A while ago I went into my local TD branch to do a cheque deposit. My wife had endorsed the cheque as it was a larger cheque.
The Teller told me that I could not in fact make a deposit at that time because all the banks computers were down, due to storms in the Toronto area. I looked at her a little puzzled and explained that I really didn’t feel safe wandering around with a cheque endorsed by my wife for the next two days, until their computers came back up.
She said she could take a note, and deposit the cheque once her computer came back up (it was 2:45 PM, the bank closes at 3:00 PM, it was a Saturday, I did not hold out a lot of hope that much would change in 15 minutes), so I agreed.
The Teller then did the following:
- She wrote down my access TD card ID number, in a writing style, where I could barely read what she had written.
- She filled out my instructions on a bank form.
- Signed the form
- Photocopied the form with a copy of the cheque and stamped it dated for Monday for me.
What does this mean? I have no idea, I know that so far nothing seems to have happened in terms of the cheque, as my on-line banking does not show any changes. (it did finally show up)
Ironic Conclusion
The humorous part then was, when I asked if the Interac network was down, and she informed me that no it was still up and I could also withdraw cash from my TD account if I wanted to then as well. I left the bank feeling very nervous about what might be happening to that cheque. I walked over to the Loblaws and deposited the other two cheques in my PC Financial account.
Good idea. As an epilogue, the cheque was cashed, and all was well, but still an odd occurance.
Aside from your fear of ABMs, you could have written the following on the back of the cheque to further protect yourself:
For deposit only to the account of Big Cajun Man/ Mrs. Big Cajun Man, TD Bank ‘Transit number+account number’
This instruction should prevent deposit to any account but the one specified. Companies handling large volumes of cheques take this step to ensure the cheques are properly assigned to their account no matter the path taken to arrive at the bank.
DAvid
Is there a reason why you didn’t use the ABM at the branch to deposit the cheque?
Good question. I have a mistrust of ATM or ABM machines, but will use them on smaller cheques, but this cheque was big enough that I wanted to be SURE that it was deposited, and have a real receipt from a human being.
The cheque has been deposited, from what I can tell.