# blocking access to HISA at RBC via ATM



## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I have most of my accounts with RBC and regularly use the ATM to withdraw cash. Recently I made a mistake and withdrew from the wrong account and have been trying to figure out ways to prevent this from happening again. The main thing that concerns me is the visibility of my HISA.

What I have noticed with online banking is that ALL of my accounts and loans show up on the accounts summary page. I can probably live with that but what concerns me more is the access to my HISA in the event someone skims my debit card. One of the reasons I created the HISA was to move the bulk of my non-investment tier 1 cash out of my POSA so that if anyone ever duplicated my ATM card or somehow got access to it they would only have access to my POSA cash.

This "safety valve" doesn't seem to have worked since last week I goofed and withdrew from my HISA ("savings") vs my POSA ("chequing"). An easy mistake at 6AM. 

Is there a way to somehow block ATM access to the HISA?


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## Helianthus (Oct 19, 2010)

I would think yes, however, your best bet is to call your bank. 

Also, if someone duplicates your debit card and takes money from you, (a) it will be limited to your withdrawal limit and (b) it will be returned to you, assuming you are willing to sign an affidavit stating that you did not withdraw the funds.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I didn't even have to sign an affadavit. I made a verbal statement over the phone when my card was cloned.

Your bank should be able to do this--just call and ask. They would probably be happy to do so, as they are not keen to eat debit card fraud costs.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I'll have to look into withdrawal limits more closely but IIRC these are per tx and not daily. I've heard of cases where robbers drive someone from ATM to ATM at gunpoint and clean out the account thusly. My main motivation is to protect the HISA.

For the record, I did ask the question one time and the answer they gave was that it was not possible. I wasn't as concerned at the time and didn't press the issue but recently when I made that mistake it raised the importance of the matter.

I suppose another way would be to simply open a HISA at some other bank but that would probably incur fees. I do appreciate the flexibility of being able to move money amongst my POSA/HISA in online banking but not so comfortable with ATM access to the HISA.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

the-royal-mail said:


> Is there a way to somehow block ATM access to the HISA?


I am pretty sure there is a way.
My online bank account at Scotiabank has a section for associating the various accounts with the ATM Card.
Such as which account is associated with Chequing, Savings, etc.
My wife's PCF account has similar options.

There are similar options to block certain accounts from online transactions (such as transfer in/out online).
This makes those accounts view-only online.

Click around on your online account website.
Look under Settings or My Profile or the usual places where such options hide.

If you can't find it, call and ask.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Unfortunately Harold it seems to be very limited as far as the options you describe for online banking.

https://www.rbcroyalbank.com/onlinebanking/bankingusertips/profile/index.html

But as I said, my bigger concern is the appearance of my accounts at the ATMs where certain types of robbers are more likely to hang out. It's always such a pain going through call centers or going in person, I was just hoping someone here might know the answers for sure as they pertain to RBC.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

I am sure there is a way to block access to certain accounts through the ATM.
Call and ask.

Look through your online banking website for something like this:










This allows you to associate or remove selected accounts from the ATM or online banking


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## JustAGuy (Feb 5, 2012)

Another option would be to keep your money in a different account that isn't directly linked to your card...

If your money is in RBC, isn't the interest rate 1.2%? If you had your HISA with Ally, it would be 1.8% interest... the downside is that there is a delay if you need to access the money... but the upsides are that a: you aren't going to do any accidental withdrawals as it's online access only, b: no mugger will be aware of its existence and c: it's a better interest rate.


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

If you can't close ATM access, you should be able to set a tiny limit on the amount one can withdrawal from it. Try asking them to limit the withdrawal amount to $1 per day.


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## stardancer (Apr 26, 2009)

I have my accounts at TD; what shows on the ATM is my chequing (used for ongoing transactions), my Plan 60 (used to collect $$ for yearly bills) and my allowance account (mine only for frivolity). My HISA which holds quite a bit of cash does not show up and I had no choice on this. Even my VISA doesn't show anymore- ok since I never take cash advances.


