President's Choice Financial Reviews

Introducing the nightmare of credit cards: The UnreliableCard. You've been responsible with your payments, and a loyal customer for over 13 years. You're cruising along, and then bam! Out of nowhere, they slash your credit limit, leaving you scratching your head. It doesn't matter if you've been diligent; their AI software seems to operate on its own twisted logic. Last year, they boosted your limit, giving you a false sense of security. But this year, while you were off exploring the world, they decided to yank $6000 from your limit, all thanks to their unpredictable software. Save yourself the stress and avoid this card like the plague. Trust us, it's not worth the hassle. When you need it in an emergency, it will not be there.

I had a bad experience with PC Financial MC. When I tried to ask them to dispute the transaction, they were not helpful. They didn't care to resolve the problem and the customer service agent talked rudely. Sherry called me a liar and her manager Eli was ruder. They put comments in my dispute so they could reject my dispute. There’s no protection or safety on this card. TD and RBC or even Amex are best cards with peace of mind. The service to dispute a transaction is poor and hours of wait hold, disrespect and rudeness to deal with. They just made any excuse to reject the dispute by saying you have no rights and you’re stuck to pay for over charged and fraudulent charges.

I had a transaction of $23.70 that was declined, I was wondering why, I was nervous thinking I was hacked or something. When I check my phone a message from the bank saying a transaction was declined because I exceeded the available limit. This is NOT true! I don't usually use this credit card so I know I've lots of available balance. Another thing the bank statement showed up late so I got charge because I paid late. I discussed this to customers agent and he just say sorry and hung up.

I've been a loyal PC Mastercard user for several years, typically enjoying a problem-free experience. However, on Oct 18th, a hiccup occurred. According to PC Financial, an issue with my card led them to block it and dispatch a replacement without any notification via email, phone, or text. I was in the dark for days about my card being deactivated, only discovering the change when my card got declined at a store about four days later. Despite my high credit rating and over two decades of spotless credit history, suddenly, my card was unusable. Reaching out to them, I learned that some flagged activity on my card prompted this action. Their lack of communication left me frustrated, and their response was a mere surprise that no one had informed me. It took a call to them to understand the situation; otherwise, I'd still be clueless about why my card wasn't working.

You cannot use your debit card at retailers unless they accept Mastercard as a method of payment. You cannot get cash back at any retailers because your card shows as a credit card purchase. If you need cash, real cash, you will have to use an ATM and good luck finding a PC Financial ATM, especially if it's after grocery store hours. In that case you will pay, big. If you go to a non PC ATM, you will be charged $3 for using their machine PLUS $2-$3 from PC. So, taking out $20 will cost you $25! That is a 25% fee! You should also be aware that cheques are not available on these accounts.

The app requires numerous steps when trying to pay for something. Usually requires multiple logins (when others are waiting behind you). All-in-all an abysmally design piece of garbage for which any self-respecting programmer should fall on his/her sword.

My wife and I have a PC Financial Mastercard. We were travelling in BC for most of the summer and when we came home around August 23rd, we noticed a new card (PC Financial Mastercard) was sent to her. Why?!? We checked our transactions and sure enough, there had been some fraudulent activity on our account (6 charges to hotels in London England that were of course not made by us as we were in BC).

I had a bad experience with PC Financial MC. When I tried to ask them to dispute the transaction, they were not helpful. They didn't care to resolve the problem that the customer has and the customer service agent talked rudely. I can't believe that they provide such a service like that when I have a problem disputing a transaction. I need the proof for the transaction that I made but the merchant can't give me that. The merchant said that it is not in their system, however, my credit card has been charged. So, I asked PC Financial to dispute it, so the merchant can give the proof of my purchase. Sadly, PC Financial said that it is not something they can dispute. They want me to deal with the merchant. I can say now, bye PC Financial. You are not recommended at all.

My card was unfortunately affected by fraudulent activity. I contacted customer service and a new card was scheduled to be sent. I did not receive the card for two months. I contacted customer service again and again was told that the card would be sent in the mail. In the end, a charge of $6.83 was on my account while I was awaiting the new card. I was planning on waiting till I received the new card. However, my account was instead suspended over the balance. Over $6.83. Without any notification. It is also very inconvenient to get ahold of any customer service agent. Be prepared to stay on hold for a good amount of time.

