chequing | Financial Crooks

This week I dropped off some Christmas presents for the grandchildren to my parents and they paid me back the cost by writing me a cheque. This gave me the perfect opportunity to test the relatively new ability to deposit a cheque using a photo and the PC Financial Mobile Banking App.

The first thing I had to do was get the App for my husband’s iPad and install it. Then I cruised through all the deposit-specific legal conditions. Then I took a photo of my cheque and tried to deposit it. Here’s how it went.

What Kinds of Cheques Can I Deposit Using the PCF App?

According to their legal stuff, you can deposit

cheques
bank money orders
bank drafts
convenience cheques, and
certified cheques

They all have to be written based on a financial institution that’s in Canada. So if you get a cheque from a US bank or company you will still have to go to the bank to deposit it.

You can only deposit a cheque made payable to more than one person into an account held jointly by all of those people.

Can I Deposit a Post-Dated Cheque Using the PC Financial App?

No.

How Is It Different from Depositing a Cheque to Tangerine?

Well, according to the Legal info, you have to write on the back of the cheque: “For deposit only, account # ______” and signing your name. I’m not thrilled about this because if the cheque gets rejected by PC Financial’s photo deposit team I now have extra stuff written on my cheque and I’d have to take it to a CIBC machine or a PC Financial machine.

You also, theoretically, are supposed to *immediately* write “paid” or “void” or draw parallel lines across the front of the cheque immediately after transmission of an image of the cheque. That one I doubt anyone will comply with. What if the image transmission fails? How are you supposed to deposit a cheque marked Void or Paid or scratched out?! I want some kind of confirmation that the cheque has been properly accepted before I deface my cheque.

This is particularly important given their own terms go on to say:

“…the paying financial institution [may] determine[s] the item …. is illegible, or is otherwise unacceptable. We are not responsible for images that are corrupted or not fully received during transmission.” And “You are responsible for any and all costs associated with obtaining a replacement negotiable item in the event that we request you re-transmit an image, and the original item was destroyed or lost.”

How Secure is Sending a Photo of a Cheque to PC Financial?

Well it’s a bit disquieting to read in their Legal section

“You accept the risk that an item may be intercepted or misdirected during transmission. We have no liability to you or others for any such intercepted or misdirected item or information disclosed through such errors.”

Call me “Danger-Seeking” but I’m still going to try it…..

How to Get the PC Financial Mobile Banking App for iPads and iPhones

Go to the Apps Store.
Look for the PC Financial Mobile Banking app.
Tap on the Get button.
Tap on the Install button.
Type in your iTunes password and tap on OK.
Tap on the Open button.

The seriously ugly PC Financial Mobile Banking App sign in screen will open. If you’re like me, it will open sideways instead of properly oriented on my screen. Not sure what’s up with that.

Next I wanted to try to deposit the cheque into our joint PC Financial no fee chequing account.

How to Deposit a Cheque Using the PC Financial Banking App

Find your actual bank account number, not your bank card number, for the account into which you want to deposit the money.
Tap on the PCF Banking icon.
In the Card number field, type your PC Financial banking card number.
In the Password field, type the password you use for online banking.
On the next screen, look for the tab “Deposit” across the top of the page.
Tap on Deposit.
Tap on the Info link at the top right side of the Step 1 Deposit Details section. Read through the info.
And there it is again:
“Prior to deposit, you should endorse the back of the item by writing or stamping ‘For deposit only, account # _______’ and signing your name.”
So I wrote the required information and endorsed the cheque.

After going back to the Step 1 Deposit Details page

Front of Cheque

Under the heading Front of Cheque, tap on the Take Photo button.
Tap OK.
Tap on the Camera icon.
If it’s ok, tap on Use.

Back of Cheque

Under the heading Back of Cheque, tap on the Take Photo button.
Tap OK.
Tap on the Camera icon.
If it’s ok, tap on Use.
If not, tape on Retake until you get an image for which you can tap on Use.
In the Amount: $ field, type the amount for the cheque.
In the To: field, select the account to deposit the cheque into from the drop-down list.
Tap on Continue.
Tap on Deposit.

If It Works

You will receive a message similar to this one:
You’re Finished!
Your cheque for $999 999.99 will be deposited to your no fee bank account (12345678910) on Dec 1, 2014.
Reference # ABC123
Make some kind of secure note of the Reference # in case the process fails!
Tap on Deposit More or View Accounts.
Tap on Sign Out.
Tap on OK.
Turn off your iPad.

