CIBC has outdone the Royal Bank for a-holish behaviour toward someone I know. If someone tried to cash your post dated cheques, you’d expect a bank to reject the cheque and tell the payee where to stick it. Well CIBC didn’t do that, and instead charged the victim of the malicious cheque cashing lots of overdraft fees and ruined her credit rating!
It’s quite a little racket they have going. Just scare the customer away from calling the police, and take the illegally gained fees. Why is a Big 5 bank so desperate for money that they are willing to steal it from people?
Sometimes the banks even call the police in an attempt to scare away customers.
@hotmail.com
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opit | 20-Sep-06 at 11:12 am | Permalink
At one time I might have agreed.
The quick and dirty is that banks operate under laws and regulations which are changed from time to time.
I understand that, these days, there is no such thing as postdating, i.e. it is not to be recognized.
Lord Kitchener's Own | 20-Sep-06 at 12:51 pm | Permalink
REALLY????
Post-dating cheques is meaningless????
If that’s true, there ought to be a major story about it somewhere. I don’t think people generally know taht if they date a cheque Nov. 1, 2006, and the person takes it to the bank on Sept. 30th that the bank is obliged to cash it (if that’s true).
Can anyone confirm opit’s claim?
I know a lot of people who give their landlords post-dated cheques for an ENTIRE YEAR’s rent. They’d be shocked to discover their landlord could take those cheques to the bank right away and try to cash them all instantly. Doubly shocked when they get a call from the bank for bouncing 11 cheques!!!!!
Amanda | 20-Sep-06 at 4:35 pm | Permalink
Unfortunately post dating actually does exist. I was a bank teller for a number of years (extremely recently) AND I am the person at the centre of this controversy. Furthermore, the Landlord and Tenants Act in Saskatchewan states that a landlord CAN request post-dated cheques as a condition of lease. So who’s right? If there’s a law out there giving landlords the right to request them, then the bank better well fall into line with PROVINCIAL LAW. They are not above the law and they are going to find out what one screwball can do, very soon.
For more on the unfolding drama, check out http://www.livejournal.com/users/insanitycase from time to time. I’m sure there will be interesting stuff forthcoming.
PS: thanks for spreading the word on this, saskboy! For all those interested, I am in the process of converting all of my stuff over to the ING. You might be wise to ask some tough questions to your bank manager.
Saskboy | 20-Sep-06 at 4:55 pm | Permalink
ING doesn’t do chequing unfortunately and the PC banking uses CIBC to some extent :-(
If you or others want an ING “invite” we both get $13 when you open your first account.
Oh, and I can say that someone from a Royal Bank computer looked at this blog posting. Too bad they are one of the banks implicated in Big 5 Bank stupidity.
Miss Cellania | 20-Sep-06 at 6:50 pm | Permalink
Wow, here in the US, banks never look at dates. They don’t look at the signature. And they rarely look to see if there is an endorsement. I believe most of the transfers are done electronically anyway. I was warned many years ago never to hand over a check you don’t want cashed.
Derek | 29-Sep-06 at 7:28 am | Permalink
Gee I know you (sort of, online anyways) and I thought you were talking about MY blog! Ha ha. Yes, CIBC cashed a cheque I wrote dated Sept 20th, on the 18th.
I *just* got back from the bank (since I was there anyways) where I asked for my NSF fee back (TD charges $37.50 now). The teller told me that writing post dated cheques is actually illegal (I’ve been searching online for some proof of this, which is how I stumbled across this entry) but that everyone does it, and it’s at your own risk. It’s up to the teller accepting the cheque for deposit/cashing whether or not to actually check the date, he said generally as long as they see the correct month that they’re good to go. Uhh. OK. That’s pretty damn irresponsible. I said, well you guys sure as heck don’t cash post dated cheques when I have them and don’t notice it, and how many people do they turn away every January because someone’s written the wrong year?
