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Email this9:52 am
December 12, 2009
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Loonie said
I never thought of that "spying" aspect!
It sounds like a great reason to either not use debit and credit cards or to use ones offered by a different bank. (That is in fact what I do.)
I know that some old people think that they can't get a credit card from a bank other than the one where they have savings accounts.
LOL, yeah, at least the "spying" is not for nefarious purposes (unless selling you another product is a "nefarious purpose" 
). I'm glad you mentioned that some people think they have to have all their banking products from a single financial institution. I encountered that a lot in the bank, trying to get people to move their GICs or even day-to-day banking over to HSBC, and they'd say things like, "Oh, we bank with RBC - this is just a line of credit for some home renovations." If they like to bank at only place, why go to a separate bank to get an unsecured line of credit that RBC could've provided them at a comparable interest rate?
Cheers,
Doug
9:56 am
December 12, 2009
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mechone said
I don't have a problem with them closing branches ,they already have in Oshawa where I live ( 40 years at the same branch now closed).99% of my banking /stocks etc is done over net. What I do have a problem is and I phoned them and complained is access to cash , bank machines.
They have moved all branches out of the core , cancelled contract with esso and shoppers drug mart removing all machines and signed on with petro Canada. Problem being there are only a couple of Petro Canada stations on the outskirts of Oshawa, and a ton in Whitby. So now it's drive to another town to get cash or to an out of the way rbc.
The only time I need a branch is to deposit a cheque ,which is now out of the way.
My wife has the same issue with BNS and their machines.
This is also a problem for the elderly and the poor ,no way of getting to a branch or machine
Thanks, mechone, for your thoughts and for sharing your story. 
It sounds like RBC has maintained their Oshawa branch. Interestingly, HSBC, where I used to work, basically closed all their northern and southern Ontario branches, eliminating branches in each of Timmins, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Oshawa, Milton, and St. Catharines, in the past couple years. They're really focusing on that Toronto/Ottawa corridor.
At any rate, I have no problem, either, with banks consolidating nearby branches into one, but the issue that concerns me is when the "last bank in town" closes and there's no inter-city transit between towns/villages/hamlets. 🙁
Cheers,
Doug
12:27 pm
April 6, 2013
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Doug said
…
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess there's no branch in Fairy Glen (nearest village/hamlet), so the nearest branches would, presumably, be based in Tisdale (73 km from Gronlid, so quite a distance for someone without a car) and Melfort (33 km from Gronlid, less of a distance but still the equivalent of a drive from West Kelowna to Lake Country, roughly speaking).
…
Affinity Credit Union's online "advice centre" locator is poorly done. Can't enter in a location to search for a nearby "advice centre"!
It turns out there's no Affinity Credit Union branch in Tisdale. Nearest one to Gronlid is indeed in Melfort, about 30 km to the southwest. Google Maps estimates a 23 minute drive.
Gronlid's population density is quite low. According to Statistics Canada 2016 Census, Gronlid has a population of 74. About 60 of the 74 are age 15 or older.
12:35 pm
September 11, 2013
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Re the elderly: my Mom's in her 90s, has debit and credit cards for everything and never needs to go anywhere for cash - plus she can tell those errant adult grandchildren who visit her when they need something that sorry, no cash or cheques around here. The bank likes to see her once a year or so, though, to make sure she's still alive - guess they don't trust her kids to report when she dies.
12:58 pm
December 12, 2009
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Norman1 said
Doug said
…
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess there's no branch in Fairy Glen (nearest village/hamlet), so the nearest branches would, presumably, be based in Tisdale (73 km from Gronlid, so quite a distance for someone without a car) and Melfort (33 km from Gronlid, less of a distance but still the equivalent of a drive from West Kelowna to Lake Country, roughly speaking).
…Affinity Credit Union's online "advice centre" locator is poorly done. Can't enter in a location to search for a nearby "advice centre"!
It turns out there's no Affinity Credit Union branch in Tisdale. Nearest one to Gronlid is indeed in Melfort, about 30 km to the southwest. Google Maps estimates a 23 minute drive.
Gronlid's population density is quite low. According to Statistics Canada 2016 Census, Gronlid has a population of 74. About 60 of the 74 are age 15 or older.
Thanks, Norman. 74? Wow, that's even lower than I'd anticipated. I'm actually surprised they even had a credit union branch in their own. That also suggests less than 30 of that hamlet's population are of school age, so even their school building (looking at Google Street View) looks too big. Unfortunately, that's one of the downsides of rural living. Kudos to Affinity for giving it a go by keeping the branch open as long as they did. It sounds like, had that hamlet instead been a village with at least 500 people, they might've kept it open.
Cheers,
Doug
1:08 pm
December 12, 2009
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Bill said
Re the elderly: my Mom's in her 90s, has debit and credit cards for everything and never needs to go anywhere for cash - plus she can tell those errant adult grandchildren who visit her when they need something that sorry, no cash or cheques around here. The bank likes to see her once a year or so, though, to make sure she's still alive - guess they don't trust her kids to report when she dies.
