The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: rae on March 27, 2015, 05:14:59 PM
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Hi, I'm thinking of moving my chequing account from TD to PC because of the fees. Does anyone know how easy or difficult it is to change over and to transfer money from PC to other banks, as well as pay bills from the account?
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Hi, I'm thinking of moving my chequing account from TD to PC because of the fees. Does anyone know how easy or difficult it is to change over and to transfer money from PC to other banks, as well as pay bills from the account?
We have both TD and PC accounts, because I refuse to deposit cash via an ATM, after being short changed with the deposits at both banks..I only deposit cash via the tellers at TD. PC doesn't have that option.
Our closest kiosk for PC is an hour away, while the TD bank is 5 minutes away.
The set up you require may need to be done initially at the kiosk...after that pretty straight forward.
Paying bills from PC is easy.
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Thank you. I'm going to look further into it. Right now both my husband and I have chequing and savings accounts at TD and we don't like having to keep a minimum balance to avoid the fees. It's money just sitting there and not growing.
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I use TD and tangerine, as well as TD investing. I don't keep the minimum balance at TD, but I don't mind paying the fee (which is 3.95 per month, as I have a very basic account.)
The minimum amount you need in there to keep from paying the fee is 1500. If I can get 5 or 6% on 1000 in my cash investment account with TD, then I'd rather keep it there, and it covers the fee cost. I still keep a 500 float in savings, just in case.
Then for my cash buffer, or emergency fund, I keep that in tangerine. It's super easy to use. But I like having a bricks and mortar bank, in case I need foreign currency, or to send a registered cheque, or any other such service. I keep the cash buffer at around 4-5 months expenses, even though it's only earning about 1% in tangerine. Maybe eventually I'll bring that down to 2 or 3 months and invest the rest.
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Switch to Tangerine and get free money from their promotions.
I described the process in another topic:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/hacking-the-system-(canada)/
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I originally banked with TD and had the select service for awhile where I didn't have fees but had $5000 sitting in a chequing account. Eventually I wised up to how stupid I was being and opened a PC Financial account. I did this ~4 years ago. I don't remember the exact process but I don't remember it being painful at all. I still keep TD because I want a full service bank (PCF does not let you take out more than $500 from an ATM per day for the first 6 months, and thereafter, only $1000 or something like that. Which is ridiculous to me. This is the only thing that annoys me about PCF.
It is extremely easy to pay bills from PCF by yourself. I have a zillion payees including VISA, MC, multiple utility providers, the CRA, and friends' credit cards. I even have a payee to my TD Directing Investing account to put money into my TFSA and fund my e-series index funds.
If you didn't know, you can withdraw and deposit money to PCF via CIBC bank ATMs (but you can't use the tellers). This is helpful when you don't live anywhere near a PCF Pavilion which are usually found in Superstores.
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When I found out TD was going to start charging me for basic transactions (like using their own ATM) I hightailed it out of there. I switched to PC and got their mastercard too. I have never had an issue banking at their machines or at CIBC machines. They give you free books of personal cheques as well, and don't charge any fees unless you overdraft or something. If you want to get a bank order or certified cheque you have to go into a bank with cash which is annoying but really not something that happens often. I get about $20 a month in free (points) groceries, which is great. Instead of paying to bank I'm being paid to bank.
I highly recommend them.