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Additional Banking Services

 

Peace Hills Trust offers the following services for your convenience.

Safety Deposit Boxes

Contact your nearest regional office to see if safety deposit boxes are available for your valuables.

Wire Transfers

We offer wire transfers to other financial institutions for your convenience.  Please contact your Regional Office to learn more.

 
 
 

A Guide to Deposit Accounts and Service Fees

 

This Guide is provided for you as a convenient way to obtain details on Personal Deposit Accounts offered by Peace Hills Trust, including related account information and applicable service fees.

Any information not contained in this Guide will be made available for you at any one of our Regional Offices.

View the Guide to Deposit Accounts and Service Fees

 
 
 

What You Need To Know

 

Information about our opening accounts and cheque cashing policies.

 

​Opening a New Account

Photo identification is not a requirement, however photo identification is a good way to help us protect you as a customer and to ensure we have confirmed your identity.

Acceptable identification is listed below.  You must provide two pieces of identification from List "A" or one from list "A" and one from List "B".  You may provide one piece of identification from List "A" providing your identity is confirmed by either a customer in good standing with Peace Hills Trust or by an individual of good standing in the community where your Regional Office is located.

List A

  • Valid Drivers License issued in Canada
  • Current Canadian Passport
  • Certificate of Indian Status issued by GOC
  • Metis Card
  • Firearms License
  • Certificate of Canadian Citizenship
  • Certificate of Naturalization
  • Permanent Resident Card
  • Citizenship and Immigration Cda Form
  • Social Insurance Card/Letter issued by GOC
  • Old Age Security Card/Letter issued by GOC
  • Birth Certificate from Canadian Province or Territory
  • **Provincial Medical (Health) Card
  • Certificate of Tribal Membership Alberta
  • Canadian Certificate of Registration of Birth Abroad
  • Canadian Immigration Identification Card
  • Certified Statement of Live Birth from a Canadian Province or Territory
  • Current Professional Association license
  • Motor Vehicle Permit
  • Protected Person Status Document
  • Record of Landing or Confirmation of Permanent Residence
  • Temporary Resident Permit
  • Union Card
  • Work Permit
  • Student ID Card

A document or card with a signature and photograph on it issued by:

  • The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia
  • Alberta Registries
  • Saskatchewan Government Insurance
  • Department of Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations
  • Department of Transportation and Public Works of the Province of Prince Edward Island
  • Service New Brunswick
  • Department of Government Services and Land of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador
  • Department of Transportation of the Northwest Territories
  • Department of Community Government and Transportation of the Territory of Nunavut
  • Manitoba Public Insurance ID
  • Manitoba Liquor Control Commission Card
  • Registered Indian Record

List B

  • Armed Forces Identification Card
  • Employee ID Card with Photo from an employer well known in the community
  • Signed Automated Banking Machine (ABM) Card or Customer Card issued by a member of CPA
  • Signed Credit Card issued by a member of CPA
  • Signed Canadian Institute for the Blind (CNIB Customer Card with a photograph)
  • Current Foreign Passport

** A Quebec Drivers License may be used if the customer offers it, but it can't be required by Financial Institutions for identification purposes.

** Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba prohibit the use of health insurance cards as identification.  Quebec's health insurance card cannot be required by Financial Institutions for identification, but the customer can offer it if they wish to do so.

Regardless of what form of identification you present us with, you will also be required to provide us your date of birth, if it is not included in the identification you have provided.

In some instances, we may need to further investigate and verify the information your have provided, prior to opening an account for you.

A minimum deposit is not a requirement; however you may find it convenient to set up direct deposit for Government payments and/or your pay cheque. Please speak with one of our staff if you have any questions, or would like assistance setting up your direct deposit.

Employment is not a requirement for opening an account, but we are required by law to ask about your occupation and address.

If Peace Hills Trust has reasonable grounds to believe that the account will be used for illegal or fraudulent purposes.

If the individual has a history of illegal or fraudulent activity in relation to providers of financial services and if the most recent instance of such activity occurred less than seven years before the day on which the request to open the account is made.
​If we have reasonable grounds to believe that the individual, for the purpose of opening an account, knowingly made a material misrepresentation in the information provided to Peace Hills Trust.If we have reasonable grounds to believe that it is necessary to refuse to open a demand account in order to protect the customers or employees of Peace Hills Trust from physical harm, harassment or other abuse. 

For more information please contact your nearest Regional Office.

Cashing a Government of Canada Cheque

Under the “Right of Access to Basic Banking Services” Regulations (enabling Statute the “Bank Act”) non-customers have the right to cash a Government of Canada (GOC) cheque for no more than $1,500.00 without service charge.

A GOC cheque is a cheque issued by the Federal Government identifiable by the Institution Number 117 in the MICR Encoding Band and includes the Departmental Bank Account Number. In addition, they exhibit the Government of Canada Logo, are Yellow in Colour with the background containing Maple Leafs and a Map of Canada.

