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Email this12:55 am
December 4, 2016
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https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/canadians-paying-billions-dollars-excess-183201954.html
The reason I do not use the big 5 banks. Fees are annoying.
Lots of fees in large credit unions as well. I was at Implicity and that transformed into Outlook. Wham a page full of fees to read about. Like a field of land mines trying to avoid fees.
Most account holders likely do not care or are unaware to the extent fees are taken off.
Specific things I have seen with fees:
1. I get emails every few years about fee increases. So annoying. There are rarely fee decreases in the long list of increases.
2. I really do not like the addition of inactivity fees that had an uptick a few years back. The banks and credit unions keep finding ways to extract more and more.
They are greedy and nothing really is there to stop them. They can just charge what they want it seems. Once a bank offers really good rates and customer experiences the Big 5 try to take them over. Swallow the competition. Increase fees and destroy customer friendly features that made the bank what it was. Like Tangerine being taken over by Scotia Bank. Implicity taken over by Outlook. Take away the simpleness of having a no fee or low fee bank.
Maybe make it so bigger banks and credit unions can’t just take over smaller ones that are competitive. Take away all the features that challenged the banking system we know. The features that drew more and more people to it.
Let the smaller banks and credit unions become big. See if people still bank with the banks and credit unions that charge larger and larger fees on more and more things.
The article is okay. Just got me wanting to post my opinion on the matter of fees at Canadian Banks and Canadian Credit Unions.
4:27 am
March 30, 2017
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Banks are there to make money. Banks pay corporate tax and their employees pay income tax too.
Banks are less greedy than restaurants that jack up their rates to the moon past couple of years, claiming inflation blah blah.
Yes there is food inflation for sure, but not 30-50% (of total bill) and food / raw material cost is less than 30% of the total cost (fixed and variable) of a meal (good frd is a restaurant owner for years). And he said MOST restaurants have 2 sets of book, one for CRA, one for…
4:33 am
April 27, 2017
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Its not about “greed”. Businesses have an obligation to maximize profits for shareholders.
The problem with Canadian banking system is that its an oligopoly which has outsized lobbying power and limits competition. So we get poor service and weird charges which don’t even exist in jurisdictions with competitive banking systems.
Restaurants have to compete. IMHO, Canadian restaurants are very good, and provide good value.
5:44 am
September 11, 2013
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No-one has ever been able to explain to me how a corporation, a legal entity, can have a human attribute like "greed". Or are they talking about the people who happen to work there that day, they hire and retain just greedy people? Or the shareholders, e.g. the older folks enjoying their dividend income, our public and private pension funds, etc, just happen to be comprised of all greedy people? Who is it that's greedy?
And I've noticed everybody wants to make as much as they can, at their jobs, on their gics and savings accounts, their investments, etc, so I've never really understood this idea of corporate greed, maybe just projection of one's own greed onto others, I don't know.
To me the Canadian banking system, with all its flaws, is a pillar of our economy and society, quite happy with it. And I've never, ever paid fees, just keep minimum required balance in the accounts in question.
6:24 am
February 7, 2019
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savemoresaveoften said
Banks are there to make money. Banks pay corporate tax and their employees pay income tax too.Banks are less greedy than restaurants that jack up their rates to the moon past couple of years, claiming inflation blah blah.
Yes there is food inflation for sure, but not 30-50% (of total bill) and food / raw material cost is less than 30% of the total cost (fixed and variable) of a meal (good frd is a restaurant owner for years). And he said MOST restaurants have 2 sets of book, one for CRA, one for…
You may have heard that residential rents are up; so are commercial rates. Also, labour became scarce during the pandemic and remained scarce since; so restaurants are having to increase wages.
| CGO |
6:26 am
February 7, 2019
Offline
User230 said
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/canadians-paying-billions-dollars-excess-183201954.htmlThe reason I do not use the big 5 banks. Fees are annoying.
Lots of fees in large credit unions as well. I was at Implicity and that transformed into Outlook. Wham a page full of fees to read about. Like a field of land mines trying to avoid fees.
Most account holders likely do not care or are unaware to the extent fees are taken off.
Specific things I have seen with fees:
1. I get emails every few years about fee increases. So annoying. There are rarely fee decreases in the long list of increases.
2. I really do not like the addition of inactivity fees that had an uptick a few years back. The banks and credit unions keep finding ways to extract more and more.
They are greedy and nothing really is there to stop them. They can just charge what they want it seems. Once a bank offers really good rates and customer experiences the Big 5 try to take them over. Swallow the competition. Increase fees and destroy customer friendly features that made the bank what it was. Like Tangerine being taken over by Scotia Bank. Implicity taken over by Outlook. Take away the simpleness of having a no fee or low fee bank.
Maybe make it so bigger banks and credit unions can’t just take over smaller ones that are competitive. Take away all the features that challenged the banking system we know. The features that drew more and more people to it.
Let the smaller banks and credit unions become big. See if people still bank with the banks and credit unions that charge larger and larger fees on more and more things.
The article is okay. Just got me wanting to post my opinion on the matter of fees at Canadian Banks and Canadian Credit Unions.
