Contemplating opening account - pros & cons? | Page 2 | Oaken Financial | Discussion forum

We can't really blame them for taking back the interest as they didn't have the money. But the bookkeeping is strange and misleading. They KNEW they didn't have the money, so there was no reason to credit interest in the first place.

frugal lady said

So if you can only pull funds into Oaken, then funds will be on hold for 5 business days after deposit.
Will Oaken let you purchase a GIC while the funds are on hold?  

I dont recall Oaken put a hold on funds that are pulled into the account. I could be wrong and you can contact them to confirm. For sure EQ will do a hold no matter where/how the funds come from.

Putting a hold means you dont have access to it including GIC purchase. You will earn interest at the HISA rate, whatever that is. That is how EQ does it and I imagine other FIs that put a hold on funds will be similar.

savemoresaveoften said

I dont recall Oaken put a hold on funds that are pulled into the account. I could be wrong and you can contact them to confirm. For sure EQ will do a hold no matter where/how the funds come from.

I established a few links recently to initiate transfers to/from external accounts. I then triggered pulls of $1 from each of those externals to test the links.

In every case, the $1 appeared in my savings account balance almost immediately but not in my available balance for 5-6 business days during which time it remained unavailable to even transfer to another of my Oaken savings accounts.

If you phone in to fund a GIC it is done immediately and funds are taken from external account.

frugal lady said
I decided to proceed with opening account at Oaken and completed application online March 25.
I did telephone Oaken Mar 26 and my call was answered immediately. They said 5-7 days to open account. Time will tell.

Can someone confirm that the only way to link an external account is with a void cheque?

From their Terms and conditions:
"We will only process Transactions to and from External Accounts with identical
ownership details."
This would mean I can't link a joint external account with an account in my sole name?   

I opened my savings account with a scan of a void cheque via email. All good except for the 10 day wait for the Canada Post delivery of final setup instructions with customer and account numbers. Went through same process for my wife's savings account. Once both were set, I opened a new savings account and at some point in that process got to the option for adding a joint owner customer number. And voila, a joint savings account.

Initial setup for a new customer is sssllllooowww. Adding subsequent accounts to existing customers is simple and quick. Establishing additional external links to other banks is quick and ok as long as what you want linking to is on their list. Hubert is not, for example. You can't send $ to, or draw $ from, Oaken from other institutions; but from Oaken you can pull $ from, or send $ to, those institutions you have established links from.

frugal lady and Loonie:

I was able to get a form from Peoples - where I do not have any chequing accounts - that serves as equivalent to a voided cheque.
RetirEd