Are seniors taken advantage of? At Scotiabank for sure! | Page 4 | General comparisons | Discussion forum

Bill said
With those minimum balance amounts, I think if you drop below the threshold for even a second, e.g. they process your monthly rent payment a micromoment before your paycheque goes in, then the fees for the whole month kick in. Happened to me once, many years ago, and TD branch person reversed it for me, said they'll reverse it only the first time it happens. I've always kept a comfortable cushion in there since then.  

A couple years ago I added overdraft to my chequing account. The next month I went one cent below zero. I made up the difference before my statement date. No fee. No interest. Cheaper than an NSF. Now i keep a large balance in my chequing account.

It's not collusion or price fixing to gather competitors' publicly posted prices and match them. Gasoline retailers do that all the time.

It is illegal to price fix or collude. But, it is not illegal to not compete.

Yes, banking is a team sport. The team includes their regulator. The banks are regulated by the federal government which also gets a significant cut of the banks' profits through income taxes!

It's what happens when your bank realizes you will only complain and not switch to a competitor like Simplii, LBC Digital, Alterna Bank (online), Tangerine Bank and others that offer a chequing account with no monthly fee and no everyday transaction fees.

Not like there's no other banks in Scarborough. That's in the Toronto area where one can find a branch of almost every single bank in Canada!

Norman1 said
It's what happens when your bank realizes you will only complain and not switch to a competitor like Simplii, LBC Digital, Alterna Bank (online), Tangerine Bank and others that offer a chequing account with no monthly fee and no everyday transaction fees.

Not like there's no other banks in Scarborough. That's in the Toronto area where one can find a branch of almost every single bank in Canada!  

From what I have seen, these banks that charge the excessive fees may be using your complaints to get you to switch to riskier investments where they can make more money off you.
Ever noticed that when you complain, they start talking about market-linked GICs, mutual funds, and, as some have already noted, TFSAs, without any serious consideration of your circumstances? A TFSA with a mutual fund is probably what they like best. It happened to my then-98-year old mom at RBC. What they did to her was really scary, and it cost her money.

Kidd said

With everything being automatic billing this, automatic deposit that, moving an account isn't impossible BUT it can be difficult.

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I agree: Some effort will be needed to redirect all the direct deposits and pre-authorized debits. But, if one doesn't move, then one becomes a supporting statistic for the banks that what the bank offers represents good value for what is being charged.

I still remember that the CEO's of the Big Banks were hauled in front of a parliamentary committee in the late 1980's over complaints of service fees. They successfully faced down politicians on the politicians' own turf. Better fee disclosure and low-cost no-frill accounts for low-income customers were all that came of it.

Bobbyjet11 said
On a similar note. I have a grand-fathered chequing account at TD; meaning most fees are waived as long as the balance remains above $ 2,000 (it started at $ 1,000).
Recently I received an email stating the minimum balance is going up to a rather ridiculous $ 5,000 as of June 1st. I'm not happy about it but I am not going to run around looking for an alternative to pay bills etc. hence I will have $ 5k sitting there collecting virtually no interest which is a back-handed way to get fees from me. Pretty sleazy, IMO.  

There is a $3000 option at TD if you don't use your account a lot...

maxb said

There is a $3000 option at TD if you don't use your account a lot...  

I use TD with $5k min. My wife uses BMO with $6k min. We haven't paid fees in 25+ years ...

We pay balances on CC's on time. We haven't paid interest in 25+ years ...

For generations, banks and credit unions have charged much higher fees on savings than chequing accounts. The idea is that you wll leave more cash in the low-interest chequing account than bother to move things back and forth. Everyone should know this. Of course, since they no longer pay interest, just keep the cash in chequing.

Much nastier was that the big banks wouldn't advise people when they went past the no-fee senior age - you had to formally request it! It's kinda academic now that the banks seem to be eliminating senior benefits. (Anyone have a list of the ages they kick in at banks now, if at all?)

Vancouver City Savings Credit Union called me and noted automatically on my account mailings when I qualified for no-fee banking (and some other freebies, including cheques but not the duplicate cheques I use). No need to pay attention, and the age was lower than at the banks. I recall that North Shore Credit Union also did it automatically.

Coast Capital was a big advertiser of no-fee banking, but since I joined a few years back fees seem to be popping up everywhere. I had to shuffle accounts and nag to dodge them.
New Ed