# Cheque costs in a Chequeing account



## daddybigbucks (Jan 30, 2011)

So my wife ordered new cheques.

$48 for 300 cheques??!!
but they did come with a nice vinyl folder.

i got my wife to phone and she said that all bank use the same supplier and that is what they charge for cheques.

I can see $5 or $10 but $48 seems unreasonable.
We bank with TD.

Anyone else tell me what they pay for cheques in a _Chequeing account_?


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## bayview (Nov 6, 2011)

I opened a TD Chequeing account for my wife last 1-2 mths. No charge for CAD cheque books with min $5k deposit incl free USD cheques.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

I pay $0 for my cheques. PCF and ING.


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

daddybigbucks said:


> $48 for 300 cheques??!!


That's cheap.. CIBC charges (at least a year ago they did) 42.50 for 50 cheques. Free cheques with a $12.50/month unlimited account though.

PC Financial is the way to go as far as I'm concerned. Unlimited free cheques.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

I have three sources of free cheques:

1. TD Select Service chequing account
2. TD HELOC account
3. PCF chequing account


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

I still haven't gotten around to opening a PCF account yet !!


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## daddybigbucks (Jan 30, 2011)

bayview said:


> I opened a TD Chequeing account for my wife last 1-2 mths. No charge for CAD cheque books with min $5k deposit incl free USD cheques.


i see there are different accounts for chequeing.
in addition to the above, you also have to have a premium credit card.

ill have to do more research but i might move over to PC financial.

to me, cheques should be free in a chequeing account. 
but oh well, not enough to get worked up about.


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## bayview (Nov 6, 2011)

Just to digress a bit from the Topic. Do banks here offer savings and chequeing accounts that are linked meaning i keep my deposits in the savings account, zero cash in the chequeing account? Whenever i write a cheque, cash amounting to the cheque issued is automatically swept into the chequeing account to pay the payee. 

Thks!


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## SoCon (Oct 23, 2011)

*Fee for Cheques*

I really like President's Choice Financial..no fees for cheques or banking and lots of free ATMs @ CIBC or 711 stores


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## cash (Mar 5, 2011)

www.asap-cheques.com


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Jungle said:


> I pay $0 for my cheques. PCF and ING.


Maybe PCF gives you unlimited free cheques, but ING only gives you the first 40 or so for free, after that you have to pay for them. Still a good deal for me, as it took me more than a year to go through my first 20 cheques.

In general, ordering your cheques through the bank is likely to be the most expensive route (actually, ordering computer-printable cheques through Quicken is by far the most expensive route; last time I did a comparison their prices were something like 250% higher than buying through a competitor). When I lived in the US, I always had my cheques printed by Current, which was a popular supplier of gift cards and stationery; their prices were rock-bottom. I'm not sure what the third-party options are here in Canada.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Bayview: Not that I know of.


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## DanFo (Apr 9, 2011)

mine were free when i opened the account so many years ago (2000ish)...I probably have a lifetime supply of checks in the drawer.


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## CanadianCapitalist (Mar 31, 2009)

brad said:


> I'm not sure what the third-party options are here in Canada.


I know of one called Cheque Print Solutions Inc. The pricing appears to be cheaper than some of the banks but more expensive than others.

http://www.chequeprint.ca


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

not sure whether this thread is about cheque printing costs or bank fees for cheque using/processing costs.

anyhow the td offers free printed cheques in booklets of 50. Ask at the branch. No choice re design, of course. Apparently these exist mostly for td personnel. The big green doesn't promote em, but any customer can request.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

bayview said:


> Just to digress a bit from the Topic.
> 
> Do banks here offer savings and chequeing accounts that are linked meaning i keep my deposits in the savings account, zero cash in the chequeing account?
> 
> ...





Spudd said:


> Bayview: Not that I know of.


It worked fine for me using the PCF chequing/savings/TFSA savings accounts. I've run the chequing account down to between $0 and $20 without a problem (assuming I did not miss a future bill payment or outstanding cheque! ).

The main reason I've stopped doing this is that I started getting ad-hoc requests or bills lately so the schedule is not as predictable. The "loss of interest" on a float amount is far cheaper/easier than a last minute scramble or NSF charge.

I don't know of any reason it wouldn't work with my ING savings account that is linked to my PCF chequing account.