I signed up for a regular debit account. It was “approved” right in store and I started to receive emails to deposit into my account prior to even receiving my card. Luckily I didn’t. Got my card in the mail and tried to set everything up but I was unable to sign into my account. I spoke with 4 customer service representatives and was hung up on twice after waiting long periods. I got different information from all of them. One said they don’t know why my account was closed but a supervisor could for sure help me-hung up on. Another said I can’t open another account for 6 months now. And the last one told me that it was to do with my email address. The same email I used to open the account with a week prior and was receiving all the emails to deposit money into. Still have yet to speak to a supervisor, I don’t think PC Financial has any.

Received recently a PC Mastercard Elite and had major trouble activating it even though it was a replacement for an existing account. Customer support is terrible and the card was not working anywhere. This is not what I expected, so I made the effort (25 min on hold X 2 times) to cancel the card.

I called before I paid my full amount of my credit card balance, and they mentioned that I have to pay the number I did, and after that they suspended my account and then they charged me a daily interest rate, without mentioned before I paid my whole amount. Such a legal thiefs!!!!

I received card on June 29 as well as an email advising me to fund the account. I tried to activate the card I received and the account number was never there. I call them to mannerly activate the account only to be told the account was closed on June 30. When trying to speak to someone, I can't get a straight answer as why the account is closed without warning or explanation. I have set up the payroll banking info based on the knowledge that the account is up running. The whole process is total waste of my time and energy. This has led me to believe the product is absolute scam. I have "excellent" credit score. Should this incident affect my credit score, I will seek legal consultation. Meantime, I DO NOT recommend anyone to apply this account regardless how enticing the product may seem to be. For any financial institution, such behavior is totally unacceptable.

I have made multiple calls to PC Financials/Optimum points but no one answers to simple question why I am not getting points of PC Financials. Not only that, they are very rude and highly unprofessional in call. If you ask questions, they hung up or start yelling on you. This is very shameful behaviour of PC Financials, basically they know that the points system is in high demand so they don't care about its customer service. They on purpose have untrained people so customer don't call them again! This opinion is not after one call, but after multiple calls and multiple issues at various times.

No idea how this has any stars - an absolute joke of a Company. Applied for the PC Mastercard and received approval. No card for several weeks and so called them - they basically stated that I had actually been unapproved due to "process error". Asked why they hadn't contacted me to let me know was met with nothing more than a I don't know but basically ended up being human error. I spoke to this individual called Jesse who stated this happened all the time at the Company. Told me to reapply and should be able to get it approved. It wasn't. When asked why, they couldn't tell me but it didn't align with their lending policies, whatever that means. Honestly a joke of a Company - Loblaws must be bleeding money with these people running it.

I signed up with PC Financial to move our banking over to their 'Money' account. I already had a PC Mastercard. The experience was absolutely awful!! The website kept glitching, I tried everything and was unable to use my Money account. I couldn't transfer, fund it or anything. I tried different computers, clearing cookies, cache etc.

Worst banking experience of all time. Worst customer service. Longest wait times. Customer services reps cant do anything to help you. If you like waiting on hold for an hour just to be transferred to a voice-mail that never calls you back this bank is for you.

I have signed up for PC Money Account by thinking I will save some money on everyday groceries and it went well for 3-4 months then suddenly no points were getting added to my PC Optimum account out of my total expenses!! The sales person told me I will receive 10 points for spending 1 cent by using PC Money account in participation stores and I received it under "PC Money Account Spend Promo" for initial 3-4 months and then suddenly it disappeared. Now I am owing to PC Optimum a sum of 45000 points and I have already 2-3 cases open with PC Optimum department and 1 case under PC Money account department but so far no outcome. I have been calling 2 times every week to PC Optimum department and every single agent saying specialist/escalation team working on it!!

What seems like a value add with points to save on purchases becomes a nightmare if you EVER have to dispute a transaction or deal with fraud. The online method with a robot in chat is a neverending circle of nonsense, and finally a phone call. That was answered relatively soon, but even after contacting the merchant directly to verify the preauthorized order is Canceled, received email confirmation, etc... this is still not reversed, and PC states it can take up to 15 days, which is when we can proceed with a dispute if the charges are not reversed.

