How easy to use are no-fee bank accounts?

[blueeyetea]

Here’s my situation. To save money on fees, I’m thinking of closing my chequing account at RBC and opening a no-fee account with PC Financial. However, I will be keeping other accounts with RBC with which I'll be making transfer to and from every month.

My question is, how easy is it to transfer money online from one institution to the other? Is there a delay with deposits from one bank to the other? Is the operation similar to handling bills? (If I have to use interac e-mails, it might not be as economical as I think.)

Any insight you can give me will be appreciated.

[lilo0003]

I used ING for my paycheck and DH uses PC financial, I always used ING to do the transfering of money to and from accounts and yes there is a delay, but it is not a hold. It is just the the time it takes for the to recieve the money. Typically a few days, but you do need to allow for that and it si only when you need to move money around. Bill payment is instant and no delay so if I pay a bill in the monering it is posted the same day.
I do have a TD account (need it as it is hooked to our LOC). I keep the minimum balance to avoid the fee as it bugged me to pay 3.95 a month for and acccount that had one transacation.

[blueeyetea]

Thanks lilo003. So how do you transfer money to your accounts at other banks? Do you set your account as a "payee"?

[lilo0003]

ING has a transfer function, you then link all the accounts and it is a separate function from the pay bills. My PC account and TD acount are link and in the same list as all my ING accounts. I have 6 with savings/TFSA/chequing/kid accounts. When you transfer between ING accounts it is instant.
If you think you are going with ING ask someone (pick me) for an "orange key", as ING will give you a referal bonus, typically it is $50.00 & sometimes as high as $100.00.
It does not hurt that at this time they are paying 2.5% interest on any money saved in savings accounts and the rate is always higher than the big banks (1.35%).
This rate is good until June 30th.

[Phil York]

PC accounts are the way to go. My only complaint is withdrawing large sums of money, or getting certified cheques. You have to order them through CIBC. Same goes for depositing large amounts of money, the cash machine is your only option.

[CouponLover618]

Yes, it's easy to transfer between banks with your PC account. To transfer $ from PC to another bank, you have to select "add account" when you log into your PC account online. Then you have to send them a VOID cheque from the other bank. Once verified (mine took 3 weeks), you go to 'transfers' and simply transfer from your PC account to another PC account or to your other bank. I find that it takes 2-3 days for the transfer to take place. I like my PC account because there are no fees, but there are some negatives, ie if you want to transfer between your PC accounts (transfer from savings to chequing), it doesn't happen immediately. The transfer only happens the next day.

[Shwa Girl]

OP, congrats on giving the boot to the large Canadian bank's fees. It's outrageous what they charge you for using your money.

[cheapNcheeky]

I use my PC financial account for all the day to day spending. I have a chequing account and my TFSA there. I think you even get points for paying your bills. With a PC account you can also use CIBC bank machines for free, so a bank machine isn't too far away. I don't use email money transfers very often so I'm not sure of the fees attached to those. I think it will be around $1.50 each time. Traditional cheques are free and you can order them 100 at a time?? Or maybe 50 at a time.

*Tip*
A method I use for avoiding email money transfers is this. Say my BFF puts a trip on her credit card for the both of us and I owe her $1000. Instead of sending her an email money transfer, I get her credit card number and pay the card directly through my bank account. So it's like paying a bill. No fees! I would only do this with people that I am really close to like my mom or my boyfriend or BFF.

For my RRSP savings, I used ING direct. So I linked my PC chequing account to my ING direct RRSP account and transfer money that way. I think you just have to send them a void cheque and they can link the accounts. ING direct even paid me $50 to set up my account (with a minimum deposit of $100). Make sure you get someone's Orange Key when you sign up. Feel free to use mine.

I pay ZERO fees and it feels great. Hope this helps.

[ilovecoupons23]

I recently switched from Canada Trust to PC and I have noticed some positive and negative things:

Positive:

-FREE chequing accounts- no monthly fees (save anywhere from 3.95 and up / month)
-no transaction fees- i can now use my debit more freely,without getting charged $1 / time
-collect PC points
-FREE cheques- when i signed up, they sent me 100 free cheques

Negatives:

-There are no tellers, so if you have a question you have to hope there is someone in the PC pavillion or you can call the 1800 number- i noticed LONG wait times though

- incovenience of the branches- I find there are less CIBC branches than TD branches....when I was with TD there were 2 branches within 5 km of my house. (You can go to loblaw's grocery stores to do banking- but sometimes if it is really busy- there is only one bank machine there so it is time consuming.)

- they don't offer american exchange...so if you go to the states often keep that in mind

- if your visa card is with RBC...it will be more inconvenient because all your accounts won't be in one place...I had to register all my bills with PC and transfer my banking info so that was a pain lol.

to be honest, I regret switching from TD...yes PC has free banking...but it comes at a cost (the inconvenience + your time)

[Freestuffrighthere]

I love no fee bank account because I get to save money and I do alot stuff online anyway. When I go to store, I use credit card to (get cash back),and I hardly need to go to branch to get cash, so PC works very well for me.

[Darth Penguin]

If I had my way..CDN banks would follow the British model..no fees at all..they make their money floating their currency reserves on the overnight markets..

[SingingGoose]

When I want to transfer money from our PC account I use an EMT to our CIBC account. We only keep a line of credit with CIBC and three personal accounts with PC, even having the LOC allows us to use the "real" bank if we need to!

[walkonby]

When I want to transfer money from our PC account I use an EMT to our CIBC account. We only keep a line of credit with CIBC and three personal accounts with PC, even having the LOC allows us to use the "real" bank if we need to!

I had trouble following that. Is EMT an electronic money transfer? Do you send the $$ from your PC acct to your CIBC LOC acct? ( there is no bank charge for EMT? ) If you then withdraw the transferred $$ from your LOC acct is there any charge associated with it? I am guessing your LOC balance must be at zero before the transfer though, because you would have been paying interest on funds used there.
Maybe I misunderstood.

[Brooke_]

I think you should shop around for a better bank, with better rates. It is far easier to have everything in one place, it just makes sense. I would recommend shopping around first. Lots of banks have plans where if you keep a minimum balance you get free banking, and that way you don't have to give up on the better hours/service just to save a few bucks.

[blueeyetea]

I think you should shop around for a better bank, with better rates. It is far easier to have everything in one place, it just makes sense. I would recommend shopping around first. Lots of banks have plans where if you keep a minimum balance you get free banking, and that way you don't have to give up on the better hours/service just to save a few bucks.

Yes, that's the conventional thinking, but in my case, it's not working. Between me and my husband we have a line of credit, three chequing accounts, two savings accounts, two RRSP's, two TSFA's, and two credit cards. I've already called my bank twice about reducing fees and/or giving me a better deal. Even when someone called my house fishing for more business, and I listed my list of gripes, no dice or reduction in fees. "Visit your branch" I get told. Why should I? They push every thing I do online, why do I need to walk over to my branch for a "maybe".

I've had it and I opened my PC account.