did you send it to TD Canada Trust or TD Waterhouse? Because there's a difference.

With the Waterhouse account, the longest you'll have to wait will be 5 business days, depending on where the check is from. And you always have the first $500 available the day the check is received.

The only exception is during the first 30 days that the account is open. All checks will be availble on the 9th business day after deposit.

You can call them at 1-888-327-9962 and they'll answer all your questions. thier agents are extremely friendly, polite and helpful. They dealt with hours of calls from me before I opened an account.

sent it to td waterhouse from the 'email here if you have more questions' :)

i can wait 9 days for the first month. i'll just cash some of my cheques at scotia and then when it drops to 5 i'll switch completely to td.

Some banks will not hold american checks regardless of which account you have. And yes, TD's US account CAN hold checks.

and most banks won't hold them provided you've been a customer for a while, with several products with them and a good account history. you can't walk in, open an account and ask them not to hold US checks. they'll laugh.

of course they can hold checks:

"Funds you deposit by check may be delayed for a longer period under the following circumstances:
- We believe a check you deposit will not be paid.
- You deposit checks totaling more than $5000 on any one day.
- You redeposit a check that has been returned unpaid.
- You have overdrawn your account repeatedly in the last 6 months.
- There is an emergency, such as a failure of computeror communications equipment.

We will notify you if we delay your ability to withdraw funds for any of these reasons, and we will tell you when the funds will be available. They will generally be available no later than the eleventh business day after the day of your deposit. International checks may be subject to longer collection time periods."

Keep in mind that International checks in this case are checks from non-American banks.

I've noticed it's not the length you're a customer, more of if the teller you get is in a good mood or not :) (Or if you know a manager or teller personally).

got this reply from td waterhouse

"If you opened a TD Waterhouse Value or Premier account you would have to send your deposits via the mail to our processing office and they would be subject to a 5 business day hold. Please note, these accounts cannot be used for business purposes and are allowed only for personal use."

you have to mail the cheques?

That's why they closed my account - i was receiving too much checks and wires.

so they're no good then. i'll stick with scotia.

If you're good looking like me, then you do not have any problems with tellers

You guys realize that American banks can and will hold American checks as well?

On out of state checks, checks that are written and not printed, personal accounts, basically anything they want to, they are only required to make like the first 100 bucks available instantly and can hold the rest for between 3 and 10 days (or until they've cleared).

You are, in essence, a credit risk to the bank if they charge you fees for having your account or specific circumstances like NSF fees -- since you could go out, write a ton of bad checks, them get stuck with the processing and NSF fees, and then you never bring the balance up to zero...

The secret is for those f you starting out is to build up a large reserve of cash, as soon as you can...

when you have a whack of money they know who you are, and will be cow-towing to you


also once you get big enough, incorporate...

Yeah I haven't had any problems with scotia either. They never hold any of my checks from the US. I find their online banking is very good. Also if you need to transfer funds to paypal its very easy. All you have to do is set the bill payee to paypal and then transfer money as quick as a click. To bad paypal sucks! ;)

i use td and i setup an american bank account cause when you goto add your bank account through paypal it doesnt allow you to add it its differnet format.

yes, but 99% of the time they wont.

Yeah, I think it was mentioned on the link I showed you. It's a virtual bank. They don't have any physical locations, so you have to mail in the checks.
You have two options for that: use their postage-paid envelopes which takes about 5 business days before they get it or use your own stamp which takes 2-3 business days.
In case you're wondering about the difference, it's because Canada Post and USPS only allow postage paid envelopes within the same country. So the postage paid envelopes go to Toronto and then to Pennsylvania. But you can get the PA address and send em straight there.

What bothers me is this: "Please note, these accounts cannot be used for business purposes and are allowed only for personal use." I was unaware of that.

It's law in Canada that US or "foreign" cheques valued at over $200 are held for 30 days if they are deposited in a Canadian bank account.

ZERO of that is available for 30 days, usually it takes 40-45 days if you are dealing with a crooked bank like Amicus/CIBC.

All the while they are collecting interest and making a fucking killing on converting the US funds you just handed them.

You guys must have had a bad experience, I have never ever had a problem like this, monies are available right away, example US cheques come in and funds go out the same day to pay bills via wire transfer... can you imagine a business accepting anything less?

Shop around... seriously

The place I bank at even has a hardship fund for members who run into extreme hard times... they give you a no interest loan or cash to help you out ie; for food etc.

wtf? welfare banking?