Overview

You can deposit physical cheques and bank drafts into any of your chequing accounts using your phone's camera.

How to deposit a cheque or bank draft

Follow these steps to deposit a cheque or bank draft:

1. Log in to the Wealthsimple app
2. Tap the Move tab at the bottom of your screen
3. Scroll down to Branch services
4. Tap Deposit cheque
5. Tap Take photos
6. Take a photo of the front and back of your cheque or bank draft
7. Enter the amount of the cheque or bank draft
8. Select the account to deposit the cheque or bank draft into
9. Tap Next
10. Confirm the details of your deposit
11. Tap Deposit cheque

Processing timelines

Amounts within your unique instant deposit limit are available to immediately spend, send, and transfer. Any remaining amounts will take 4–8 business days to settle before you can use the funds. The remaining amount will be pending during these 4–8 days, and you won't have access to these funds.

In your activity feed, the deposit will remain in an In Progress state until the 4–8 day hold completes. We'll notify you when the cheque or bank draft deposit is complete and your funds are available to use.

Limitations

Please consider the limitations below when depositing a physical cheque or bank draft:

• We only support cheque and bank draft deposits from Canadian financial institutions.
• Deposits take 4–8 business days to settle.
• Physical cheques and bank drafts don't count toward the 0.5% direct deposit boost.
• We don't support depositing USD cheques or bank drafts.

• We may reject your government cheque. We can only accept some government cheques at this time.

  Tip: If you can't deposit your government cheque, consider setting up direct deposit with the CRA for next time.

Reasons your cheque or bank draft could be rejected

If your cheque or bank draft deposit is rejected or reversed, we'll send you an email to let you know. In your activity feed, it will reflect the current status, as well as a possible reason that it was rejected. Some possible rejection reasons include:

• Invalid currency.
• The cheque or bank draft image is missing or isn't clear.
• The amount didn't match.
• The cheque or bank draft was already deposited.
• Non-sufficient funds (NSF) from the sender.
• Stale-dated (older than 6 months).
• Payment stopped/cancelled.
• The sending account is closed.
• The sending institution is unable to process for another reason.

If none of these reasons seem right, please try to deposit it again, ensuring the cheque or bank draft is flat, well-lit, all corners are visible, and all details are legible.

If you still get an error, please contact our support team or contact the person or company who wrote the cheque or bank draft for a replacement or alternative method of payment.

Frequently asked questions