We are with the TD Bank and have been ever since we came to Canada. I keep threatening to move all our stuff, but basically I am just too damn lazy to do it and can't be bothered with all the hassle.
One thing though that drives me crazy are the bloody bank fees. It's around $15 a month if you go over a set amount of transactions which I always do. So one way of getting around that is that you have to have a minimum balance of $3,500 in your chequing account to defer those fees. Although it annoys the heck out of me, I know I cannot make over $15 in interest a month in a savings account with that money, so moved money into our chequing account so I don't pay the service charges.
$3,500 is an odd number to me, so I have $4,000 in there and just "forget" about it. When I balance my cheque book it's minus the $4,000 as it doesn't exist in my cheque book. I also make sure I have nothing less than $100 in our chequing account. If it falls down to $100 in my mind we have no money.
We have only ever been overdrawn once and it was a cheque we had made out to the Government for our citizenship application, and back in the day, when the banks weren't open all hours I figured it wouldn't be processed for an extra day, but it was. Luckily we had money in our savings account and they moved the money over from there for us but they charged us a fee for doing it.
By "forgetting/pretending" that $4,000 doesn't exist and mentally telling myself that we CANNOT go down below that $100 balance in the chequing account we should never ever have service charges.
Do you have a trick that you use so you don't have service charges?
I have discovered some new to me authors and when I order the books from the library you won't be hearing nothing from me as I'll have my nose in a book.
I have read four of Maggie Sefton's books so far and they are good. Here is a link to her site. I have been reading the Kelly Flynn series, which is set around a knitting store. The books feature both knitting patterns and recipes.
I can't wait to order books by the author Laura Childs. Here is a link to her site. I'll be honest I am not sure which series to start with. The Tea Shop Mysteries seem to be calling my name? Plus they are set in Charleston, South Carolina which is a place I love.
Monica Ferris books also look like my type of book. Check out her site here.
Last but not least Earlene Fowler books have a quilting theme about them. Here is a link to her site.
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23 comments:
I understand why you feel annoyed! These rules are crazy! I had times when I only had $100 in my account altogether, lol. Are all the banks in Canada like this?! The minimum we have with our bank here in the US is $25 :)
We had the same problem with bank fees here. There were fees for this and fees for that. I had a monthly account keeping fee. What account keeping? So I marched into the bank and told them that the bank up the road was offering no account keeping fees and if they couldn't match it, I would be moving my account forthwith! Guess what? I now have no account keeping fees and I didn't have to move banks.
I am of the same mentality as you Gill, would "pretend" it doesn't exist. We are with the RBC and I believe it is just under $15. a month S/C with unlimited transactions in our chequing acct. That is after a $4.00 CR is applied since we have 3 services with the RBC. They always get you coming or going no matter which way you look at it.
I do the exact same thing with my accounts!
With their recent history the banks should be hanging their heads and falling over backwards to help us in the recession they created.
Ahh - you have found some of my favorite authors. Start with Child's tea shop mysteries - they are great (a bit better than the scrapbook ones). Enjoy
Go to PC and open an account. No service fees even for checks. Anniversary bonuses and all. Your money grows. or get a Tax free account. You can remove money from it without getting hit by fees.
my daughter uses PC Financial - i'm going to be looking into it. Couple of my favourite authors these days are: Kate Moreton and Susanna Kearsley. Loved "Mark of the Lion" series by Francine Rivers too.
I say go through the hassle of moving accounts, that's just crazy paying fees like that, I have completely free banking, as it should be. You can always call the bank and threaten to move unless they give you free banking.
I know it's a pain, but I would change banks, I refuse to give them my money for free!
I've been with PC since the 90's and love it. I've never had a service fee. And with their PC master card(I use it like cash and pay every month)I earn PC points for groceries even faster. I would never use a bank that holds my money hostage just to offer no fees.
Funny thing...you are the first person I have heard do this with having money 'that isn't even there' in your checking account. I have done that for years. To avoid those fees.
With our bank, it is not number of transactions, but if we go below $500 in our checking account.
Here for a while in the states, they were thinking about charging something for each transaction...but none of the banks in our immediate area did that.
Are you or your partner over 60 Gill? You don't need to answer that here!
Just want you to know that most banks in Canada waive fees for over 60s! If you are, check with your bank. When I looked into it, my bank even refunded all fees i'd paid since my 60th birthday!
Another author with a Quilting Theme is Jennifer Chiaverenni. I LOVE her books. Many quilt shops sell them along side the fabrics and thread.
I have a current account with one bank where I just keep about £100 in it to pay for online purchase. No limit to the transactions. Don't think we have that problem with current account fees here in the UK. It seems daft.
We have a oint current account i another bank where we pay a monthly fee & we get lots of freebies such as free travel & mobile phone insurance, free RAC membership and loads more stuff.
The banks here do seem to be bending over backwards with incentives and support to help us transfer our accounts over to them with minimum effort. Amazing that banks differ so much across the world in the services they offer.
We have the same thing, and you're right... we can make up enough in interest to pay those banking fees. I just bumped up our "minimum" to $3000 and now have unlimited transactions. I was told I could have 10,000 transactions a month with no fees, so i'm counting on that! lol! I had $2500 in our last acct, but like you, it's such an "odd" number to deal with that I bumped up as well. Just easier this way.. and it's a nice emergency tucked aside just in case. We have a 'slush' fund that we use for our "other" stuff that has no fees only if we move that money over to our main account first.
You keep books just like my hubby! Very familiar with hidden money!
Another TD victim here! The husband's paycheque goes in. I do the $2500 thing and get a whopping 25 transactions a month without charge.
It frosts my cornflakes that transfers between accounts are seen as a transaction!
He's 60 next year!! Free banking
Gill, the only trick is --- getting old----seniors do not pay for the transactions. LOL
Patricia
That's a great tip for checking account fees, I really need to do that, I am notoriously bad with my record keeping and am prone to overcharge fees, and the regular service fees add up too. I saw the tea shop mystery books a couple weeks back and they look really interesting, the knitting shop one sounds fun as well, I love a good mystery novel. :)
I know banks are making plenty of money; they do here in United States. I don't know if there credit union in your area or not.
If you have to keep $3,500 in the bank here...the people I help out lot of them get less then $800 a month and look like they'd be up a creek with a paddle.
I think the only people who win are those running the banks. Enjoy your reading :)
seems like somebody is always trying to dig in our pockets when we are not looking right?? The books you have picked out sound great. As cold as it is you need to treat yourself to a good book and a warm fire
Our trick was to close our bank accounts and open accounts at Credit Unions. The difference has been immense. We even kept a "free" chequing account at PC -- it is far from free with highly inflated fees for everything else to make up for the service charges, it easily cost more than a $15/month account anywhere else. Our interest rates are higher at the Credit Union and the customer service is PHENOMENAL! Can you imagine a personal phone call to let you know that a check arrived out of order (darn checks to schools -- they hold onto them forever) and would bring our balance dangerously low? Yes, they do that! Having worked in banking, I know that the banks treat wealthy customers with high regard and the poorest one with the lowest regard. Fees are waived completely for people holding accounts containing over $200,000 (they include loans) - so bounce a check, no fee; over draw daily after that bounced check; no fee, no service fees for anything. It's disgusting really when you see someone who lives paycheck to paycheck make a simple 25 cent accounting error that ends up costing them $500 (bounce fees and daily overdraft fees add up VERY fast). So, I won't ever go back to the banks.
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