PCF hold times

[blaisen1]

I signed up for PCF about a month ago for my personal account. Initially when I signed up online I later received a rejection letter. I didn't think I had any major black marks on my credit report (as they don't tell you exactly why they rejected your application, either your information wasn't all correct or to check your equifax report, nice and vague -- I didn't even apply for overdraft or any sort of credit), turns out it was because I have a VOIP phone number and not a "real Bell landline". Fair enough, so since I had to produce a copy of my VOIP bill and another utility bill I decided to simply go re-apply at a Pavillion (about an hour away) all in one shot. Got the account set up but there was a 10 business day hold on it. The rep said to deposit $5/month cash (or more, whatever) and if I called the help desk after 6 months they'd probably remove the hold.

Hold isn't a big deal for me because my pay is direct deposited and I only use the account for online bill payments, pre-authorized payment for my mortgage, and transferring any monthly budget surpluses (plus my fixed 20% of net earnings personal savings commitment) to a high interest savings account. I do most POS transactions with my BMO Mosaik card for the rewards and pay the balance in full every month.

Anyhow, when I opened up the Interest Plus account (online) when it became available (I was about to sign up for Achieva actually but I thought having the accounts with the same "bank" would be more convenient and since the interest rate was almost the same... plus some of the posts on here lead me to believe CDIC would be more trustworthy than the CUDGCM).

I had some leftover cash kicking around a couple weeks ago and though to keep myself from spending it I'd just deposit it (it was on a Monday evening), by Friday the funds were available. I did another deposit the next week; same thing. My first $5 deposit at the pavillion was held for 2 weeks, now only a week.

Does opening a Interest Plus account reduce your hold, or did they just for some reason re-review my account and reduce the hold without my request? Anyone else find this? Very happy with my PCF account in the first month or so of having it. Never needed teller access with my BMO personal account anyhow, and now saving $200/year in service charges so that's nice.

[Tofu Drift Shinji]

I opened a PCF account (Chequing and Int. 1st) at the end of June and my holds have always been 5 days. Mind you, I am a university student, have a student credit card with low credit limit (by choice) and live with my parents. They had never once specified that holds could be up to 10 days, but I imagine in my situation, they'd be more likely to give me the 10 day hold than the OP.

I was also told that in 6 months, I have the opportunity of getting them to remove the hold.

Perhaps 5 days is the standard?

[daisyville]

PCF will hold funds for students, or for people who haven't demonstrated a long enough credit history.

This is what I was told when I went with my (then) 15 year old daughter to open her own PCF account.

In order to avoid this, she and I opened a joint account, to which I do not have a debit card for or cheques that I use. But, with the joint account, she has access to my good credit history, therefore - no holds.

I have no holds on anything with PCF.

[nolookingca]

PCF will hold funds for students, or for people who haven't demonstrated a long enough credit history.

This is what I was told when I went with my (then) 15 year old daughter to open her own PCF account.

In order to avoid this, she and I opened a joint account, to which I do not have a debit card for or cheques that I use. But, with the joint account, she has access to my good credit history, therefore - no holds.

I have no holds on anything with PCF.

Really? I vaguely remember reading something about PCF having a minimum 3-day hold period, but the daily allowance can be fairly high.

[Sylvestre]

call and ask for holds to be removed. I don't have a landline either so they were unwilling to give me anything. I called up, talked to a manger. They asked some general questions (salary etc) and voila, holds removed. This was well before 6 months.

[emoci]

I am curious, did most of you huys open your accounts online?

See I applied for the PCF account online, got a rejection letter, then went to the pavillion. I am a University student, have a CC. If I deposit anything 200 or less it clears immediately and this is per day, so if the following day I deposit another 200 or less it would also clear immediately. On deposits more than 200 the first 200 clears and the rest is held for 3-5 days (from experience it is usually 3 days)

Maybe, not sure how possible this is, it would pay to show up at a pavillion with your bank card and some account info and talk to someone face to face and see if you can have the holds improved that way.

[Jucius Maximus]

See I applied for the PCF account online, got a rejection letter, then went to the pavillion. I am a University student, have a CC. If I deposit anything 200 or less it clears immediately and this is per day, so if the following day I deposit another 200 or less it would also clear immediately. On deposits more than 200 the first 200 clears and the rest is held for 3-5 days (from experience it is usually 3 days)
Similar story here. I originally opened my account at a pavilion because they did not have an online signup back then. I was a student and they assigned me a 5 day hold on deposits above $200.

I am no longer a student and have an (almost) spotless history when them, so I should phone them up and ask about those holds.

[bembem]

I opened my account many years ago when I was still in school.

Never had a hold... back in the day, I'd deposit my cheque, then go out and spend it immediately :(

[William W]

Do they hold your money for 5 days if you make a deposit of over $1000. That is what they do with my account. And I'm not a student, have good credit history and have always maintained a balance of significantly over $1000 on my account.



BTW this is my 600th post... woo hoo

[Jacklad]

Do they hold your money for 5 days if you make a deposit of over $1000. That is what they do with my account. And I'm not a student, have good credit history and have always maintained a balance of significantly over $1000 on my account.

BTW this is my 600th post... woo hoo

Congratulations.

As for holds, I deposited a $10k cheque and had the funds available immediately - or, to be precise, available for transfer and bill payment within the half-hour it took me to get home and log on. I didn't try to withdraw cash from it (but I rarely use cash these days for anything).

Jackie

[john widow]

"I was also told that in 6 months, I have the opportunity of getting them to remove the hold.
"

Also, they forgot to mention you must be age of majority as well........................................I can't wait for my b-day.........holds.