Other than one or two certified cheques, we haven't paid bank fees for at least 20 years ...
| CGO |
6:31 am
November 8, 2018
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From that same article:
According to recent data from the Bank of Canada, roughly 57 per cent of Canadians either do not pay for a bank account or had their monthly fee waived or refunded.
If you read further, you'll find that one of the largest fees Canadian banks collect is NSF. If you ask me, large NSF fee is fair fee.
Also, the following statement from the article is misleading:
No-cost accounts are available to groups like young people, students and seniors, but the North Economics report notes there is no free option offered to all Canadians.
I am not going to call it a lie, only because someone might produce a single Canadian who couldn't get no-cost account, making above statement technically correct.
6:35 am
November 8, 2018
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savemoresaveoften said
Banks are less greedy than restaurants that jack up their rates to the moon past couple of years, claiming inflation blah blah.
Very true. Even when banks charge a fee, they don't slap additional 20 percent gratuity charge on top of it.
7:23 am
September 7, 2018
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Bill said
No-one has ever been able to explain to me how a corporation, a legal entity, can have a human attribute like "greed". Or are they talking about the people who happen to work there that day, they hire and retain just greedy people? Or the shareholders, e.g. the older folks enjoying their dividend income, our public and private pension funds, etc, just happen to be comprised of all greedy people? Who is it that's greedy?And I've noticed everybody wants to make as much as they can, at their jobs, on their gics and savings accounts, their investments, etc, so I've never really understood this idea of corporate greed, maybe just projection of one's own greed onto others, I don't know.
To me the Canadian banking system, with all its flaws, is a pillar of our economy and society, quite happy with it. And I've never, ever paid fees, just keep minimum required balance in the accounts in question.
I absolutely agree 100% …..and I do like my steady quarterly dividends from Canadian banks.
7:52 am
April 14, 2021
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Bill said
And I've never, ever paid fees, just keep minimum required balance in the accounts in question.
And giving the bank free use of your money for no interest is the same as having that fee charged upon your funds.
8:14 am
October 21, 2018
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Well said Bill. I've never paid a chequing account fee in over 50 years. Just keep the balance above the minimum folks. It's quite simple.
I'm happy to see the Candian banks make a profit, because I hold shares in all of them, and I love to see the dividends increase.
8:54 am
November 5, 2022
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Have serious mixed feelings, as the banks as Investments are really solid.
Also high fee accounts are there to shape human behavior and direct them to other accounts. And of course those who don't pay attention get charged those fees.
So as an Investor, you benefit.
As a consumer, if you are on the ball, you can generally avoid all of them.
9:45 am
January 12, 2019
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cgouimet said
Other than one or two certified cheques, we
haven't paid bank fees for at least 20 years ...
- 'Ditto' ⬆
If you're paying lots of bank fees, the Culprit is in the mirror.
'Caveat Emptor'
- Dean
" Live Long, Healthy ... And Prosper! "
10:22 am
October 13, 2023
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HermanH said
And giving the bank free use of your money for no interest is the same as having that fee charged upon your funds.
Which can be partially mitigated by the no interest paid on the free use of money on credit card charges. It somewhat balances out in the end.
10:23 am
November 5, 2022
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Was almost automatically transferred to an RBC account from HSBC, the account charges $5 for WTD and $1 for interac etc.
Cancelled it.
I have not paid a bank fee in many years, instead just make some pretty good money off the accounts. (and of course the bank makes even more).
I think the banks make those lousy accounts to encourage/push people into a package bundle account.
12:20 pm
March 30, 2017
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Never pay bank fees, paid credit card annual fee may be for a couple of years in the late 80s and 90s (AE has desk setup at the student center at UofT and sign up students for $30 a year fee, sais having a credit card is best way to build up credit history as the sales pitch).
Other than my chequing account balance that the bank can leverage off, they just unable to make money off me. On the cc, I got paid 2-3% on a card that has annual fee 100% reimbursed every year.
Banks are easy targets for haters, always has, always will.
1:48 pm
October 27, 2013
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savemoresaveoften said
Banks are easy targets for haters, always has, always will.
Yes, people would rather take aim at success rather than their own failings to take responsibility for their own actions (or lack thereof).
6:48 pm
February 7, 2019
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savemoresaveoften said Banks are easy targets for haters, always has, always will.
Anything better than us is bad it seems...
| CGO |
3:19 pm
November 18, 2017
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Bill: Corporations act on the basis of their officers, owners (if stockholders at all) and employees. As with all other corporate concepts, their greed comes from those who own or manage them.
We do indeed have a solid banking system, but it barely meets the qualifications for a free supply/demand market. And those minimum balances keep us from earning interest, as HermanH noted. Our regulators are basically captive to the big banks and media companies.
cgouimet and mordko: Restaurants do not increase wages much, if at all. they just diddle the sneaky compulsions to increase tips, which don't come out of restaurant bills, and then sneakily steal back those tips with "tip-out" policies.
Alexandre: Those "no-cost" accounts one hears of generally require a fee-bearing partner account to get money out of without massive fees. Why should anyone have to pay a fee to withdraw and then an ATM fee to boot?
We all remember when these fees did not exist, and how banks give themselves and other awards for coming up with new creative fees.
Aside from all that, Those other countries have not seen their banks suffer from regulation.
RetirEd
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