CIBC Hold Policy

Check your account details by following these simple steps:

• Sign on to CIBC Online Banking®, select “My Accounts.” Here, you will find a list of your accounts along with the balances of each one. If you want more details, including a list of transactions, select the account you want to check the Balance and Available Funds.
• Sign on to your CIBC Mobile Banking® App, select “My Accounts” to display your most recent transactions. Under the Available funds section, you can check your Balance and Funds on Hold. 

Learn more about how to check your balance.

When you make a deposit to your personal deposit account(s), a fixed waiting period may apply before all the funds are made available to you.  Your funds could also be on hold because of a recent deposit that exceeds your Access to Deposited Funds Limit.

Your Access to Deposited Funds Limit is the amount of funds available to you right away when you make a deposit. This limit is set when the account is opened. You may apply for an increase to your Access to Deposited Funds Limit by contacting us.

A hold may apply to deposits made by cheque, certified cheque, bank draft, money order, or other instruments.

Typically, cash or funds from direct deposits (such as payroll direct deposits), Interac e-Transfer® transactions, electronic transfer of funds (EFT), and Government of Canada cheques up to $1,750 deposited and validated at the banking centre are not placed on hold.

The length of the hold period for cheques deposited, depends on the currency, amount and other factors.

• For more details, refer to the Personal Account Service Fees brochure (PDF, 210 KB) Opens a new window.
• To learn about a specific hold period on a deposit, contact us.

We may extend the hold periods in some circumstances, including (but not limited to) where:

• CIBC has reasonable grounds to believe that the deposit is being made for illegal or fraudulent purposes in relation to an account. Learn about how to protect your bank account from cheque fraud
• An account has been open for less than 90 days
• Deposited instrument is stale-dated (which means the cheque is dated more than 6 months)
• The cheque:
  • Is not encoded with magnetic ink character recognition or is not readable by operational systems (for example, if damaged or mutilated)
  • Has been endorsed more than once
  • Is deposited six months or more after the date of the cheque

The hold period under these circumstances is estimated to be a minimum of 30 business days and could be longer for non-CDN$ cheques drawn on a financial institution located outside of Canada.

• CIBC eDeposit® 
  • How to deposit a cheque using CIBC eDeposit
  • How to deposit a cheque online
• Banking centre
• ATM

eDeposits up to a limit of $250,000 per deposit can be used for:

• CAD cheques drawn on Canadian banks
• Bank money orders 
• Bank drafts
• Convenience cheques (for one-time, non recurring payments)
• Certified cheques

• Set up direct deposits
  • Direct deposit is when money is automatically deposited into your account.
• Request funds through Interac e-Transfer
  • With Interac e-Transfer, you can request to automatically receive money using an email address or mobile phone number.
• Confirm the cheque is not post-dated or future dated before depositing the item into your account.
• Verify the payee name(s) on the cheque before depositing:
  • The payee name(s) on the cheque should match the name(s) on the account receiving the deposit.
  • If the payee name(s) does not match the name(s) on the account:
    • Ask if you can get the cheque in the same name(s) on the account; or
    • Receive a direct deposit or funds through Interac e-Transfer or,
    • Open a joint account with the same names as the payee(s) on the cheque.
• Learn how to protect your bank account from cheque fraud
• For cashing rules on Government of Canada cheques, refer to the Personal Account Service Fees brochure (PDF, 210 KB) Opens a new window.. CIBC will cash Government of Canada Cheques for up to $1,750, without charge. Once you provide the minimum identification requirements in person.