Banks and Humor
The National Film Board of Canada has opened up their vaults to the web and I couldn’t be happier. I grew up in Montreal very near by the NFB offices and it feels like I grew up watching NFB films, so I have been wasting many an hour watching some wonderful shorts and full length movies.
Better Dividends, Presidential Races, Elections and Friday #Shoutouts
My what a busy week behind and ahead of us, with a lovely long weekend in between (and it is back to school too).
As a Bank shareholder glad to hear a few of them (BMO) will be raising their dividend pay outs. I am not complaining I have enjoyed holding these shares, and having the dividend increase makes my DRiP that much happier, but it has been a while since they up’ed their dividends. RBC announced record earnings for their 3rd quarter andScotiabank is now going to buy the assets of ING Canada, wow, those are some busy banks. How do they make so much money, oh I forgot, they gouge me with service fees, never mind.
Rates remain down (for now)
Our friends at the Bank of Canada Tuesday continued to keep interest rates down, but again the media is thinking that this may not last much longer.
I believe that the following paragraph would be the one that has the pundits buzzing:
Reflecting all of these factors, the Bank has decided to maintain the target for the overnight rate at 1 per cent.
Banks and Odd Happenings
On Saturday I went into my local TDbranch to deposit a cheque, which my wife had endorsed (it was a larger cheque, so I figured it would be easier if she endorsed it and then I could deposit it, without problems (although the account it was going into was a joint account, so what I was worried about, I have no idea)).
Toronto Dominion Bank Bungles Another One
As my regular readers know, I complain about TD very often, since they are my bank of choice (for now), and I am also a shareholder, and I must again pull out this topic.
Today I received confirmation from TD Waterhouse that my new RRSP account had in fact been created (I actually did this last week in a TD Branch). The documentation included with the confirmation package said, I needed to send in proof of identification, if I hadn’t already to activate the account (I had to re-read that to figure it out), which annoyed me, but I let that one slide (I had my license copied enough times in the branch). So I am assuming my account has been set up (this might bite me later).
Sunday Banking and Catsup?
To cap this fun story off, I noticed sitting on her reception area, was a bottle of Heinz Tomato Sauce. After I had asked about the Sunday Banking, I then asked, what is with the bottle? Her response is a great piece of guerilla marketing by someone:
“… it is to remind you to Ketchup on your RRSP’s this season…”
The Cost of Cheques
I may have a free chequingaccount, in that I am not charged for the use of cheques on my bank account (even though I am charged $13.95 a month in service fees, but let’s not quite go there today), however to get cheques to write for this very account, I must pay about $40.
I had a long ranting post about this topic, which I am sure by now will sound very hum drum to my loyal readers, so I decided to draw you a picture (yes I am branching out to MultiMedia), to show you just how silly the process is (yes that is my handwriting):
Banks hooking Canadians on credit, Gail Vaz-Oxlade says
Gail Vaz-Oxlade is, in her words, “seriously pissed.” The author of the best-selling Debt-Free Forever and host of the popular TV show Til Debt Do Us Part is on the warpath against what she calls “irresponsible” lending practices of banks — those financially robust institutions that are behind the tens of millions of credit cards we Canadians now hold.