Good for your mom, Bill, and that she's still alive and doing well. I always liked to see that when elderly folks wouldn't come in to the branch on "pension day" to get their month's worth of cash for their spending. If she does all of her banking either online, by telephone, and by credit/debit card and pre-authorized debits from her bank account, that's wonderful.
I especially liked it when I could convince a senior citizen to try online or telephone banking. In particular, one woman (who would probably be about your age, in her mid- to late-'70s) would always pay her Citi MasterCard bill over the counter with a paper bill stub. HSBC's in-branch systems are antiquated, to say the least, in that we had no way of paying bills electronically like customers could online. She would always wait until a day or two before it's due (if not the due date), and I'd have to tell her that, although Citi would likely honour my branch domicile stamp date as the date paid, it can be hassle if she has to complain and to try and get them to reverse any erroneous interest charges. As I explained, when paying in-branch with a paper bill stub, it has to go to INTRIA Items next-day, who then literally have to make up a "settlement" (like a bank draft except it's for internal transfers between banks and credit unions) and mail it via Canada Post or courier to the bill payee. (They actually make up one settlement for all bill payments to that payee for the day at that INTRIA processing centre.) I asked her if she'd like to try Telephone Banking.
She was leary at first, but slowly, I managed to get her to try it and even printed out a screen print of her bill payee list with a "flow chart" telling her what digits to press to pay her bills. Over time, she managed to do it herself, but guess what? She actually actually still came in to the branch and used the free HSBC telephone that was a direct line to Telephone Banking, and used that to pay her bills. Eventually, she started getting cash at the ATM.
I actually ended up missing her, so would occasionally walk over to the ATM lobby to say "hi".
Cheers,
Doug
4:46 pm
September 11, 2013
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Whoa, whoa, whoa, young guy...…….got a ways to go before I'm in my mid-70s!
5:33 pm
October 27, 2013
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Postal banking won't save the post office. Letter mail will continue its decline as the older demographic dies off. Truly rural folk never had anything other than a PO Box in the nearest town/village/hamlet to begin with, and if the town/village/hamlet has shrunk that much to lose population and businesses, then the truly rural folk are already bypassing the dying town/village/hamlet for a bigger place a little further away.
As mentioned above, a few dying town/village/hamlet post offices have shrunk to just a lobby in some store with PO Boxes and that is the only postal service being provided, e.g. a contractor comes and puts mail in the boxes, picks up outgoing mail from the slot, and moves on. No parcels or other services that are still found in Shopper's or London Drugs postal outlets.
From rural Alberta where I come from originally, it is not uncommon for folk to drive 50 km to get anything, including a jug of milk. Nothing wrong with that. That was what we used to do when I grew up. Urban folk are coddled beyond belief.
6:54 pm
December 12, 2009
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AltaRed said
Postal banking won't save the post office. Letter mail will continue its decline as the older demographic dies off. Truly rural folk never had anything other than a PO Box in the nearest town/village/hamlet to begin with, and if the town/village/hamlet has shrunk that much to lose population and businesses, then the truly rural folk are already bypassing the dying town/village/hamlet for a bigger place a little further away.As mentioned above, a few dying town/village/hamlet post offices have shrunk to just a lobby in some store with PO Boxes and that is the only postal service being provided, e.g. a contractor comes and puts mail in the boxes, picks up outgoing mail from the slot, and moves on. No parcels or other services that are still found in Shopper's or London Drugs postal outlets.
From rural Alberta where I come from originally, it is not uncommon for folk to drive 50 km to get anything, including a jug of milk. Nothing wrong with that. That was what we used to do when I grew up. Urban folk are coddled beyond belief.
Well said, AltaRed, especially that latter part.
Agree with you on the post office. Again, this goes to the coddling of the urban dwellers, but I do think we needed to move to a 3-day per week lettermail delivery and/or the elimination of door-to-door service in the cities. There's nothing wrong with walking a block or two to a community mailbox to pick up your mail. The post office can't reasonably be expected to provide door-to-door mail service to an increasing number of addresses and substantially decreased lettermail volumes!
Cheers,
Doug
6:55 pm
December 12, 2009
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Bill said
Whoa, whoa, whoa, young guy...…….got a ways to go before I'm in my mid-70s!
Oops, sorry, Bill. I assumed that you'd had a RRIF and were likely the same age as Loonie. I guess you're still one of the relatively young pups then. 😉
Might be closer to my parents' age (early 60s) than mid 70s.
Cheers,
Doug
7:24 pm
February 16, 2013
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Might be closer to my parents' age (early 60s) than mid 70s.
I am sorry Doug but I had to speak up . I don't think you should be discussing or guessing at anyone's age other than your own. 
11:19 pm
October 21, 2013
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All I can say is, when you young whippersnappers get older, you will see things differently. That, of course, is if you can still see, if it isn't painful or dangerous for you to walk a few blocks, if you can still drive, etc etc.
