After we’d set up a joint PC Financial no fee chequing account, I set up some bills and paid them online. That dropped our bank balance quickly. Fortunately, my husband had filled out a Pre-Authorized Debit Form and sent in a void cheque from our joint chequing account at a Big 5 bank. PC Financial used the form to create an electronic link between the two joint chequing accounts. My husband could then transfer money from the Big 5 Bank to our PC Financial account. The only problem was that I couldn’t. PC Financial’s computer was not prepared to accept that my husband and I want to share our account.
How I Came to Realize Our Joint Bank Accounts Were Linked
It actually was a week or more after our joint bank accounts were electronically linked before I realized they were. That’s because I only kept checking what choices *I* had to make transfers when I was banking using my Bank Card.
When I finally clued in and had my husband login using his bank card and check the transfers option, we discovered the accounts were connected. So he tested it and made a successful transfer of money out of and into the account.
How to Get Both of the Joint Account Holders Listed to Link a PC Financial Joint Account to an Account at Another Bank
Today I finally got around to phoning PC Financial to find out how to fix this annoying problem.
After wading through several layers of voice mail misdirection, and after waiting about 7 minutes on hold I finally spoke to a human being. (The long wait on hold was probably because PCF has a special interest rate offer promotion on right now that requires customers to speak to an agent.)
The agent cheerfully confirmed my worst suspicion: for me to be able to transfer money between the two joint accounts—which are already linked for my husband—I will have to submit the exact same paperwork that my husband already submitted, and wait.
Yes, I have to fill out another Pre-Authorized Debit form and submit a void personalized cheque from the joint account.
There isn’t any way to just check a box (even at the bank level) to allow me the same access to transferring that my husband already has EVEN THOUGH THIS IS SUPPOSEDLY THE SAME BANK ACCOUNT.
As far as the PCF computer is concerned, it seems we do not really have a joint account. We seem to have some strange setup of two accounts, each one governed by the number on our bank cards, which just happen to spend the money out of the same bucket when paying bills, writing cheques, or paying by debit.
Why I Won’t Ever Be Linking Our Account to PCF Under My Bank Card
The real kicker is sending in the void cheque. We already had to use 2 void cheques to create the link for my husband. We had submitted one on the day we set up the account at the Pavilion at a grocery store. Then we were requested by mail to send in another one.
If I sent in one, that would make at least 3. And each of those cheques cost us about 50 cents. That’s why we wanted an account with free cheques in the first place!
To add insult to injury, I don’t actually have any “personalized” cheques for our Big 5 joint chequing account. It was originally my husband’s personal account. He added me as a joint member for security reasons before a major trip. We’ve never bothered to get any cheques with my name on them because I have my own chequing account.
So we’ll stick with the minor inconvenience of having my husband have to sign in periodically and transfer the funds between our two chequing accounts. It’s not a deal breaker, just a nuisance.
Related Reading
- How to Set up a PC Financial Joint Chequing Account in Person
- How to Transfer Funds into a PC Financial No Fee Account
- How to Setup Automatic Transfers to a PC Financial Account
Join In
Do you have two joint accounts at different banks? Did you have to jump through the hoop twice to link the accounts to make electronic fund transfers? I’m particularly curious whether this is also a problem with joint Tangerine, formerly ING Direct, accounts. Please share your experiences with a comment.
You can set it up without void cheques. Just send PC Fin a PAD agreement from your bank.
Thanks for this tip! Have you tried it this way yourself? It sounds like it might be a useful approach.
“We seem to have some strange setup of two accounts, each one governed by the number on our bank cards, which just happen to spend the money out of the same bucket when paying bills, writing cheques, or paying by debit.”
As frustrating as it can be, this seperation makes perfect sense from the bank’s perspective. They want to be able to track who specifically makes what transactions on the account, even though it is effectively a shared bucket of money.
I am “joint” on an account with my mother. same story. She is an independent user. she has to be verified independently (which can be very annoying as she is 93years old and basically blind and so cannot even read her bank card number to them on the phone.)