The two potential items to plan around that I am aware of are the "next day" access to the savings (ex. PCF, ING transfer) and any holds the receiving institution may apply.


Cheers


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Eclectic12 said:


> It worked fine for me using the PCF chequing/savings/TFSA savings accounts. I've run the chequing account down to between $0 and $20 without a problem (assuming I did not miss a future bill payment or outstanding cheque! ).
> 
> The two potential items to plan around that I am aware of are the "next day" access to the savings (ex. PCF, ING transfer) and any holds the receiving institution may apply.


His question was to *automatically* sweep money from the savings into the chequing. Based on your answer I don't think you have this feature either, unless I am misunderstanding you.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Spudd said:


> His question was to *automatically* sweep money from the savings into the chequing. Based on your answer I don't think you have this feature either, unless I am misunderstanding you.


Ahh - I missed the automatic part. You are correct - mine is not automatic and like you, I am not aware of any that are.


But then again, if one is writing a cheque anyway, how difficult is it to go online or make a phone call to setup the transfer? Unless the number of cheques is large, the manual effort might not be a lot.


Cheers


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

The days of free cheques are long gone, except for a few premium accounts or newcomers like PCF & ING who are offering them as loss leaders.

Nearly everyone else charges for personalized cheques and most vendors will only accept personalized cheques.

In this day and age, why would your wife need to order 300 cheques at a go?


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## crooked beat (Jan 19, 2011)

GoldStone said:


> I have three sources of free cheques:
> 
> 1. TD Select Service chequing account
> 2. TD HELOC account
> 3. PCF chequing account


I have used TD HELOC for years as my only chequing account. Just make sure your are at or above zero at end of each month. Free, no service charges.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

I have the free TD SS cheques and the initial free book of ING cheques. Electronic transfers are free in Europe and cheques went the way of the dodo some 20 years ago.

I do have to pay something like $1 to mail each cheque back to Canada, and wait for it to be physically cleared. TD wouldn't even deposit my cheques unless I showed up in person..


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## bayview (Nov 6, 2011)

Thks Spudd n E12. I guess if banks here offer the auto sweep savings and cheque accounts combo they will charge higher fees hence discouraging retail interest. In other countries where i lived this type of sweep combo is common for a relatively small min deposit and immaterial monthly fee for the hassle saved. I prefer my banking to be as simple and auto pilot as possible. I do find it a hassle to go online or call the bank. I prrfer to save the time for something more useful like reading up in CMF!


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## daddybigbucks (Jan 30, 2011)

OhGreatGuru said:


> In this day and age, why would your wife need to order 300 cheques at a go?


i agree cheques are long time gone,but they seem to be extremely useful when paying for kids sports and gear, daycare, etc.

We must write about 3-6 cheques a month. Alot of places seem to like being payed each month and they don't have debit machines nor will they take cash.


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## Argonaut (Dec 7, 2010)

Tip for TD Bank: Open a personal line of credit. Cheques are free, and no monthly fee. You can throw a positive balance in there to cover, and never pay any interest. This works better than any chequing account, unless you want the benefits of Select Service.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

daddybigbucks said:


> i agree cheques are long time gone,but they seem to be extremely useful when paying for kids sports and gear, daycare, etc.
> 
> ...


I had forgotten how many small cheques I had to write way back then.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

We use cheques mostly because of the kids and schools fees and activities, so I figure I go through about 50 or so a year.

My tip with TD is when we had several different accounts there, we didn't want to keep $5K in all 4 accounts. So I would keep a smaller account with less services for the most part. If I needed cheques in that account, I would increase my balance to $5K, upgrade my account to Select for that month, and then would order the cheques for free, once my cheques came, I would go back to my regular account.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

Yeah, I noticed they were crazy on chekcing accounts. 
However they're often free on a Line of Credit.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

bayview said:


> Thks Spudd n E12.
> 
> I guess if banks here offer the auto sweep savings and cheque accounts combo they will charge higher fees hence discouraging retail interest. In other countries where i lived this type of sweep combo is common for a relatively small min deposit and immaterial monthly fee for the hassle saved.
> 
> I prefer my banking to be as simple and auto pilot as possible. I do find it a hassle to go online or call the bank. I prrfer to save the time for something more useful like reading up in CMF!


It certainly would make life easier ... but I suspect they won't want to give up the NSF charges and don't have a lot of competition to push them for this feature.