When Can I Get Rid of the Original Paper Cheque?

You must hold on to the paper cheque for at least 5 business days according to PC Financial’s Legal page.

What Did I Think of the PC Financial Online Banking App Photo Cheque Deposit?

Like with the Tangerine App, I found it a bit slow to compose a photo with no shadows, no distortion, no anything using a heavy iPad camera.

I was very annoyed when the PCF App suddenly signed me out for “inactivity” while I was trying to retake the photo of the back of the cheque! I had to sign in and start all over again.

Overall, it seems fine, but let’s wait and see if the cheque gets properly deposited and clears my parents’ bank ok. I’ll add an update when it does.

Related Reading

Join In
Have you deposited a cheque this way yet at Tangerine, CIBC or PC Financial? Did it work for you? Please share your experiences with a comment.

As I continue to compare the two major online low or no-fee Canadian banks, I decided to check how many Savings and Chequing accounts a client can have at PC Financial.

Why Would Anyone Want Two or More Bank Accounts?

If you read financial chat boards you’ll quickly find that some people are more visual than others when it comes to money. They need to see money in separate envelopes or jars in order to stay on budget. If they just carry a wad of bills in their wallets, they spend their child’s hockey stick money on a nice lunch out with their friends. Other people mentally keep track of what money is for which purpose and have no trouble staying on budget.

The same thing applies to bank accounts. Some people need to see their “next car” money in one account and their “I can spend this on lunch” money in another. These people often like Tangerine where you can have up to 5 Savings accounts.

Won’t I Pay More Fees and Earn Less Interest If I Have Several Small Bank Accounts?

At most of the big Canadian banks, yes. But both PC Financial and Tangerine do not charge a fee or require a minimum balance in a Savings or Chequing account. There is no additional cost to having more than one account.

Both PC Financial and Tangerine also pay the same interest on every dollar in a Savings account. So you’d earn the same interest whether you had all your savings in one account as you would if you split the money between three accounts.

Note, though, that for Chequing accounts both Tangerine and PC Financial pay interest at a different rate depending on how much you have in the account. So having multiple chequing accounts could cost you money unless each chequing account at Tangerine had $100 000 or more and each chequing account at PC Financial had $25 000.01 or more.

What Does the Primary Account Holder at PC Financial Mean?

PC Financial sets up its joint bank accounts in an odd manner. It assigns the account to one person and then adds the name of the other.

As I’ve described elsewhere, we made the mistake of setting up our joint chequing account with my husband as the Primary Account Holder and me as the secondary.

The Primary Account Holder is the one PCF contacts about promotions and offers. That person must, for example, request a special higher savings interest rate be used for the account during a promotion.

I’ve asked PCF and they cannot change the Primary Account Holder once the account is created.

How Many Savings Accounts Can I Have at PC Financial?

I could not find the answer to this on the PC Financial website, so I used their Live Chat feature to ask an agent.

Surprisingly, to me, you can have as many Savings accounts as you want! The number is not limited.

There are two conditions:

You must apply separately for each new Savings account.
You can only have two bank accounts, of any kind, linked to your ABM card.
That means if you have, say, 4 savings accounts and 1 no fee chequing account you would have to use online or telephone banking only to move the money to 3 of the savings accounts. Considering that the purpose of those extra savings accounts is probably to save for longer-term goals, that isn’t a great hardship.

You can also have more than one joint Savings account. Each account will have its own Primary Account Holder designated based on your application.

How Many Chequing Accounts Can I Have at PC Financial?

I could also not find the answer to this on the PC Financial website, so I used their Live Chat feature to ask an agent.

Surprisingly, to me, you can have as many Chequing accounts as you want! The number is not limited.

There are three conditions:

You must apply separately for each new Chequing account.
You will only earn interest on the amount in each Chequing account not on the total of the amount in all of your Chequing accounts. Because the interest rate is higher if you have more money in your Chequing account, you may get less total interest if you split the money between 2 or more Chequing accounts.
You can only have two bank accounts, of any kind, linked to your ABM card.
That means if you have, say, 1 savings account and 2 no fee chequing accounts you would have to use online or telephone banking only to move the money to the savings account or to one of the chequing accounts.

You can also have more than one joint Chequing account. Each account will have its own Primary Account Holder designated based on your application.

Conclusion

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to find that PC Financial is very flexible about how many accounts you can open. Tangerine is more limiting.