Do not get this card or even deal with President's Choice Financial at all. Customer Service is absolutely horrible and money just happens to go missing out of your money account and due to terrible customer service, you don’t get it back. They drag it out saying it’s because transactions are “pending” - but regardless the math does not add up. So many times I’ve had money just leave the account with no trace. More money gets deposited to the card than gets spent - yet it’s all gone. They are straight up thieves.

I had a PC Mastercard and PC Money Card - The money card was closed when I got the Mastercard - There was a credit in the account - They could not refund or etransfer out - Took 7 or 8 long phone calls, email and escalation - In the end I made a payment to my utility company once they re opened the account. Ok for Christmas I made a purchase around $3000, they flagged the account and locked my card out, no phone call, no email, no info at all - Called in after a few declined transactions, long hold time multiple phone calls - They canceled the card and put a hit on my credit score - All I got was sorry lost all my points... They said to re apply in 3 months, but I need to send in copies of my personal ID and personal banking records :(

After calling the Fraud department to report unauthorized issuance of balance protection plan on my credit card. Their process is to phone me back within 1 to 2 business days. When I am a victim of fraud who do they expect me to reply to a phone call and answer questions that could put me under further risk as anyone could impersonate their call. The process should be that they allow me to call them and then I trust which party I am calling, they can do the verification they need and then address my situation. When I asked to escalate to a manager, the reply I got that the manager will phone me back. So same story goes on.

I had an account for 2 years prior to this ridiculous incident and had a great report with them. My account was always in good standing! Last January I had lent a fellow mother $40 for formula. She paid me back the $40's via etransfer... Months later I go to use my card and boom account is locked so I call, sit on hold for 2.5 hrs, spoke to 6 different people before someone was able to have authority to transfer me to a supervisor. I'm told there is nothing I can do... like what? Then I find out the fellow mother was a victim of fraudulent activities regarding her bmo bank so because I had received a $ 40 email it was now frozen. I was evicted 2 times because my cheques were directly deposited and my income support worker would not put another bank on file because I could not get a closing account balance.

Someone hacked into my optimum account and was able to redeem points without a card. They did it with a phone. I wasn't made aware that you can redeem the points from a phone. And I'm sure many of their customers don't know that either. Absolutely horrible security. Can happen to anybody. Customer support does not care at all. They say someone will call, but they never do. All customer support can do is read a script. They're not actors. Also when points are redeemed, you are not sent any notification. Your transaction history can all be on one side of country and someone can redeem your points from the other side and customer support will think it makes sense.

Pull out your PC account!! Pull out your PC account!!! Not worth It!!! PC financial has the worst customer service!!! Promising clients and keep them hanging for almost a month. Always telling someone will call back and up to now no one calls!!! Nonsense supervisor in online or phone calls. I do suggest get rid of your supervisor if they can't even help clients!!!

One week after receiving my card, my account was locked due to a suspected fraudulent transaction. I was not allowed to confirm my transactions, review my account, or do anything to confirm the transactions -- the process and reasons were completely opaque. I was not contacted by the company, but only discovered this after waiting for a substantial time on hold with customer service.

This bank isn't quick to help you with purchases made on account when you expect fraud. They want you to deal with fraud issue on your own. A purchase was made to my account that I did not make. When I went to dispute the charge I was transferred to the fraud and place on hold for over an hour waiting to talk to someone. This shouldn't be.

I woke up this morning and both me and my spouse our account are both overdraft of 119 and his 412. We have been ripped off. I went through all my transactions and they have been taking money out of my account. I’m getting complete runaround. Do not deal with PC. I intended on getting a lawyer. I’m not paying that overdraft.

I opened a PC Financial bank account for the points originally. The worst experience of my life. Much like the other reviews I had a total of $500 in four months disappear from my account. Multiple calls to customer service, long wait times and still no resolution supervisors who don't return calls. No wonder they don't have a physical branch that you can access. The stress and frustration this company makes you feel is enough to wanna pull an Amber Heard on their desk.

