My Review of "President's Choice (PC) Money Account"

President's Choice (PC) Money Account is a new banking service provided by PC. Most Canadians are already familiar with PC products as we're inundated with their stuff all the time. They pretty much make everything and sell every possible service to us. This time it's daily banking. Wait, they've done this before haven't they?

Yes they have. A while back PC had made a deal with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) a while back. It was called PC Financial back in the day. They had a really good relationship with them or so I thought. Not too long ago that relationship was severed and there was a ton of us that were lost. We didn't know what was happening to our accounts. Luckily the bank service was rebranded under the name of Simplii financial.

I thought it was a little messed up that that had happened in the first place. The confusion had me using the old PC ATM banking machines at one of their grocery stores thinking that there wouldn't be any fees. Boy did I get a rude awakening when I noticed the crazy fees. They get you the product for free for a little while and then, BAM! They hit you with fees and charges later on.

All this to say, I was very apprehensive when PC decided to open up another PC banking service. I feared it was going to be another PC financial problem all over again. They gussied me up with all of the PC programs already with PC Insiders and PC Elite Mastercard. They helped accumulate a ton of points for myself.

Their point system really started getting addictive to me even though you can't really spend them on anything but products in Loblaw affiliated stores. You can't even spend them on gift cards, lottery tickets or alcohol. Still if you go grocery shopping a lot it doesn't take long to use up points.

I got suckered into one of PC's plethora of service programs again because of my addiction to their points. For the most part, it isn't that bad of a service. There's no banking fees and you get extra points for using the card. The problem is I don't really use their banking card when I already have their PC Elite Mastercard. In fact, I didn't even use the PC Money Account all too much after a while and I'll tell you why.

In order to access my PC Money Account I usually use a PC because I'm old school. I hate having to use my phone for anything in case I lose it and someone just swipes all my banking information. Honestly, I don't even know why people bank off their phones it's so dangerous.

Logging into the PC is a chore and a half if their servers are busy. I can't imagine how my life would be if I depended solely on the PC Money Account. I would be ripping my hair out and having a heart attack. The problem is that they require a special confirmation every time you log into your computer. This normally wouldn't be a problem but I clean out my cookies all the time in case someone starts sneaking into my computer.

They give you a confirmation number through email and this is required when you first login to their bank account. This whole confirmation number thing is outside of the normal login and password. It's added protection that I actually give props to them for putting in. When their servers are really busy that confirmation code will arrive sometimes 8 hours after you've tried to request the confirmation number. At that time the confirmation number has already been expired.

This ridiculous delay alone is the reason why I choose not to bank with PC Money Account for my daily banking needs. Yes they do have a ton of great features and it's free but the convenience and efficiency of the account is far from where it should be.

It's also ridiculous because if you call in they'll just push you to use their online services anyways. I can see why some people don't bother with some of these free accounts in this regard. Still people without the money to pay for regular bank accounts should have a choice. I feel bad because those of lower income brackets are going to have to depend on PC Money Account's horrible infrastructure.

I really hope that PC Money Account will get their act together in order to even give some competition to the bigger banks in Canada. It's a step in the right direction but the frustration factor of their infrastructure today is not where it should be. If they can somehow ensure people will get faster more efficient services from them then I could recommend their service. Unfortunately, I'll have to give this a pass for now. Please PC fix your infrastructure!