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

the-royal-mail said:


> I suppose another way would be to simply open a HISA at some other bank but that would probably incur fees. I do appreciate the flexibility of being able to move money amongst my POSA/HISA in online banking but not so comfortable with ATM access to the HISA.


TRM, there are a number of fee-free options for HISAs for what you want it for. All of which have online banking (part of the reason why they are low/no cost, I'm sure) and have slightly better rates. Ally and ING... Those are the big ones that come to mind. See a list here. Downsides vs. the RBC HISA are that transfers will take a couple days like JAG said, and that it's one more account to keep track of.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

What are these fees you're fretting about. I haven't paid a bank fee in 10 years. If you let your bank charge you fees, you are a sucker.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I took a closer look and as I suspected, the options Harold pointed out are simply not available. With RBC's system there seem to be few options available to the user. So I'll have to go in or call the bank and try to get this worked out. I am a bit hesitant to implement a daily withdrawal limit on my debit card in case one Sunday I might actually need that much cash. I dunno. Tough call. Their HISA has no fees and pays half-decent interest because it's all set up and managed by me online via online banking. I do not seem to have the ability to exclude certain accounts from the debit card from where I sit.


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

That's strange your hisa shows up @ a atm/branch.I'm a rbc client and i only see-chq acct/saving acct(and i have a hisa)Why don't you keep the hisa acct(ask the branch manger ect,to delete it from your card to show up)and just shift money from savings or chqs when you need it?That is what i do....i also live in wpg-strange it shows up.(esp with all accts having different #s.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

donald, the savings account IS the HISA when you're in online banking or at the ATM. That's why I got confused. 6AM, withdraw cash, savings account, sure, come to realize later what I needed to withdraw from was chequing. When you're at the ATM screen it does not say "HISA"; it says "savings" for that account.


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

Understood.why don't you do what i do and open up 3 accts-a savings/chqs/and a hisa?I have the 3 accts(and the hisa does not show up)They all of course have different #s for each acct.


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

It has been a few yrs but i think the savings acct is called sundry?maybe?.....it's also good because you can even change the ''heading" display on-line and call it tier whatever.standard chq/sundry/hisa.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

the-royal-mail said:


> I am a bit hesitant to implement a daily withdrawal limit on my debit card in case one Sunday I might actually need that much cash.


Then keep that much extra in your chequing account, and call your bank to remove the HISA from the ATM card altogether.
I don't know how much cash we are talking about here, but these days with 1.5% interest rates, even if you keep $2K extra in your chequing account, you are not losing much in interest.


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

You wouldn't even have to keep it in your chequing account.

RBC allows for instant online transfers so you could in an emergency, conceivably go online make a transfer from your HISA to your chequing account using your cell phone, then withdrawal the money right away.

But we all know how TRM feels about modern gadgets and devices


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

I have a $300 per day limit on withdrawals from my chequing account at CIBC. If I need more, then I just call (and yes, their call centre is open on Sundays) and temporarily raise the limit.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I've always got $2K in cash in the POSA so that is fine. I just can't seem to find a way to delist the HISA from my debit card. I'll ask the bank again.


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## cardhu (May 26, 2009)

> _What are these fees you're fretting about._


Bogus fees, perhaps?? 



> _RBC allows for instant online transfers_


But that’d be a shell game, no?


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Finally had the chance to stop in at the bank today and the teller was able to delist the HISA and the LOC from appearing from my accounts listing when using my debit card at the ATM. That is perfect. I see one credit card is still listed also so I'll probably have that removed at some point but I am not as worried with that as with the HISA and LOC since they accounted for a bit of money.

And when I checked in online banking, all of the accounts showed as expected and were seemingly unaffected by what was done at an ATM level.

So the final answer is that if you want this done, present yourself to a branch and ask the teller.


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