How can you freeze my account for withdrawing money and after I confirm it was me? Then you say, "Well it takes 48 hours to unlock.." Here we are 6 days later and still no access to my finances or online banking... Spent hours on the phone waiting to speak to someone only for them to answer the call and then hangup several of times AND supervisors saying they will call me back and no one has. You guys are thieves and I hope you enjoy the letter you will receive from my lawyers, I will be paid out for every hour I go without being able to purchase food to eat or pay my automatic-payees, and the mental stress you have given me and my family. Enjoy!

TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE! On the phone, the representative actually swore at me. First, I had been waiting a long time to speak with someone, and when I did, a representative answered the phone. The agent misled me on the app because she didn't understand how it operated or where the prompts were located. I became irritated and requested to talk with a supervisor. When the supervisor answered the phone, he didn't care about my wait time or the fact that his representative didn't know how to navigate the app; instead, he yelled at me and swore.

I have been a client of PC Financial for at least 20 years. They lost CIBC and switched me over to Simplii but I kept my Mastercard. This past year I attempted a purchase on my Mastercard that was quite large. They declined it until I called to validate the purchase. Done, easy peasy. They did it again. This is twice in less than a year after over 20 years of loyalty. I texted valid, did not unlock it. I called but the rep could not unlock it. I called back the next day and no reps could unlock my account. They froze my credit card and my banking account! I couldn’t even log into my account! I couldn’t access any money for gas or basic necessities! They told me 3-5 business days! Add in a weekend and that’s a week with no access to any money? Because a supervisor wasn’t available? That’s crazy!

My father passed away and had a World Elite Master Card with them. I have had to call them three times regarding the balance, each time I have waited 2 hours on hold. One rep told me that the balance was insured and no one (not even the estate) was responsible for paying the balance. I then received a balance owing letter in the mail and found out that what this rep told me was apparently incorrect.. I've had enough sadness and stress dealing with my father's death and being told I didn't have to worry about the balance and then being told I was, is incredibly unprofessional and stressful.

The online services like statement access were disrupted for 2 days. Called the customer service 4 times in two days due to urgency. Spend 4 hours on queue in total. Customer service representatives were helpless. I was told that services would resume the first day and then someone would call me on the second day but nothing happened. They just put me back in the to talk a specialist. Their services are so slow and the third party company that handles customer service couldn't be of any help. We can't reach the PC Financial directly either.

I signed up for a new PC Financial Mastercard and when I tried to link my Mastercard with a new PC Optimum card there was already a card linked to it automatically which did not belong to me or anyone I know. When I called the customer care, they had no clear response to my issue and would hung up after putting the call on hold. I have already called them more than 7 times and it's been approximately 3 weeks and they haven't been able to solve this issue. I HATE the PC Optimum Customer Service.

I’ve been with them for 5 yrs and it’s always 30min to an hour+ waiting time and issues don’t get resolved the first call so you have to call and wait AGAIN! I’m trying to cancel atm and I’m still waiting 1hr + and counting! I hate this company. So shady.

Sent 2 emails over the course of a month to address a balance inquiry with no reply. Finally attempted to call customer service (after I finally located a number to call) and spent over an hour on hold. Finally gave up and hung up. Not worth it. There are better programs out there.

It takes more than an hour to talk with someone. The security department, they don't care about you are as customer, they asked me 3 times to send them an approve ID and I sent it for 3 times. Now, already 2 weeks, I received my card but it's not activated and I have to wait for them for release. Note: I will cancel this credit card and never re.

MasterCard charged me a service account for transferring my auto payment to another bank account. 12 emails and 5 phone calls - Put on hold for over an hour just to be to disconnected. Worst company ever. My VISA was brilliant with my change and answered my call within minutes. My suggestion is to only use your VISA card. Katie 1, Wayne 2, Daphione 5, Michelle 1, Darryle 1 _ number of time these people sent me the same email, however they never called me to solve the problem.

I have been a customer for many years and never had any issues. This past year, it has almost been impossible to get help and resolve very simple issues. Every time I call, I am waiting for minimum 1 hour and 20 mins, the longest I waited was 2 hours and 33 minutes. This is not acceptable, especially for such simple things that I cannot get assistance with on the app or online. If the wait is going to be so long, they should put a system in place that allows customers to wait in queue and get a call when a customer service representative is ready.