On March 21st, I was supposed to have my pay automatically deposited into my Alterna account (I get paid every second Friday). However, since it was Good Friday, my employer (a large charitable organization with hundreds employees across the country) and our payroll company, Ceredian, deposited the pay into everyone's account on Thursday at midnight.
My plan on Good Friday was to prepare an Easter dinner for two senior ladies in my apartment building (who each live alone) and I went early to Highland Farms, which was open that day (taking two buses) with my bundle buggie to purchase the food. Imagine my surprise when I used my debit card and the message read "insufficient funds". I went home with nothing.
When I got home and checked my account through telephone banking, I had less than $10 in my account. Fortunately the ladies took it in good faith and we shared tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches together on Good Friday.
On Saturday, I was at my branch (at Danforth and Coxwell in Toronto) when it opened and was informed by Alterna's employee that there were no payments pending to my account, and that the problem lay with my employer and Ceredian, not Alterna. To cover cheques I knew were coming in, I took $500 out of my RRSP to cover them, since I did not know what was wrong. When I got home, I left urgent messages for our Ceredian representative and our HR person at work.
On Monday morning at 9:00, I checked my balance online to find that my pay was in the account and that instead of the $500 I requested to be transferred from my RRSP, $450 was in the account and I had been charged an additional $25, though Alterna's employee never mentioned a fee while I was doing the paperwork on Saturday. I also spoke with our HR person and Ceredian who told me that every other bank puts through the pay the day before a holiday but Alterna seems to have a recurring problem of NOT putting the pay in until the next business day... even though it is an automatic transaction. Ceredian has faced this before and unfortunately, this is still happening.
If this is a recurring problem why has Alterna not addressed this issue?
Why did the Alterna employee lie to me and say that it had nothing to do with Alterna?
If I had known that my pay was forthcoming, I would not have taken money out of my RRSP and been penalized $50 in taxes. I have lost money because of Alterna's incompetance and find this whole situation inexcusable.
According to my calculations, Boxing Day falls on one of my pay days (Christmas being on Thursday, Boxing Day on the Friday). Unless I have some assurance that this problem has been rectified, I will have closed my account with Alterna and transferred my RRSP contributions to another banking institution.
Terri
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
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