[blaisen1]

So can you get a PC account if you are NOT age of majority? My 10 year old daughter would like a bank account, I was going to set her up at a Credit Union near us because it's free until she's older, but if I could get her a PC account with the Interest FIRST (it'll be awhile until she saves $1000 with the allowance we give her) savings account that would be awesome.

anyone?

[vm_fan]

Got the account set up but there was a 10 business day hold on it. The rep said to deposit $5/month cash (or more, whatever) and if I called the help desk after 6 months they'd probably remove the hold.

This seems to be a gradual process for most people. After 6 months, they might reduce the hold period. If none of your deposit is available immediately, they might give you an amount that's available immediately and the rest will be put on hold. Or if you already have an amount that's available immediately, they might increase this amount. They might do a combination of these things, but it's not for certain that they'll remove the hold entirely.

I had some leftover cash kicking around a couple weeks ago and though to keep myself from spending it I'd just deposit it (it was on a Monday evening), by Friday the funds were available. I did another deposit the next week; same thing. My first $5 deposit at the pavillion was held for 2 weeks, now only a week.

Does opening a Interest Plus account reduce your hold, or did they just for some reason re-review my account and reduce the hold without my request? Anyone else find this?

That's certainly a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure why your hold has changed already, especially since you've been a customer for only over a month or so.

[felix]

Do they hold your money for 5 days if you make a deposit of over $1000. That is what they do with my account. And I'm not a student, have good credit history and have always maintained a balance of significantly over $1000 on my account.

I think it depends on your account. With my PCF account I can deposit $3000 through ATM without holds. I just opened a TD bank account recently and can only deposit $2000 through ATM without any partial holds (which means my credit rating dropped a lot in past few years :()

[Hellfire]

Apparently the max release amount with PCF is now $5000 now and the lowest # of days held is 5.

But anyone who has a higher limit / lower hold time gets to keep it, since it was from there old system.

[Kinki]

I have no hold up to $5000. PC determines your hold through a quick credit assessment. It helps if you can provide them with your employment information and if you already have a PC Mastercard with them.

[shoppingmama]

Apparently the max release amount with PCF is now $5000 now and the lowest # of days held is 5.

But anyone who has a higher limit / lower hold time gets to keep it, since it was from there old system.

This is what we have and it's fine.

[vm_fan]

I talked to a CSR about a month ago about holds and what the absolute limits are (yeah, people who are familiar with my posts know I love confirming information with them). I was told that there is no such thing as an account with absolutely no hold on deposits--in fact, the minimum is a 3-day hold. But, as everyone knows, most of us have access to an amount that's available immediately and the rest of it is put on hold. The CSR said that the maximum amount that's available immediately to you can go as high as $20,000.

So, if you believe that your account has no hold on it, you're wrong--it just looks that way because your personal maximum amount that's available immediately to you is very high. As for if these are recent rules and customers who joined a long time ago really do have no holds--I haven't a clue. I'm just telling you what one CSR said.

[Hellfire]

I talked to a CSR about a month ago about holds and what the absolute limits are (yeah, people who are familiar with my posts know I love confirming information with them). I was told that there is no such thing as an account with absolutely no hold on deposits--in fact, the minimum is a 3-day hold. But, as everyone knows, most of us have access to an amount that's available immediately and the rest of it is put on hold. The CSR said that the maximum amount that's available immediately to you can go as high as $20,000.

A month ago the max release amount was $20,000? wanna check and see if they still tell ya the same thing? Since both times I've called in recently they told me $5000 was the max.

[emoci]

So can you get a PC account if you are NOT age of majority? My 10 year old daughter would like a bank account, I was going to set her up at a Credit Union near us because it's free until she's older, but if I could get her a PC account with the Interest FIRST (it'll be awhile until she saves $1000 with the allowance we give her) savings account that would be awesome.

anyone?


Who are you yourself banking with right now.

Ten year old is a bit young, you may be able to get a cosigned account, so your name goes on it and she is just a secondary.

You are probably better off getting a TD youth account for chequing and an ING savings account (since until the money does get to a 1000, she can still get 3.35% interest on it with ING).

She can have the TD Youth account completely in her name, as for the ING account, it most likely needs to be in your name

**TD Youth account has no monthly fees of any sort

[vm_fan]

A month ago the max release amount was $20,000? wanna check and see if they still tell ya the same thing? Since both times I've called in recently they told me $5000 was the max.

Hmm, okay, I just called in. Would you believe we now have a third answer? The CSR told me that there is no absolute ceiling to how much of your deposit is available immediately and it depends on your account history and other factors. So if that's true, I guess there really are accounts with no holds, in practice. But with these conflicting answers, who knows what the truth is? I guess if a CSR tells you that your own account has no holds, then that's the truth.

[Mint]

I called in this morning to increase my hold limit (currently at $1,000). I was only able to bump it up to $1500 and they said I would have to wait 6 months and deposit over $1500/month to go up further. I told them I have already been depositing over $1500/month for about 1.5 - 2 years, but they wouldn't bump me up further.

I did have one NSF when I went away on vacation (since I used a lotta cash for the vacation and was home to deposit my cheque). Would that be a factor?

On a similar note, does stuff like NSF and not paying your Mastercard bills completly affect your credit rating (i.e you make the minimum payment only).

[felix]

On a similar note, does stuff like NSF and not paying your Mastercard bills completly affect your credit rating (i.e you make the minimum payment only).
Yes, of course.

[Jacklad]

Yes, of course.

Are you sure about that? Bank accounts aren't normally reported to the CRAs, and there is no difference in reporting between paying a card off and paying the minimum (both will report "paid as agreed"). The only way carrying a balance on your cards will impact your score is with respect to your utilization percentage.

I know in the US there are separate services that report on cheques and bank accounts (e.g ChexSystems, Checkrite, etc.), but I've never heard of a similar system in Canada.

Jackie