The BS I got from the phone rep when I called at 2:30 am (see the cheque overdrew my account, taking along with it the last $20 I had, that I needed to fill my empty gas tank with so I’d have enough gas to work that night….) told me that if someone put it in a machine, since everything is pretty much automated, there’s a good chance the date error wouldn’t have been caught, and that’s probably what happened. Umm. OK. So you guys don’t even check a legit check for a proper date and information. Makes me wonder just how many bogus, phony, and fraudulent checks go through because they’re so ‘automated’ and don’t see anything? I wonder if I’m in the wrong line of work…. Sounds like someone could probably make a good living for a while depositing bad checks into their automated system.
Derek | 29-Sep-06 at 7:30 am | Permalink
(And if post dating cheques actually IS illegal, someone needs to inform all these government agencies that are coming up on Google for my search into this, that suggest post dated cheques can be suggested (in Ontario) for rent payment, or the Law Society of Upper Canada that accepts post dated cheques for lawyer licencing fees, etc…)
Derek | 29-Sep-06 at 7:58 am | Permalink
Well, what a pain to find that answer, but the best I could find was the Canadian Payment Association website (http://www.cdnpay.ca/faqs/cheques.asp#6) that states “Under CPA Rules, a post-dated cheque is not eligible for clearing and therefore should not be deposited before the due date. However, given the large volume of cheques and the degree of automated processing, some post-dated items may inadvertently slip through.”, and then goes on to say to take it up with your crappy bank if they do indeed process something early. Nothing about them being illegal, and I checked the relevant Canadian law that seems to say a bill of exchange (ie. a cheque or other instrument) is not invalid if it is simply antedated or post dated. So the teller was full of it, and the phone rep was obviously reading from script, since he pretty much said word for word what the CPA site FAQ says.
Saskboy | 29-Sep-06 at 10:28 am | Permalink
Derek, last I looked, Amanda has a copy of her cashed postdated cheque, and a CIBC website that describes postdating cheques. You can probably find a page for TD about cheques too that contradicts the teller blowing smoke up your bottom. Good luck in the fight. There are good links over at Amanda’s blog post.
Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy » Blog Archive » More Bank Rage against CIBC | 30-Sep-06 at 10:48 am | Permalink
[...] I wrote about the Bank’s Theoretical Electronic Funds Transfer (THEFT for short)(TM) previously, and the story attracted some attention in the blogosphere. Stuff we learned from this escapade: 1) Post dating is, in fact, valid. 2) Cheques are not eligible to be cashed until the date shown on the face. 3) If the bank puts thru your post dates before the date, you will need the power of leprachauns to rectify the situation. 4) Leprachauns are growing weary of their duties. 5) This is why banks operate above the law. [...]
PAUL G. FRASER | 10-Nov-06 at 8:48 pm | Permalink
TRYING TO GET MY STORY OUT THERE. VISIT MY WEBSITE.THANKS, PAUL FRASER
Saskboy | 11-Nov-06 at 11:19 am | Permalink
Hi Paul,
Sorry to hear about your misfortune in dealing with Royal Bank.
PAUL FRASER | 01-Dec-06 at 12:08 am | Permalink
THANKS SASKBOY. I WILL NEVER GIVE UP THIS INJUSTICE BY THE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA.
VYderzhka | 27-Oct-07 at 5:24 pm | Permalink
Folks,
Read the book by Mr. Steward, The Bank Heist. You can it up at any more or less decent library. It is a profound book about Canadian banking and how it REALLY works here. It does not answer your question on cashing the postdated cheques by the banks however. All in all, the responsiblity and chouce rests with the PRESENTER of this cheqye to any bank, I don’t care which one. The banks are the ruling elite in Canada and if you didn’t realize this by now, think about this: why is it that ANY BANK you go to (save online banks), all the fees are pretty darn the same, the mortgages are the same, the GIC rates are the same, the posted rates are the same. Have you ever thought about just THIS simple question?
Dave | 09-Dec-07 at 2:42 pm | Permalink
I had never heard of this until today. A friend of mine had her son at university. He was getting his own place for January. He needed first and last months rent.
She paid the rent with a postdated cheque for Jan 1st. The bank cashed it Dec 7th. When she called the bank they said ‘Oh the agreement to not cash the cheque until January 1st is between you and the landlord’
What bullshit!