for the $ amount that I had transferred.

Needless to say cutomer service gave me BS how it was a liability for me to take that many bills out of the bank machine in $20. I said I was taking the cash out and going to the bank straight away, beides why is that their business. I told them no more than having $xx in my house all weekend. The manager was rude said my needs could be met by going to bank machine 3 times over the weekend and that could use hubby's card so less trips. (WTH that would mean neither of us could withdraw cash on our card.)

Decided that this was the last straw. Another time transferred out money from my Interest first and it was held in my chequing account because over the deposit limit.....they gave me BS...I told thm that the money had been in the account for over 2 mints and they had no right to hold it as they had already verified that it wasn't a sheet of paper I deposited. Took me 3 phone call to get this fixed.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

We've been with them since the beginning too! We used to have our mortage with them but have recently found a better deal out there. However, they really can't be beat for their no fee banking and I love their 4% savings account! Of course I have to keep a minimum of $1000 balance to get it so like everywhere else it pays to read the small print. Thinking of changing from our air miles mastercard to their's. I just haven't had time to read the small print!

 

[Reese]

I love them. We've been with them since they opened. We have had a couple of "glitches" but they have always been quick to correct them. I enjoy the perk of getting free groceries and no interact fees.

 

[FayeW]

The reason why i am asking is because big issue with their customer service. Have an interest first account with them and have been saving for our Disney trip. Transferred $xx into my chequing knowing it would take 24 hours. While at the pavillion I was asking how much I can withdraw on my bank card per day. They told me $xx/3 (which means 3 trips to bank machine over the weekend to get money for Monday. I wanted the money Monday a the USD rate is awesome and because I booked through Disney was paying in USD. The CSR at the pavillion told me to call Customer service ph# and ask them to raise my withdrawl limit for Monday only for the $ amount that I had transferred.

Needless to say cutomer service gave me BS how it was a liability for me to take that many bills out of the bank machine in $20. I said I was taking the cash out and going to the bank straight away, beides why is that their business. I told them no more than having $xx in my house all weekend. The manager was rude said my needs could be met by going to bank machine 3 times over the weekend and that could use hubby's card so less trips. (WTH that would mean neither of us could withdraw cash on our card.)

Decided that this was the last straw. Another time transferred out money from my Interest first and it was held in my chequing account because over the deposit limit.....they gave me BS...I told thm that the money had been in the account for over 2 mints and they had no right to hold it as they had already verified that it wasn't a sheet of paper I deposited. Took me 3 phone call to get this fixed.

The customer service issue was the big reason I stopped working for them. It was very frustrating having to beg the phone reps or the "back end" people to fix mistakes for the client. So many times we would send in the paper work and it would get lost or not imaged to the file properly. Mortgages took forever to process. Knowing how horrible the customer service is in the mortgage servicing department is one of the main reasons I don't send them any business. I think if they are that difficult for me to deal with and I'm trying to give them business, what kind of a nightmare will it be for my clients after funding?

 

[Hodder]

I opened a savins with credit union, it pays 3.25%. I just don't like that I couldn't access my money when I needed it without hassle. Do you know what they base your withdrawl limit on? What does it matter to them. Cannot be credit rating because that shouldn't be an issue, (for anyone) as you are not asking for credit.

 

[FayeW]

I opened a savins with credit union, it pays 3.25%. I just don't like that I couldn't access my money when I needed it without hassle. Do you know what they base your withdrawl limit on? What does it matter to them. Cannot be credit rating because that shouldn't be an issue, (for anyone) as you are not asking for credit.

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.

 

[ilovemangoes]

I've been banking with PC for over 6 years now. They hold my mortgage, line of credit, accounts, Mastercard, etc. I can't praise them enough. Except for my initial mortgage costs, I've have never paid them a dime for any of their services and they treat me better than when I was with a "full-service" bank!

I can't for the life of me imagine why Canadians continue to bank with the big 6 who charge service fees to use your own money.