Sutori - Stories Tagged With 'bank'

It Pays to Save

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 09:08:03 -0700

I never thought I would say this but I became an advocate for PC Financial. After many years with Bank of Montreal, I became frustrated with their transaction fees. I get charged $5 per month for transaction fees like Interac, which is my preferred method of payment. On top of that, I only get pennies worth of interest for putting money into the bank in which BOM is using to make more money for themselves. So with the advice of my sister, I opened up an account in PC Financial. My sister was raving about how she gets more interest from PC than other banks and that she doesn’t have to pay for service charges. Initially I had my doubts because why would a supermarket venture out into finance? It didn’t make sense to me but I tried it anyways because I wasn’t getting any good service from BOM. After I signed up, it was the best thing that happened to me financially. I see the interest rolling in. I didn’t have to pay for any transaction fees at all. It was convenient because I didn't have to go to Superstore for the ATM machine. I could use CIBC's ATM machines as well. I was actually rewarded for putting money into the bank! Because I was so satisfied, I got a MasterCard from PC financial as well. Now I collect points and every $2000 I use on my credit card, I get $20 worth of groceries. Sweet! So, from then on, I’ve been telling my friends to open an account at PC. They were amazed when I tell them how much interest they can make. They couldn’t believe it. I guess WOM marketing does work because I opened it on the advice of my sister and I've been telling my friends about it. So companies, start treating us better!

It Pays to Save

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 09:08:03 -0700

ING Direct: sticking it to the monster banks

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:56:38 -0700

I have a secret. A virtual mattress, under which I stash virtual money. Money that's hidden from the evil financial pricks at the monster banks (Royal Bank, in my particular case).

I've been a Royal customer since I was about 12. Far from a high-roller, I've got at least a respectable number of years of active clienthood under my belt, from basic savings to credit cards and RSPs.

Here's the thing. They don't know me. They don't need me. They simultaneously ignore and harass me. When I went to them for a mortgage, I think I heard one of them snort under his breath.

They send me, my cat, my cat's fleas and my cat's butt-dreadlocks offers for $50,000 gold Mastercards. They call us during suppertime. But can I reach my local branch to talk to someone when I need to? Frig no. "Of course not," they say, incredulous.

I haven't defected yet. I will once the mortgage is required. In the meantime, I've become addicted to ING Direct, the online bank. You can have an account open in a matter of moments, with no fees, decent interest and - the best f*&*&ing part - no junkmail and telemarketing calls. Open as many accounts as you want - personal, business, whatever.

It's easy. It feels good - both to pay oneself (to save) and to take a teensy piece of the pie away from the monster banks.

I really do mean teensy, but it matters to me just the same.

ING Does the right thing

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 16:03:37 -0700

ING's mortgages are hassle-free--they approve you right on the phone, and they guarantee your closing costs.

I refinanced my condo last year just before going overseas. When I left, everything was set to close within the month.

Because ING couldn't get their act together in closing, there was a two-month delay in closing. This meant the interest rate on my loan jumped 0.5%. So when I got back from overseas, I called, explained the situation, and asked them to restore the loan to its original interest rate. 30 minutes later, I got a call back, and they agreed to lower my loan's rate to the originally quoted rate.

There was no negotiation, and no requirement for me to escalate to a manager's manager's manager to get approval. The whole experience probably took five minutes of my time, and it really underscored the essence of providing a good customer experience--people are willing to tolerate mistakes, if the mistake is rectified in a satisfactory manner. In this case, ING made me happy that I was a customer of a bank that was willing to do the right thing. Even though it might cost them in the short term, as a long-term strategy, this was the right thing to do. After all, how often do you hear people raving about their bank?

Friendly no-fee banking

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 11:21:46 -0700

My first bank account was a VanCity Fat Cat account back in the '80s, and I continued to bank there until just a few years ago when PC Financial and ING began leading the no-fee banking movement. I liked the way VanCity marketed itself, but I found the actual experience of banking there less than satisfactory.

Today I'm with Coast Capital Savings, whose marketing is easily as good as VanCity's and whose policies and customer service are infinitely better. I pay no fees to access my money, and for the first time I actually like going into the bank. I don't know if their business banking is as good, but I've been very impressed with their personal banking.

VanCity, Why Do You Spite Me So?

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:36:15 -0700

A few months ago, we moved our business accounts over from the Royal Bank to VanCity. We had lousy customer service from the Royal, and had received several recommendations for VanCity. Also, they've got all kinds of feel-good projects on the go, and made me sign something that said I wouldn't use their business banking services to sell plutonium. What more could you ask for?

In our initial meeting with VanCity, we clearly articulated a particular requirement we had regarding international wire transfers. We receive three to five of these each month. We wanted to be notified with email or snail mail describing the particular details of each transaction. This had been one of many pain points at the Royal Bank, but the Royal eventually agreed to send us a notification in the mail each time a transfer came in.

We were very specific about this requirement, and our 'Financial Services Officer' at VanCity confirmed that they would be able to replicate this process.

The VanCity representative made an error. As it turns out, VanCity can only offer this service at a rate of $25 per transaction. That works out to about $1000 a year in fees. Nice.

They only notified us of this error after we had:

Opened an account with them
Advised our clients of our new banking details
Banked with them for a few months
Received several wire transfers

Everybody makes mistakes. This mistake, unfortunately, will force us to change banks yet again and to suffer all the pain that entails. This mistake comes in the first three months of banking with an institution that prides itself on customer service. This mistake is the reason I pay service fees. So that mistakes like this don't happen.

In short, VanCity screwed up once, but they screwed up big time. To their credit, they did apologize profusely and reverse all the service fees we incurred during our brief time with them.