  1. Two pieces of identification per *PHT Identification Schedule List A or B; or
  2. One piece of identification from *List A or List B, if
  • that piece bears the signature and photograph of the individual, or
  • the identity of the individual is confirmed by a client in good standing with Peace Hills Trust or by an individual of good standing in the community where Peace Hills Trust is located.

*See "Opening a New Account" for ID Schedule List A and List B

Peace Hills Trust can refuse to cash a Government of Canada cheque should we determine any of these situations be present:

  • There is evidence that the Government of Canada cheque has been altered in any way or is counterfeit;
  • The Cheque is over $1,500.00;
  • The Payee does not meet the Identification Requirements at time of presentment;
  • There are reasonable grounds to believe that there has been illegal or fraudulent activity in relation to the cheque or other instrument;
  • The Government of Canada cheque bears a second endorsement;
  • The Recipient makes threats or abuses Regional Office staff;
  • The Government of Canada cheque is not presented by the Payee in person.

Hold Funds Policy on Cheques

When cheques* are presented for deposit to your personal deposit account, either “in-person” with our employee at a Regional Office or through our Automated Teller Machines (ATM**), the deposit may be subject to a “holding period” restricting access to the full amount, or portion thereof, of your deposit. Deposits subject to a hold; you will not be able to withdraw money for the amount of the hold and we will not pay any of your cheques or pre-authorized debits from those funds until the hold expires. The hold placed on the deposit is to ensure that the cheque is cleared by the financial institution on which it is drawn. Deposits subject to the holding period will be held for the following number of business days:

  • ¹ Canadian Dollar cheque, not exceeding $1,500, drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in Canada deposited (a) in-person with our employee at a Regional Office, the maximum hold is 4 business days; or (b) through our ATM, the maximum hold is 5 business days
  • ¹ Canadian Dollar cheque, exceeding $1,500, drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in Canada deposited (a) in-person with our employee at a Regional Office, the maximum hold is 7 business days; or (b) through our ATM, the maximum hold is 8 business days
  • ² Non-Canadian Dollar cheque, drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in Canada deposited either in-person with our employee at a Regional Office or through our ATM; the minimum hold is 10 business days. The maximum hold is estimated to be 20 business days
  • ² Non-Canadian Dollar cheque, drawn on a financial institution’s branch located outside of Canada deposited either in-person with our employee at a Regional Office or through our ATM; the minimum hold is 30 business days. The maximum hold is estimated to be 40 business days

In the event a cheque you deposited is returned unpaid for any reason, either during or after the expiry of the applicable hold period, we have the right to charge the amount of the cheque to your account. Some cheques may be sent on “collection,” meaning that the funds will be credited to your account only if and when we receive payment from the financial institution on which the cheque is drawn. Please note a “Business Day” is defined as a 24-hour period that does not include Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

* Cheques for purpose of this policy are paper-based cheques, also include bank drafts, money orders, certified cheques and other instruments deposited in Canada that are fully encoded with magnetic ink to allow for character recognition, and are not damaged or mutilated.

** Not available at all Regional Office locations.

¹ We reserve the right to extend the hold period and refuse access to deposited funds in the following exceptional circumstances, including (a) we have reasonable grounds to believe the deposit is being made for illegal or fraudulent purposes; or (b) the account has been open for less than 90 days; or (c) the cheque or other instrument has been endorsed more than once; or (d) the cheque or other instrument that is deposited is “Stale Dated,” or the cheque or other instrument is deposited at least six months after the date of the cheque; or (e) the deposited cheque is not encoded with magnetic ink character recognition or is not readable by operational systems (for example, if damaged or mutilated). The hold period under these circumstances is estimated to be 30 business days.

² The number of business days a deposit is held is only an estimate; we reserve the right to extend the amount of time a hold is placed against your account if payment for the cheque has not been received by us.

 

Access to Deposited Funds Policy

Our Access to Deposited Funds Policy ³ applies only to Canadian Dollar cheques*, drawn on a financial institution’s branch located in Canada, that are deposited to your account which is subject to the Hold Funds Policy on Cheques.

An Access to Deposited Funds cash withdrawal limit may apply to cheque deposits you make through a Regional Office with our employee or through our ATM**. This is the dollar amount you will have access to until the hold period expires on your deposit.

For more information on our Access to Deposited Funds Policy please contact your Regional Office.

* Cheques for purpose of this policy are paper-based cheques, also include bank drafts, money orders, certified cheques and other instruments deposited in Canada that are fully encoded with magnetic ink to allow for character recognition, and are not damaged or mutilated.

** Not available at all Regional Office locations.

³ Access to Deposited Funds Policy provides you unrestricted access to the first $100 of all funds deposited by cheque on any one day. We maintain the right to restrict access to the first $100 should exceptional circumstances identified in “Footnote 1” under our Hold Funds Policy on Cheques become applicable; we will further provide you “in-writing” our Notice of Refusal and Statement with contact information for the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, should you have a complaint.

 

 
 
 

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