When and if you get old enough, I guarantee that there will be some newfangled technology that you just can't seem to get through your head or maybe don't want to but your kids and others will insist that it's really easy and you're just stuck in your ways.
Some of the comments above about rural mail are simply false. They only apply to the prairies, if that, but even there, there were once many more hamlets and villages and it wasn't necessary to travel such great distances to get to a post office outlet or a general store or a bank. Farmers in Ontario used to get, and I believe still do get, mail delivered to their mailboxes at the foot of their lanes. I'm not saying what should happen, but don't distort history to suit your own ends.
The slams against urban dwellers are completely uncalled for. I won't bother arguing them. Smarten up!
4:15 am
December 17, 2016
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Just one example of many of a prairie post office - in a house
https://goo.gl/maps/mU78W85phLpJXKFE8
nothing POs rural folks more than supposedly know it all city slickers.
Rural folks have had super mailboxes long before they appeared in urban areas and they are/were fine there but not welcomed by the ever priviledged city slickers.
As to the ongoing closure of FI branch offices remember, banks are for-profit businesses, not taxpayer-funded community drop in centres.
The thing I keep failing to understand is that if FIs are closing outlets due to lack of profitability how in the world would a taxpayer-owned postal bank be any more profitable?
5:36 am
October 21, 2013
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The problem is not profitability. The problem is that you don't understand that postal service is a public service. Governance is not about profit.
I doubt you'd support publicly funded community centres either.
5:45 am
December 17, 2016
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Oh, I understand governance in its entirety, as a taxpayer I pay for that each and every day and, despite the closures, the mail goes through ... wonders never cease.
9:26 am
December 12, 2009
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Top It Up said
Just one example of many of a prairie post office - in a househttps://goo.gl/maps/mU78W85phLpJXKFE8
nothing POs rural folks more than supposedly know it all city slickers.
Rural folks have had super mailboxes long before they appeared in urban areas and they are/were fine there but not welcomed by the ever priviledged city slickers.
As to the ongoing closure of FI branch offices remember, banks are for-profit businesses, not taxpayer-funded community drop in centres.
The thing I keep failing to understand is that if FIs are closing outlets due to lack of profitability how in the world would a taxpayer-owned postal bank be any more profitable?
Wow, neat, I had to zoom in and squint to see the little "Canada Post | Birnie" signage above the side door next to that house's garage. That explains why there are several cars parked out front. Only a rural post office or a drug house could attract that many cars to a rural property. Thankfully it was the former rather than the latter. 😉
Cheers,
Doug
9:31 am
December 12, 2009
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Loonie said
The problem is not profitability. The problem is that you don't understand that postal service is a public service. Governance is not about profit.I doubt you'd support publicly funded community centres either.
I agree with Loonie here. I used to think more along the lines of Top It Up, further streamlining and cutting costs at all costs, but the banks remain immensely profitable. Since we're in a prolonged low interest rate, now yield curve inverted, environment, with tepid mortgage and loan growth, the banks have to find ways to continuously grow their dividends to shareholders to protect their stock prices from tanking as they're, in my view, overvalued again at 1.5-2 times book value. (Book value is only good so long as there's no substantive writedowns or losses in the underlying assets, that is, the mortgages, which could happen.)
Instead of moving back to a strategy of building big, monstrosity branches like RBC is now doing, why not continue to get smaller and have more branches with as little as 2-3 staff, tablets, ATMs, and the like? I'm sure rural towns would appreciate having a 900-1,300 sq. ft. bank or credit union branch that was open 3-4 days per week, had 1 full-time teller, an assistant manager, and an account manager.
Cheers,
Doug
9:41 am
September 11, 2013
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Don't worry, I don't care if someone wonders about my age, in our family we keep going full bore, acting like we're in our 20s, until we're in our 90s and that seems to work for us.
"As to the ongoing closure of FI branch offices remember, banks are for-profit businesses, not taxpayer-funded community drop in centres." Very true. I've noticed on here sometimes that some folks seem to forget that FI's provide only the services they feel like providing on any given day, or any given moment. It's why there's a public sector, to fill in the gaps the private sector doesn't feel like doing.
9:46 am
December 12, 2009
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Bill said
Don't worry, I don't care if someone wonders about my age, in our family we keep going full bore, acting like we're in our 20s, until we're in our 90s and that seems to work for us."As to the ongoing closure of FI branch offices remember, banks are for-profit businesses, not taxpayer-funded community drop in centres." Very true. I've noticed on here sometimes that some folks seem to forget that FI's provide only the services they feel like providing on any given day, or any given moment. It's why there's a public sector, to fill in the gaps the private sector doesn't feel like doing.
Thanks, Bill.
Can I take your latter statement to mean you'd be in favour of postal banking, whether Canada Post did it directly by way of a bank subsidiary, or by contracting with the banks to provide counter services at rates that covers its costs and provides a modest profit?
Cheers,
Doug
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