North Shore Credit Union giving away $1M dollars

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 11:18:37 -0700

North Shore Credit Union (www.nscu.com) is giving a $1 million gift to a worthy non-profit organization in spring 2007 to a charity for a major project that supports the physical, environmental or financial wellness of one of the local communities the credit union serves - the North Shore, downtown Vancouver, Burnaby, Squamish, Whistler or Pemberton. This is just part of NSCU's committment to corporate giving and community support which also includes it's committment to give 1% of pre-tax profits as an Imagine company (www.imagine.com).

If you work, volunteer or know of a organization that fits the criteria or would be interested, they can find more information at www.nscu.com/onemillion

Disclosure: I work for North Shore Credit Union but want to make more aware of their efforts. As an employee and member of the credit union I think this is great.

For the love of the smalltown Scotiabank

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:47:47 -0800

I finally did it. I've defected from the faceless, arrogant, blind-as-a-bat monster-giant (Royal Bank) in favour of Scotiabank - chosen initially because there's a lovely, old branch in the village near where we live.

It's amazing. I walk in and the tellers all say hello, and ask how my son is doing like they really mean it. They all know our names. My account manager and financial consultant comes out of his office to shake my hand and chat, every time. Even the tellers call me at home, to let me know that they took the liberty of fast-tracking an American-funds cheque (usually held for three weeks) that I deposited the day before.

Is it Scotiabank? Or is it small-town living? My guess is 30-70. But I like the Scotia brand, how they seem to talk to me as an equal and not from an elevated stature. I was tired of the arrogance and assumptions of the Royal Bank, who after more than twenty years had no idea (and no care) of who I was or what I might need. All they ever did was raise my credit card and credit line limits without telling me, time and time again, after me requesting that they don't, time and time again. And send me enough irrelevant junk mail to keep the home fires burning for a freaking century.

It's just so refreshing to have a bank that knows who I am, and that cares about me and my life, and that steps in and offers to help make it easier in ways I hadn't even considered. It's a great feeling, the sense that someone who knows what they're doing is looking out for you financially.

Hats of to Scotiabank - at the very least, for hiring such gosh-darned nice people.

That was fast.

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:16:20 -0700

I usually find dealing with the bureaucracy of Lloyds hard work and their recent decision to refuse to give receipts for deposits made in branch had lowered my opinion of the company.

However, this week, I messed up and lost my debit card between buying lunch on Wednesday and heading out that evening.

I called and cancelled the card straight away and requested a replacement. I was delighted when the replacement card arrived this morning, just two working days later. Well done Lloyds.

Now about your call centres...

TD Canada Trust is the worst bank ever.

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:28:48 -0700

i’ll preface this with the fact that the tellers of TD Canada Trust have always been amazingly pleasant and helpful.
unfortunately it ends there. the mortgage department in particular, are the most horrible, inexperienced and EVIL people i’ve ever had to deal with. i’ve been a TD customer for almost 20 years, and at one point i had a dozen different accounts/services with them (i’ve since closed all my accounts with them except my mortgage). i’ve even had another mortgage with them (which was almost equally as painful to setup, a few years ago).

my wife and i bought a new place about a month ago. we received confirmation from TD that we were approved to buy it, so we removed all subjects and the offer was accepted. which was great. TD said, in writing, we were approved for the amount, based on our finances. two days before closing though, TD started to demand information, like tax papers, employment records, etc – all standard stuff, so we obliged, wondering a little why it was so late. and then started requesting more information from us, which we gave them, and then more. so for two days, they would tell us they only need “x” piece of information then the mortgage would be set.

so we’d give it to them, and then 5 minutes later they’d request more information. this went back and forth around 15-20 times, including re-requesting information we had just given them and requested more and more ludicrous information from us.

our broker was even flabbergasted, as she used to be a TD employee – she couldn’t understand what was going on.
then TD requested more money for the down-payment. and not just a bit more, well into 5 figures more. which was required within a couple hours of them requesting it (i.e. that business day) or the mortgage was going to fall through.

at this point our lawyer was involved to sign all the papers and write things up. he was flabbergasted too. he does mortgages all the time, but couldn’t believe what they were requested or how much they wanted from us to close. TD even changed the interest rate FOUR times on us, raising it slightly every time they gave us documents to sign. which, we had to fight, each time.

we didn’t have a choice as that point though, since closing was only a day (or on the last day, hours) away. so we didn’t have time to get a mortgage elsewhere.

finally, mere hours before the deal was set to close things were finalized… costing a lot of money, and taking 2 full days of our time.

fast forward a month to now. the place is great, TD are still messing up as they haven’t taken any mortgage payments out yet. now, i take some responsibility for not checking my personal bank account and realizing they hadn’t taken any mortgage payments out. i don’t go into that account and look at the balance – i just mentally keep tabs on what i’ve gone in it, assuming money comes out when it’s automatically supposed to.

no one from TD contacted us to let us know we owed them a few payments. now, you might be thinking, way to go, you might have had a free place! but TD isn’t like that. they would have realized a year from now, and charged us an insane amount in interest and penalties… so i decided to deal with it now. i called all morning to the TD branch the mortgage is through, and got no answer. so i walked to the branch. there was no one available to talk about the problem, nor would anyone be in during the day to. someone is in tomorrow, but their fully booked. next week looked better to to setup an appointment. no thanks.

***

so, TD, fuck you. i’m glad i closed all my accounts, and as soon as our mortgage agreement is up in 2 years, i’m taking that elsewhere too. and i hope anyone reading this will reconsider you as a bank they want to do business with. i realize my money pales in comparison to the billions you make, but maybe if a lot of your small clients take action you might notice. and maybe if your customer service rep’s had even asked why i closed my accounts, funds, etc, you might realize there are huge problems in your corporation.