BTW, when I say "call the bank" I mean call the automated attendant. It's a simple process to call the 1-800 number, enter the card code, press a few more buttons and the transfer is set. It isn't automatic so it is longer than automatic. However, for one or two transactions - it is a lot faster than going online (ex. boot the computer, login to the computer, open the web site etc.).


Cheers


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## bayview (Nov 6, 2011)

E12 thks for the info. Meanwhile, i guess I will keep a substantial amt of cash in my chequeing account to facilitate my cheque payments to avoid any dent on my credit history which fin institutions here are so focused on. Im new in Canada.


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## Saniokca (Sep 5, 2009)

Eclectic12 said:


> it is a lot faster than going online (ex. boot the computer, login to the computer, open the web site etc.).


my computer is on all the time... Is that weird?


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## GreenAvenue (Dec 28, 2011)

In 1990 we were able to transfer money from one private bank account into some else's in Europe. When we moved to Canada I had to work with cheques again, simply because banks say it costs too much money to set up a system like that? It's just ridiculous how much money banks get from their customers for lousy customer service.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Saniokca said:


> my computer is on all the time... Is that weird?


Not in the least .... I'm running around doing stuff and don't really need the computer to be sucking back electricity, particularly now that I'm on "time of day" billing.

Personally, I don't find it takes that long to boot but everyone is different.


Cheers


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## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

slacker said:


> I still haven't gotten around to opening a PCF account yet !!


if you havent yet, then go for ING. they have a bonus for opening new a/cs. i can give you my orange code for reference if you want


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## Elbyron (Apr 3, 2009)

bayview said:


> Just to digress a bit from the Topic. Do banks here offer savings and chequeing accounts that are linked meaning i keep my deposits in the savings account, zero cash in the chequeing account? Whenever i write a cheque, cash amounting to the cheque issued is automatically swept into the chequeing account to pay the payee.
> 
> Thks!


I have not heard of any banks that will do this. It sounds like you want to keep your money working for you all the time, while still having it available to pay bills or write cheques. So perhaps you should look into an All-in-one account. These usually work by merging your mortgage with a chequing account, such that the balance held in the account is subtracted from the mortgage balance when calculating the daily interest (all mortgages in Canada are calculated using daily balances even though they are compounded semi-annually). So rather than producing interest, these accounts reduce the interest you would otherwise have paid on your mortgage. It's like saving 3.25% (or whatever the mortgage rate is) instead of earning a taxable 1.5% (or whatever your savings account rate is). I don't think Canadian Tire offers their "One-and-Only" account anymore, but National Bank has All-in-one and there's also the Manulife One account. The problem with National Bank's account is that they charge Prime+1% on the variable portion (you can have it part fixed-rate & part variable) and their fixed rates aren't competitive either. Manulife One appears to be Prime + 0.5%, but it has a $14/month fee. So these accounts are likely only going to save you money if your average daily balance is way up in the multiple thousands of dollars. And moving your mortgage usually incurs assessment and legal fees, not to mention costs of breaking your mortgage if it's closed and not up for renewal yet. 
But there's still a way: simply apply with your current mortgage lending institution for a Home Equity Line of Credit. If you've been paying down your mortgage for a while, you should be able to get approved for some of that built-up equity. If you don't have a mortgage but have some other debts, this can still work for you as long as you can get approved for a line-of-credit with a reasonably low interest rate. Many of the major banks offer LOC/HELOCs with full chequing capabilities, including Interac debit card, cheques, ATM access, bill payments, pre-authorized debits and payroll deposits. To make this act like an all-in-one account, simply make a lump-sum payment from the LOC to your mortgage. Make it large enough that it is bigger than the highest daily balance you would normally keep in your chequing/savings accounts. If that starts getting paid down too fast (because you are saving a lot), just make another lump sum mortgage payment to keep the balance negative. You don't want to hold too much debt in the LOC though, as the interest rate on it is typically higher than your mortgage rate. One thing you need to watch out for though - the lure of spending more than you earn! As you're essentially getting free overdraft protection up to the max amount of the LOC, it can be very tempting to use some of that credit for renovations, buying a car, or other purchases. Of course if you were going to finance the renos or car at a higher interest rate anyway, then it actually makes sense to use the LOC. But I would never recommend borrowing to renovate or buy luxuries, and car financing often has very good rates (at least for the first few years).


