Canadians, where do you deposit your Fat american checks??
 

Canadian banks seems to always freeze the funds for 25 days of checks above $1000...

Im thinking of going across the border and open an account...

is it pretty much what you all do..?

what are you with the IRS ? Or Canadian Customs and revenue ?

You can open a us funds acct in any major bank, they will only hold the funds for the first 30 days until the acct is established.After that you can usually have immediate acces to your funds.

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If you've been with your bank for a while and they know you, you might get away with not having it held.

If not, sometimes you have to 'prove' yourself to the bank....so a few held checks at the beginning, and then they generally won't hold it anymore.

Mine were never held because I had been with my bank for quite some time and do pretty much all my banking through them from loans to rrsp's etc...

I have this problem now that I moved to the interior and had to open a new account here. All my small checks are fine for deposit here, but my big ones are still sent down to Vancouver to my old bank who cashes them just fine. :)

Open a USD dollar account and get a decent balance and they will never hold your checks, most just assume its like an American Paycheck.

im with the rbc.. and they told me they wont put a hold on checks as long as u have the CAD equivalentor more in ur cheq/save account...

I'm also with RBC and deposit 4 degits checks without any holding period.

Scotia have never held funds on me, Royal Bank however held a fucking US money order for 60 days so I refuse to deal with them ever again. I don't maintain a balance in my US account and I have immediate access to my funds at Scotia. Of course my business and personal banking is all done at the branch and they know me, so that helps.

Instant check:thumbsup
take 5min to change a check with no fucking question, they take 2.99%

is rbc = royal bank of canada?

im going to canada in september and would also like to know which bank I should use :)

Bank of Montreal is pretty sweet, so is CIBC

Try TD Canada Trust....open a Borderless Acct:2 cents:

fat american CHEQUES (proper canadian spelling!!!!)

what the f**k are u talking about?

those cheques are looking pretty damn skinny nowadays with the american dollar tanking big time.... talk about a pay cut.:(

Try a branch other than your main branch they'll put your check on hold for 25 days.. so basically tellers have to either know you or one of those nice ones NOT on a rag :winkwink:

Royal Bank for me too... just slip them into the ATM machine and I'm good to go.

Dunno if I get special treatment for that... but they've never given me a problem for it. No holding or anything.

When I was with Royal, I was told that depositing a US check in the ATM constitutes fraud and they would press charges if anyone did it. I guess times have changed.. Course, I haven't been with Royal for a long while....

i was told they would hold anything done through the atm. i ended up switching to scotiabank, they have much better policies in place.

Cool... guess that makes me special.

I like my bank even more now :1orglaugh

lol. people here will think you are writing it in French:)

You need a new bank Juice. Yours is treating you like shit.

MaskedMan: you can deposit US checks in a bank machine with the RBC? I can't do that - last time I checked.

Archer: I always spell it "checks", and "colour" as "color" - just my way of rebelling against the Canadian Liberal establishment. It pisses central-Canadian Liberals off to see the American influence in Canada and it makes my day to piss those crooks off. Vive L'Alberta!

Yup, I do all the time. I deposit it and it shows up instantly on my balance as the amount I deposited it for.

Then the next day or couple days later... I'll get a balance adjustment on my statement for the currency exchange from US to CAD.

I never go to a teller... the ATM is so much faster.

Oh okay, but you can't deposit a US check into your US acct at an ATM? Last time I checked that was not possible.

i have no problems with bank of montreal. but i do know most of the tellers, as well as the manager.

I am with CIBC and never had a problem cashing cheques. I have been with them for a while though.

that sucks so much I always have to go the line to deposit the US checks

I can't use the ATM to deposit my US checks (cheques..lol) either. :(

In September RBC will have some ATM (mostly the new ones) that will permit US cheque deposits. Until then, you can not deposit them into ATM even though some do.

I went in to BMO, talked to the branch manager, and after a credit check they offered me 0 hold on US cheques. Although, as Alex said I don't have the option to deposit with ATMs.

Just go talk to someone in your bank who can get things done (Not a teller). If they want your money they will work to get it.

i use Desjardins, and they doing good me,, they dont retain check if i have the cash in my accoutn allready, or freeze it for 10days (i think its reasonable) everyone have tell em they suck, but royal bank is a joke here and desjardins doesnt take a big cut on the currency changes :)

i use my bed, instant checking, works like an ATM, and i got myself instant 24 hour banking...
protected by viper, stand back!:1orglaugh

cibc

Technically Dejardins is not a bank and they don't have branches across the country (even around the world) like a real bank does.

make nice eyes to one of the girl working there shes gonna make sure your account is not being frozen.

I can deposit 5,000+ checks without a single min frozing.

Laurentian Bank never freezes my checks.
I bring them many thousand dollar checks at a time and they just pay me in cold cash :thumbsup

where?


Im at RoyalBank...and they are a pain in the ass...

I'm with National Bank Of Canada. You shouldn't have any problems at Royal Bank.

just always go to the same bank and when they say we'll have to freeze that for 15days, say : "I deposited check from these companies last [week,month,or whatever]; ask this girl working for the bank who was there, she saw the checks".

you have to let them know your not writing check in your basement thats all, if the previous went true this one should too. all about trust. Make them trust you or at least one employee whos always there.

Seriously I only got frozen once!

In my fat US bank account, right here!

Lately, my checks have been on a diet....

Same here. Every summer the damn cheques become thinner.

First of all.. Royal Bank is great is for me :)

Understand that it is 'teller discretion' whether they put any hold at all. If they don't know you etc and you have no money in your account etc - they can hold it - however you can request that after 5 days they call the US bank that issued the check and verify that it has cleared - then they will release it - they will charge you a few bucks for the long distance phone call too if you can beleive it.

Here is what you do. Always go to your home branch. Try and deal with the same tellers all the time. And the most ideal thing is to talk to the branch manager after a few months of depositting so many US checks on a regular basis and ask them to put notes on your account that say: Do not hold US checks

Once you have that - it doesn't matter what teller you get or what they say - just tell them to check the notes.

And of course this should be academic but show up dressed professional and act reserved until you get those notes :thumbsup

I use CIBC and have all my business/personal with them.

Nothing is ever held. I have access to my money at all times.

DH

I use TD canada trust. Let them know the checks are all work related, and once the tellers know you, they won't put any holds on them. I opened my account and was instantly depositing us cheques, took ~3 months of 25 day holds and then never had any holds again (that was years ago).
ZoiNk