lipards

Need wire some money in US dollars for the down payment to my TD bank account.
I just heard that the fund will be frozen for a month until you can use it, is it true?
Anyone had experience? Thanks.

sysclp

Canadian banks are notorious for holding funds. 20 business days (which is basically a month) is the usual prison term. I think they would put a hold on cash deposits if they could figure out a legitimate reason. I know they did that to me with a cashier's check from the US which is supposed to be the same as cash.

escort399

AFAIK, wire transfers are directly credited to accounts and the only delay is the online clearing that takes a max of 1 week. Bank drafts or other forms of check when deposited are said to be held by the bank from 22 to 40 days until cleared.

HTH

oceanMDX

I have wired money from the US into a Canadian Bank, and the funds were immediately available to me once the bank received the wired funds. This only took a few hours. Cheques are an entirely different deal! They take several weeks to go through the banking system of the different countries - even between the US and Canada.

sysclp

They actually don't take as long as the bank claims. This is a holdover from back when they didn't have electronic clearing like they do toady, but they keep it in place since it gives them your money to use as they like for a few more days. I know I have checked how long it takes for a check deposited here to clear my US account and it is about 3 days.

Now if you have your account for a while and they get to know you, the bank will usually stop holding your checks unless you get a real whopper. I mostly get paid in US checks (one of the joys of self-employment) and thankfully my bank doesn't hold them anymore.

lipards

Really? This is a good news to me. Which bank you were using? What about the size, thousands, hundreds of thousands? I know this is sensitive question, you don't have to answer, I am aking since I heard, generally, when amount is big, they will trigger something...

escort399

This is due to Anti-Money Laundering law. No one is prohibited to transfer any amount of money but banks and other financial institutions are mandated to check the legitimacy of the funds.

dbd33

I've sent small amounts, up to $5,000, to and from the accounts of individuals with he money being available the same day. This week I called pcfinancial and did exactly that with US$500 purchased with Canadian and delivered in US the same day; that was the first time I'd spoken to them though I did have the money in an account with them. As a company we do the same with multiples of $100,000 but that's using established accounts. If the amounts are large a currency broker will save you a great deal; I use Jameson International but there are lots of them.

oceanMDX

I was using the Royal Bank of Canada. I wired $25,000 twice from the US to them.

Due to anti money-laundering laws, when the amount is > $10,000 the transaction is reported. If you are legit, you have no problem but the bank may ask how you obtained the money.

oceanMDX

Bingo!

sysclp

I currenly use Scotia Bank and while most of my deposits are under $500 I have done as much as $2000 with no problem. Before them I used TD Bank with the same results but changed for lower service charges at Scotia.

dingbat

TD are notorious for this. They held CASH deposits from me during my divorce, even though I was the main income earner when we opened the account and I financed the original mortgage. Dump them quickly.