TD Bank Punishes Small Business - Cheques Held, Fees Extracted

[Arob]

Do you have business with TD Bank? Are they easy to deal with? Do you pay $$ fees ? Do they hold your funds for five days when you try to deposit a cheque for more than $1K ?

Do you ever wonder why do they do this? I conclude it's not about keeping themselves financially secure, but rather there is a deliberate effort to make sure you, the small business owner, remains financially unstable. This is because your risky business is far more profitable for them to manage with more fees and holds, than if you were declared safe.

They did it to me again this morning, and so now I'm making a lot of noise about it, and warning other Canadians to stay away from this bank and others that hold funds arbitrarily, and to the detriment of your business.

TD Bank is No Friend of Small Business in Canada

What are your honest thoughts and reactions? And if you work for TD bank or their PR agencies can you please identify yourself as such

 

[Tuscani01]

I don't have a small business, but I do have a personal account with TD. They held my tax return cheque for almost 2 weeks and I really needed the cash at the time. That being said, I have been with other banks and TD is by far my favourite. They have been so helpful in reducing my costs for everything from fees to interest, and have suggested these changes without me even asking for them.

 

[Urban Shocker]

They held a government cheque? Do they not trust the government?

 

[Tuscani01]

They held a government cheque? Do they not trust the government?

I wouldn't either. It's Harper at the helm...

Haha, nah... they always hold large cheques when I try depositing them. They give me access to about $500 right away, but anything over that gets held. It usually takes a few days for the funds to become available, but for some reason it took 2 weeks this time.

 

[Jonny5]

Are you guys going into the branch to deposit your cheques or doing it at a bank machine?

Government cheques deposited in person with a teller should not ever be put on hold for anyone, anywhere, at any bank, for any reason. If a teller says otherwise then you should immediately demand to speak to the manager and be extraordinarily forceful and with a very loud voice demand it be immediately deposited with no hold. If the manager refuses then you take the cheque back from them, leave and call the bank Ombudsman to report it as outright insanity and demand they call the manager and slap them down for their ignorance.

All of the above being said, you're still receiving cheques from the government, not having them direct deposited?

EDIT: I maintain a TD account at the basic fee level for instant transfers to my TD Visa and Waterhouse account, but I long ago moved all my other banking to ING. There is no comparison on fees. ING has none. At all. And my chequiing account pays 1.5% interest on any balance. The TD account pays 0.005% on balances over $5,000. There is nothing that ING is not measurably superior at. They even let me deposit up to $1000 every 5 business days (cash or cheques) at a bank machine without putting it on hold.

 

[TheKingEast]

Scotiabank holds anything over $1K. I can understand that. But 4 business days is ridiculous...and if it's during the holidays it could take over a week. Ridiculous.

Hell, I had a CERTIFIED cheque from Royal Bank that I tried to deposit to my scotia account. I went to to the teller with it. She told me it would be held. I told her it was a certified cheque so it should not be held and even gave her the number to the royal bank manager to contact. Guess what happened? THEY STILL HELD THE CHEQUE FOR 4 DAYS!

Clowns.

 

[Thanos]

I don't get the purpose of this thread. All the banks do this unless you sit down and negotiate with a small business representative.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Exactly. I have a small business account with TD, that I had transferred from a soon to be closed CIBC business account. When I set it up I asked for a $2K immediate access amount, and they readily agreed. I then asked for 6 months waiving of the account fee, which they also agreed to.

I think it helps to do all your banking in one bank. For example, I have my personal savings account, line of credit and credit card at TD, plus I do all my investing through TD Waterhouse (I realized years ago that Mutual Fund companies were a rip).

Canadians are a funny bunch. We often complain, but rarely try the simple remedies like walking into the branch and asking face to face for what you want.

 

[kEiThZ]

Like governments, people deserve the treatment they get from businesses. You choose to bank with companies that do this stuff and complain? Why not vote with your wallet?

RBC refused to give me a half decent rate on my mortgage. I didn't just switch my mortgage. I moved everything. And I sent several emails to my branch manager to let him know exactly why I was moving all my accounts. I had him close several of them personally.

It's also like the complaints I hear over and over again about cellphone bills. Leaves me wondering what is wrong with people. My entire extended family has moved to Wind Mobile. Nobody is paying more than $40 per month. And nobody is complaining. Yet, I still have friends who get $100 cell bills and complain about getting ripped off, but go right back in to a Big 3 store to sign a new 3-year contract. No sympathy for them when there's options out there.

 

[kEiThZ]

Do you have business with TD Bank? Are they easy to deal with? Do you pay $$ fees ? Do they hold your funds for five days when you try to deposit a cheque for more than $1K ?

Do you ever wonder why do they do this? I conclude it's not about keeping themselves financially secure, but rather there is a deliberate effort to make sure you, the small business owner, remains financially unstable. This is because your risky business is far more profitable for them to manage with more fees and holds, than if you were declared safe.

They did it to me again this morning, and so now I'm making a lot of noise about it, and warning other Canadians to stay away from this bank and others that hold funds arbitrarily, and to the detriment of your business.

TD Bank is No Friend of Small Business in Canada

What are your honest thoughts and reactions? And if you work for TD bank or their PR agencies can you please identify yourself as such

First, I would say you should switch banks if you are not happy with TD's service. I would say that there's no reason you simply couldn't run your business off an ING Direct Chequing Account. But if you insist on having a business account how about a bank like HSBC?

If you insist on taking their continued abuse, here's some mitigation strategies:

1) Get a Line of Credit and use it for your cash flow. This way when the bank holds your cheque, you will still have access to funds you need. You can even bank off your LOC. Lower fees too. Interest costs would be neglible if you're essentially always cash flow positive over any significant length of time.

2) Have your client pay you in smaller amounts at regular increments. This might pass below TD's threshold and result in shorter holds.

3) Have your client deposit their payments directly.

All in all though, this is a piddling complaint. You'd face the same at every other major bank. $8500 is a lot of money for you and I. But it's not even a rounding error for a major bank. The only way they'll care about you is if you are moving hundreds of thousands or possibly millions.

 

[PinkLucy]

They held my tax return cheque for almost 2 weeks and I really needed the cash at the time.

Have it direct deposited and they won't hold

 

[Filip]

Do you have business with TD Bank? Are they easy to deal with? Do you pay $$ fees ? Do they hold your funds for five days when you try to deposit a cheque for more than $1K ?

Do you ever wonder why do they do this? I conclude it's not about keeping themselves financially secure, but rather there is a deliberate effort to make sure you, the small business owner, remains financially unstable. This is because your risky business is far more profitable for them to manage with more fees and holds, than if you were declared safe.

They did it to me again this morning, and so now I'm making a lot of noise about it, and warning other Canadians to stay away from this bank and others that hold funds arbitrarily, and to the detriment of your business.

TD Bank is No Friend of Small Business in Canada

What are your honest thoughts and reactions? And if you work for TD bank or their PR agencies can you please identify yourself as such

If you want to avoid your cheques being held, set up an EFT service agreement with the bank for debits. Funds will automatically be pulled from their account into yours. I'm sure all the banks operate similarly, and if you own an accounting software, you already have something to create your files for you.

Keep in mind, this is more for when they are regular payments. Sometimes, as hard as you try, you just can't get cheques out of the way. The majority of my banking is still done through cheques. I find online money transfers unsettling.