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## bayview (Nov 6, 2011)

@Elby, Thks for sharing!


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## SoCon (Oct 23, 2011)

PC Financial - have been a long term client...free checks...have saved hundreds of dollars at Superstore having used the PC Financial M/C


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## sam (Mar 16, 2012)

are you with TD ? If you are able to keep a $5000 balance, the TD Select Service account provides excellent value


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## 44545 (Feb 14, 2012)

Jungle said:


> I pay $0 for my cheques. PCF and ING.


ING charges $12.50 for a book of cheques making them, effectively $0.25 per cheque, after you've used up the first book. ("your first hit is free")

The only truly "free" chequing account in Canada is still President's Choice Financial.

Keep/use a TD Savings Account for savings. Open a free TD Waterhouse account and you can use the "Bill Payment" feature on PC Financial to transfer funds into TD online, sans-fee. (or just write yourself a cheque and go to a TD bank machine)

Once your funds are at TD/TDW, the TD Savings account becomes a "portal" that lets you use TD bank machines to withdraw funds (one free Interac tx per month, unlimited TD-to-TD account transfers)

For what it's worth, I can think of many reasons cheques are still needed.
- rent (post-dated)
- repaying friends/family for shared expenses
- "please send a void cheque" type requests
- charitable donations
- DRIP Optional Cash Purchases (monthly, quarterly)

I burn though a cheque book or two a year. Why would I pay $12.50 for the privilege when PC will give them to me for free?


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## blin10 (Jun 27, 2011)

if you don't need too many, you can just ask them to make you few temporary once at the branch, free of charge...


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## sksman (Aug 16, 2012)

*business cheques from someone other than davis and henderson*

we used to buy from davis and henderson, but now buy from www.chequesnow.ca. were getting 25% more cheques for the same price. The quality is the same, and has that gold square hologram thing as well. Plus we got airmiles which d&h never gave us either.


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## new dog (Jun 21, 2016)

Report on how much Canadians are paying in fees. It says that many Canadians don't need to leave their bank but just look at their options there to reduce or earn interest instead of fees.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4404502/chequing-account-bank-fees-ratehub-canada/


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

We have a no fee seniors account at CIBC. We pay for cheques. It covers the basics. We banked with them for years however we have moved all but this account away from them.

A few years ago I needed some. CIBC wanted something like $42 for them. I ordered directly from a firm in Brockville (or Belleville). The cost was half. I emailed them a copy of our cheque. Had the new ones in a ten days or so.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

We likewise pay no fees for our chequing accounts. Between senior's discount and not needing the services of high cost accounts, e.g. no more than about 8-10 debit transactions a month, no overdraft protection, etc. we've not needed more than a basic plan. I had been at CIBC for decades but consolidated to Scotia about 6 years ago. We only write perhaps 10 cheques a year and when the supply runs out, we get cheap replacements from ASAP Cheques.


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

The last cheque that I wrote was one year ago. We did not even put our address on the cheques. At the time of ordering we knew that we would have several addresses over the next few years.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

ian said:


> The last cheque that I wrote was ten years ago. We did not even put our address on the cheques. At the time of ordering we knew that we would have several addresses over the next few years.


Our cheques are primarily for birthday and Xmas gift money.... to our adult children and to some of the grandchildren. That is ~8-10 cheques per year. We are loathe to 'stoop' to e-cards and e-transfers yet for those specific instances since some of our children actually consider e-stuff for those occasions tacky..... ! So we buy the usual paper cards, write a cheque and put a stamp on the envelope like it has been done for the past 100 years or so.


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

edited my post to reflect one year, not ten years!


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

When I took over my mothers account as POA, she had so many accounts and small little fees. Even the 'deals' for seniors in some cases still had fees. It took a little shifting, but I managed to get all of her fees to zero. I find you do have to check accounts every so often, because banks will change the fees without people noticing. My mother loved her little passbook with a monthly mailer, this was an $2.95/month option. I went completely online, so now free. The other one was etransfers are different for all banks. I am trying to consolidate the accounts, and with the limits and the charges it was cheaper for me to month a the max amount for the free monthly transfer, instead of paying the $7.50 bank draft.

Another trick I have found, was for TD, the top tier account was free with a $5k monthly balance. Cheques are free with this account. I moved enough into the account to hit the balance, ordered the free cheques, then when the cheques came, moved back to the lower account.


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